[JNV Announce] Najaf Briefing and Emergency London Demo

[Milan Rai]

Dear friends

Please find here a new briefing about Najaf, and notification of an 
emergency Voices/Iraq Occupation Focus demonstration tomorrow, 12-2pm, 
Downing Street, in London.

Best wishes

Milan Rai
JNV

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NAJAF: Bush Ignited This Insurgency, Not Muqtada al-Sadr
JNV Anti-War Briefing 61 (13 Aug. 2004)



ASSAULTING THE SHIA MAJORITY
The United States has launched a war against a large part of the Iraqi 
people. It is the
Bush Administration’s desire for total domination, not the militancy of 
Shia insurgents,
that has triggered this latest uprising. The US is trying to tame the Shia 
majority.


At the time of writing, US forces have surrounded the most holy site in 
Shia Islam, the
Imam Ali mosque in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf, after eight days of 
fierce fighting
with the forces of Muqtada al-Sadr, reportedly leaving hundreds dead. 
Elsewhere, ‘US air
strikes and fighting on the ground in the [largely Shia] Iraqi city of Kut 
have left 72
people dead and about 150 injured,’ according to the interim Iraqi 
government. (BBC News
Online, 12 Aug.)


‘British troops [have also] fought fierce battles with militants in Amara 
and Basra...
British toops launched an offensive overnight on Tuesday [10 Aug.] against 
Shia fighters
in the southern town of Amara, killing 10 of them, the militiamen said. 
Hospital
officials in the town said four civilians had also died.’ (Telegraph, 12 
Aug., p. 12)


‘The purpose was to regain control of al-Amarah,’ said Squadron Leader 
Spike Wilson,
British forces spokesperson. (‘British troops kill 10’, Times, 12 Aug.) 
Control is what
it’s all about.


NEXT STOP: SADR CITY, BAGHDAD
‘One of the biggest challenges to the interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, 
is to stamp
his authority on the capital. Sadr City, as the Shia suburb in north-east 
Baghdad is
known, has increasingly started to ressemble 1980s Beirut. Scores have 
died in the past
week as American tanks and fighter aircraft have fought the insurgents.’ 
(Telegraph, 12
Aug., p. 12)


Adrian Blomfield of the Telegraph visited Sadr City: ‘That civilians are 
being killed by
US troops is not in doubt. In a pool of blood on a hospital operating room 
floor
yesterday, doctors were battling to save the life of six-year-old Ali 
Hussain—shot in the
belly’ by soldiers in a US tank. The doctors said, ‘We have had at least 
20 dead brought
in today.’ (Telegraph, 12 Aug., p. 12)


Mehdi Nouri, a shopkeeper in Sadr City, said: ‘The Americans can never win 
us back now.
The Americans are frightened of ordinary Iraqi people, that is why they 
hate us. We are
frightened of them, that is why we hate them. In such a situation we can 
only see death
and more deaths. We are begging the Americans to leave.’ (Telegraph, 12 
Aug., p. 12)

ALLAWI SERVES WASHINGTON
This is a US assault on Najaf. ‘Iraqi government troops are also involved, 
though their
participation may be largely for political reasons—not least to signal 
that this is an
operation that has the full backing of Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Iyad 
Allawi.’
(Jonathan Marcus, Diplomatic Correspondent, BBC News Online, 12 Aug.)


‘Iyad Allawi, the interim prime minister, has laid his credibility on the 
line by
promising total destruction of [Sadr’s] Mahdi army.’ (Telegraph, 12 Aug., 
p. 12) However,
‘Ibrahim al-Jaafari, one of Iraq’s two vice-presidents and leader of the 
biggest Shia
party, the Da’awa, yesterday [11 Aug.] said US troops should stop fighting 
in Najaf and
leave the job to Iraqi security forces.’ (Guardian, 12 Aug., p. 3)


Jaafari ‘has topped opinion polls as Iraq’s most popular politician’ 
earlier this year.
(FT, 12 Aug., p. 7)


THE US STARTED THIS UPRISING, NOT SADR
‘A diplomatic source in Baghdad said yesterday that it was unclear why the 
cleric was
leading the bloody uprising, the second that he has instigated in four 
months.’ (‘British
troops kill 10’, Times, 12 Aug.) Media reporting has done its best to 
obscure the origins
of the violence.


The simple truth is that, as in the case of the first ‘Sadr uprising’, 
this violence has
been ‘instigated’ not by Shia militants, but by the United States.


Go back to the beginning, 2 Aug.: ‘US forces in Iraq went on the offensive 
against two
Islamist political groups yesterday [2 Aug.], arresting an influential 
Sunni cleric in
Baghdad and breaking a two-month ceasefire with followers of Shia radical 
Moqtada al-Sadr,
  based in Kufa. Sheikh Mahmoud al-Sudani, a spokesman for Mr Sadr in 
Baghdad, told
journalists that US soldiers had surrounded Mr Sadr’s house. Reuters news 
agency quoted
witneses saying that US forces had moved into Mr Sadr’s neighbourhood in 
Kufa, next to
Najaf, and were exchanging fire with members of Mr Sadr’s Shia militia, 
the Mehdi Army.’
(FT, 3 Aug., p. 9)


Interestingly, despite later denials, it was clear in first reports that 
the mission was
to arrest Sadr: ‘The US military says an Iraqi arrest warrant has been 
issued for Sadr in
relation to the killing of a rival cleric in Najaf last year.’ The 
Independent also noted
that ‘during truce negotiations earlier this year, Iraqi officials said 
Sadr would not
face arrest.’ (Independent, 3 Aug., p. 25) Another lie.


