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Dear friends,
here is a report by the iraqi communist
party on the cairo conference. more info on the party
can be found on their site at www.iraqcp.org.
best,
hussein
Cairo Conference .. A Scandal for Saddam’s Supporters
The following are the main points of the report
published in the latest edition of the party paper
(Tareeq Al-Shaab, Jan 2003) under the headline "A
Scandal in Cairo for the Conference of Saddam's
Supporters":
The Conference of solidarity with Saddam Hussein's
regime, held on 18 Dec. 2002 in the Egyptian capital
in the name of combating globalism and rejecting war
on Iraq, was dealt a heavy blow when the great leader
Nelson Mandela and the author and journalist Mohammed
Hassanein Haykal refused to participate in it, while a
prominent participant protested against turning it
into an event for supporting the dictatorship in Iraq.
No reason was given for Mandela's refusal to attend
the Conference, but observers said that he has
apparently sensed "a bad smell" coming from amidst the
conference organisers who were later to be exposed
when the truth about the conference itself was
revealed. Haykal, however, whose name had been
included by the Conference organisers as being among
its prominent sponsors, said that he had originally
linked his participation with Mandela's attendance.
Press reports from Cairo said that the Conference
actually turned into an event for supporting the
dictatorial regime in Iraq, despite the attempts by
many participants to prevent it sinking to this lowest
level, and to keep it as a demonstration against
American war threats and in support of the Iraqi
people rather than the regime.
This situation prompted prominent figures
participating in the Conference, such as the German
writer Harold Chauman, the author of the well-known
book "Globalism Trap", to express openly their
disappointment and resentment. Chauman told
participants that he feels deep regret for the
speeches made at the opening of the Conference, "as if
we came here to defend the dictatorship in Iraq". He
said that he personally did not come for this purpose,
but "I have come to defend the Iraqi people, and
because of my concern about the consequences of war
for the region".
The German writer went on to say: "It is shameful for
us not to do anything to support the Iraqi opposition
against the ruling dictatorship in Baghdad. We are
here to discuss the available alternatives {for the
situation which exists in Iraq], not just to condemn
the American position, and that is it!".
Chauman, who is considered to be one of the prominent
critics and opponents of US policy, explained that
what he had heard from speakers at the Conference is
only condemnation of the US, to which he has no
objection "and which we have declared before leaving
our country on our way here. But this is half the
truth. The other half is that America is strong with
democracy, and you are weak because democracy in your
country is weak".
Chauman stressed that it was the US which created the
phenomenon of Saddam Hussein, pointing to the visit by
the present US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld to
Baghdad in 1983 and his meeting with Iraq's dictator,
and the secret deal he made with him to supply him
with banned weapons and equipment and material to
produce them.
He said: "Therefore, when the US, and Rumsfeld in
particular, insist that Saddam is lying, it is because
they know the truth, and they were THE ones who
supplied him with those weapons".
The German author called in his speech, which he
delivered in the second session of the Conference, "to
stand against this dictatorship, and to mobilize
everybody around the principles of democracy and
justice, in order to triumph in our battle".
It was reported that some who accompanied the
representative of the Iraqi regime, Nabil Najem, to
the Conference tried to harass the German author when
he objected to the speech delivered by this thug in
the second day of the Conference.
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