EMERGENCY CALL FOR SOLIDARITY WITH THE IRAQI PEOPLE

by Eman Ahmed Khammas, Director of International Occupation Watch Center,
International Occupation Watch Center
April 8th, 2004


Eman Ahmed Khammas
Director, International Occupation Watch Center
Occupied Baghdad

To the peoples of the world and their representatives at the United Nations:

The Iraqi people call for international solidarity as they resist attacks by
US-led Occupation Forces. It is clear that these attacks are designed to
terrorize entire populations of Iraqi towns and neighborhoods.

According to reports, in Fallujah alone, over three hundred Iraqis have been
killed and hundreds more injured since attacks began on Sunday, April 4.
There is fighting in Baghdad, particularly in the neighborhoods of Sadr,
Adaamiya, Shula, Yarmok, and the cities and towns of Fallujah, Ramadi,
Basrah, Nasiriya, Kerbala, Amarah, Kut, Kufa, Najaf, Diwaniya, Balad, and
Baquba. Residences, hospitals, mosques and ambulances trying to transport
the injured are being bombed and fired at by Occupation Forces’ guns and
tanks.

Fallujah and Adaamiya are currently under siege, surrounded by Occupation
Forces, in contravention of the Geneva Convention that prohibits holding
civilian communities under siege. Hospitals do not have access to sufficient
medical aid, essential medicine and equipment or blood supplies. In
Fallujah, the hospitals have been surrounded by soldiers forcing doctors to
establish field hospitals in private homes. Blood donors are not allowed to
enter; consequently, mosques in both Baghdad and Falluja are collecting
blood for the injured. Water and electricity have been cut off for the past
several days.

In Sadr City US helicopters have fired rockets into residential areas
destroying homes. Although no curfew has officially been imposed, US
soldiers have made a practice of aiming tank fire on cars they find moving
through the streets after dark. On Tuesday night alone, at least 6 people
were killed in this way. US forces continue to occupy and surround all the
police stations and the Sadr municipal offices.

While these attacks have escalated sharply over the past week, they are in
no way a new phenomenon in occupied Iraq. The indiscriminate killing of
civilians and the refusal to provide people with security, electricity and
decent medical infrastructure have characterized the ‘freedom’ that
Occupation Authorities have brought to Iraq.

We call on the international community, civil society and the
anti-war/anti-occupation movements to respond to this US-led war of terror
with tangible displays of solidarity and support for Iraqi people facing
this gruesome manifestation of the occupation.

Please take to the streets to demand an end to the US-led aggression.
Organize protests in front of US consulates and embassies around the world
and demand: an immediate end to this massacre; an immediate end to the siege
of Iraqi cities and neighborhoods; immediate access to humanitarian and
medical aid organizations seeking to provide assistance to Iraqi people who
are living under attack; and an end to the occupation of our nation.

Cities in which demonstrations have already been organized include Milan,
Montreal, Tokyo, Istanbul, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington
D.C. and New York City.

To contact the International Occupation Watch Center in Baghdad, please call
001 914 360-9079 or 001 914 360-9080. You can also email
eman@occupationwatch.org