A few days later Sabah Khadim, a senior adviser to the Allawi government, 
indirectly
confirmed that arresting Sadr is a priority: ‘Asked whether Mr Sadr would 
be arrested, Mr
Khadim said: “We don’t know exactly where he is, but we will fight all 
criminals. It does
not matter how big they are.’ (Guardian, 7 Aug., p. 1)


The 2 Aug. raid was followed by ‘days of mounting tension during which Mr 
Sadr’s
supporters seized 18 Iraqi police officers in response to the arrest of 
several of the
cleric’s senior aides.’ Full-scale violence in Najaf came on 4 Aug. 
(Guardian, 6 Aug., p.
2)


It wasn’t until 5 Aug. that ‘Militants linked to the firebrand cleric 
Moqtada al-Sadr
declared holy war on British forces’. In Basra, British forces had 
arrested four Sadr
supporters on 3 Aug. Fighting broke out on 5 Aug. ‘after the expiry of a 
noon deadline to
release them.’ (Telegraph, 6 Aug., p. 14)


All this is very like the start of the spring ‘Sadr uprising’, which was 
triggered ‘after
the US-led occupation authorities closed his newspaper, arrested a key 
aide and called
for his arrest over the killing of a moderate Shia leader.’ (BBC News 
Online, 16 June)


On 5 Aug., a Sadr spokesperson in Amara said of this latest violence, 
quite accurately,
‘The ceasefire is over because of the  actions of the occupation forces.’ 
(Telegraph, 6
Aug., p. 14)


SADR CALLS FOR A CEASEFIRE
Despite all this, on the same day, ‘a spokesman for Mr Sadr called for the 
restoration of
a truce agreed in June between Mr Sadr’s forces and US troops.’ (FT, 6 
Aug., p. 5)


The governor of Najaf, Adnan al-Zurufi, responded to this appeal with the 
statement that,
‘There is no compromise or room for another truce.’ (Times, 7 Aug., p. 18)


A US diplomat said, ‘This is one battle we really do feel we can win.’ 
(Telegraph, 7 Aug.,
  p. 12)


No more ceasefires.


The reason Sadr wants a ceasefire is because he wants to become part of 
the political
process. As part of the first truce, ‘Mr Sadr issued a statement calling 
on his men who
are not from Najaf to “do their duty” and go home... [and] announced he 
would set up a
political party to contest elections next year.’ (‘Sadr orders militia to 
quit Najaf’,
BBC News Online, 16 June)


The BBC's Dumeetha Luthra in Baghdad suggested that the order for 
non-resident fighters
to leave Najaf might be ‘a tentative step to secure a place in a future 
Iraqi government.’
  Sadr ‘urged supporters not attack Iraqi security forces, and said the 
recently formed
interim government was a opportunity to “build a unified Iraq”.’ (‘Sadr 
orders militia to
quit Najaf’, BBC News Online, 16 June)


Sadr was no longer calling the interim government a puppet of the US; he 
was preparing
for political, not military, mobilisation.


It is precisely the political strength of the Shia majority that the 
Allawi government
and the Bush Administration fear and wish to destroy. That is why they 
launched the raid
to capture Sadr. That is why they are willing to invade Najaf and kill 
hundreds. That is
why they are assaulting Shia communities all over Iraq.


It is not Sadr’s guns, but his votes that pose a threat to US domination. 
Elections (even
the national assembly conference) cannot be held until the opposition has 
been co-opted
or crushed.


Private Lee O’Callaghan, who was killed in fighting in Basra on 9 Aug. was 
due to return
to the UK the following week. His aunt, Margaret Evans, said, ‘My message 
to Tony Blair
is we should not be there. Why are we in Iraq? My message would be,
get the rest of the kids out.’ (Telegraph, 11 Aug., p. 10)

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EMERGENCY VIGIL: Stop the killing in Iraq, End the occupation!

WHEN: Sunday, 15 August, Noon-2pm
WHERE: 10 Downing Street, Central London

Called by Iraq Occupation Focus and Voices in the Wilderness UK.
Speakers to include Jeremy Corbyn MP and Haifa Zangana.

Densely-populated Iraqi cities are under fire from US-UK forces. On
Thursday, more than 75 Iraqis were killed in the US bombardment of Kut.
British troops have killed at least twenty in their assault on Amara.

The attack on Najaf, led by US warplanes, has been condemned by public
opinion across Iraq. Sixteen members of Najaf's 30 member provincial 
council
have resigned in protest at the assault.

In the last 48 hours, hundreds of Iraqis - including many civilians - have
been killed by occupying forces in the cities of Najaf, Kut, Sadr City,
Sammara, Nasiriya, Amara, Basra, Ramadi and elsewhere.

The occupiers are the problem, not the solution.

Stop the slaughter!

For more information contact:

Iraq Occupation Focus:
Munir Chalabi 07952 683415
Liz Davies 07958 673840
iraqfocus@riseup.net
www.iraqoccupationfocus.org.uk

Voices in the Wilderness
Gabriel Carlyle
0845 458 2564
voices@viwuk.freeserve.co.uk
www.voicesuk.org