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Re: [casi] Full Amnesty Report on Iraq 2002



Dear CASI members



My first reaction to reading Amnesty International (AI) report about Iraq
was “TELL ME NEWS NOT HISTORY !”. It sounded the same for the last 20 years
or more, however I would like to make the following points.



1-     I am sure that the report was based on testimony of  “Reliable”
witnesses not identified



2-     I hope that AI is not objecting to the rounding up of prostitutes,
pimps and closing down of brothels but are objecting to the severity of the
punishment!.



3-     I am not surprised that the western backed Kurdish autonomous region
was also included in the report. In the 1st paragraph the report say < The
two Kurdish political parties controlling Iraqi Kurdistan detained prisoners
of conscience, and armed political groups were reportedly responsible for
abductions and killings>. This fact was missed or (deliberately) ignored by
the “internationals” in the Area. I will not speculate on the reasons and
give them the benefit of the doubt and say they didn’t see it despite the
fact that they live in the region but AI in London and through their
“Reliable” witnesses documented it!!



4-     I am confident that the records of surrounding states are NOT a whole
better than Iraq. This and the above point raise an important question
Should AI judge the whole world by the western values. I know that some one
would say but these are Universal values..Etc. How come Saudi Arabia (a pro
western monarchy) has the same compliance (or non compliance) with AI
standards as Iraq, Syria, Jordan or Iran despite the fact that they have a
completely different political systems, ideological inclination and ethnic
composition? Is this a “cultural” difference?? I don’t know! Another
question why do we expect Iraq is any different from the other countries in
the area?



5-     The western “democracies” and “human rights champions”  ignored AI
reports during the 70’s and 80’s and dealt very closely with the present
leadership of Iraq. Sir Terrance Clark, the Ex British ambassador to
Baghdad, said in a message to CASI, Mon 14 Jan 2002, and referring to Mr.
David Mellor's visit to Baghdad  < He was in Baghdad on 24 and 25 February
1988 and saw the President, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Ministers of
Foreign Affairs, Oil and Trade. I no longer recall the details but as is
normal on such visits he would have been briefed over the whole range of our
relations with Iraq, including trade. Indeed I remember that I also arranged
a meeting for him with the British businessmen resident in Iraq, for which
he would have had a trade brief>  I am sure that CASI members know that the
"President" was, and as now is, Saddam Hussein and the "Deputy Prime
Minister" was and still is Mr. Tariq Azziz. The other champion of human
rights, the USA, disregarded AI reports and singed a trade agreement with
Iraq 1988. While we are at it would any one be interested to look at Egypt’s
record or Saudi Arabia’s record these are the best allies of the US and UK
in the Arab world. Again Why Iraq??   .



6-     It looks like UNICIEF, UNESCO, FAO, WFP and the rest of the UN
agencies are not on the list of AI  “RELIABLE” witnesses. These UN agencies
had documented the suffering of the Iraq civilians through the “collective
punishment of civilians” under the name of sanctions. AI said in its report
<Iraq remained under stringent economic sanctions imposed by UN Security
Council resolutions since 1990 which reportedly resulted in severe hardship
for the civilian population and a humanitarian crisis> . They used the word
“REPORTADLY resulted” they are not sure!! After 12 years and they are not
sure!!! They doubted the UNICEF report of more than 500000 children under
5!.  They doubted the FAO, WFP, and every other traceable source. Amnesty
International only works through unnamed, unidentified, “reliable?” sources
so they can tell any lie they want.



7-     It looks like Amnesty International has taken Mad Elian Albright
attitude that the death of 350000 children is a price worth paying! They
probably believed the British government line that the sanctions targeted
ONlY the leaders of Iraq and NOT the ordinary people which means that those
3500000 are the “sons” of Saddam Hussein and not ordinary Iraqi families!



8-     Regrettable Amnesty International is interested in a pimp here and a
prostitute there and is so blind that they did not see, or read?, about the
collective punishment of innocent civilians.



9-     People with political agenda ignore or use AI reports to further
their political agenda. AI reports are a tailor made ready to use propaganda
fabricated by MI-5.5 (this is the arithmetic mean of MI-5 and MI-6)



10- Until and unless Amnesty International takes a firm stand on sanctions I
will consider their reports as WOTHLESS.



11- Finally for those members who want to attack my views I say feel free I
will not respond because Amnesty International does not deserve wasting my
time talking about it



Best regards

Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar

Baghdad, Iraq



----- Original Message -----
From: <VnStroope@aol.com>
To: <ya1980@hotmail.com>; <baghdad@easy.com>;
<casi-discuss@lists.casi.org.uk>
Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2002 6:40 PM
Subject: Re: [casi] Full Amnesty Report on Iraq 2002


>
> [ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]
>
> In a message dated 05/30/2002 9:26:24 AM Central Daylight Time,
> ya1980@hotmail.com writes:
>
>
> > i think you've misunderstood completely what ahmed (that's his name, he
has
> > posted it several times at the end of his emails) was intending to point
> >
>
> Apologies for the George thing, sorry Ahmed.  I stand by the content of
the
> statement however.
> Peace.
>
>
> Roger Stroope
> Peace is a Human Right
> Austin College
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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> To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk
> All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk
>


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To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk
All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk


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