Stop the bombing of Fallujah
By John Catalinotto on February 27, 2014
United States weapons are
still killing Iraqis as the government that the U.S. 10-year-long
occupation installed bombs the rebellious cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.
According to supporters of Iraqi sovereignty around the world, the
regime of Nouri al-Maliki has exaggerated the presence of al-Qaida-like
groups to justify its assault on the population.
Workers World received a release from the Iraq Solidarity
Association in Sweden, dated Feb. 18, summarizing the atrocities caused
in Fallujah and announcing a solidarity contribution to the city. The
ISAS is one of many groups supporting an initiative for a meeting in
mid-April in Brussels, Belgium, to look into ways of filing legal claims
for reparations for the Iraqi people from U.S. and British imperialism,
the countries that led the 2003 invasion and occupation that is still
bringing harm to Iraqis.
Fallujah was one of Iraq’s small cities hit particularly
hard by a relentless U.S. military assault in 2004. Thousands of
residents were killed and much of the city destroyed at that time.
Fallujah – the city that never surrenders
“According to direct reports from inside Fallujah,” says
the Feb. 18 statement, “the General Hospital has received at least 92
dead and 542 wounded since the government attack began. The city is
surrounded by government troops that have to-date attacked the hospital
eight times. Doctors and nurses have been killed or wounded in the
attacks.
“The hospitals in Anbar Province suffer greatly from a lack
of medicine and medical equipment. Some of the staff have been
evacuated. The U.N. reports that 62,679 families or more than 370,000
people have been forced to flee the attacks in Anbar.
“In Fallujah itself, there is no food, and the inhabitants
are reduced to drinking unsanitary river water. The people who remain to
defend the city refuse to give up their homes and neighborhoods to
government troops or to the handful of terrorists who seek to control
the town. Fallujah has been in the foreground during the last year of
widespread popular, national, nonsectarian protests against the regime
that is the result of the U.S. occupation.
“The Iraq Solidarity Association in Sweden has decided to
grant 3,000 euros (about $4,000) in emergency aid for humanitarian
efforts to help the civilians who are fleeing from Fallujah in Anbar
Province. The sum is being transferred through the Geneva International
Centre for Justice, which has direct contact with humanitarian
organizations inside Iraq. GICJ´s President is Hans von Sponeck, the
former U.N. Assistant Secretary general and Humanitarian Coordinator for
Iraq.
“We encourage world opinion to condemn the crimes of the
al-Maliki regime and demand an end to the attacks on civilians. The
suffering that has plagued the people of Iraq since the invasion and
occupation in 2003 must be brought to an end!”
The discussion about finding ways to win reparations for
Iraq will take place on April 16-17 in a designated part of the 18th
Congress of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, a
nongovernmental organization having consultative status with the U.N.
Economic and Social Council. These two days will be dedicated to several
commissions on topics and themes in which legal activists worldwide are
involved, called “Accountability and Justice for Iraq,” organized in
cooperation with the BRussells Tribunal.
For more information on the April meeting, contact:
IADL@brussellstribunal.org. Follow this event on facebook:
tinyurl.com/l7ouqy7.
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john catalinotto
