[Peace-discuss] New P4P sign suggestions

Thu Feb 27 15:06:14 CST 2003

As a result of the letter to the Christian Science Monitor by an Iraqi (see
end of this email), I propose the following signs for our Prospect for Peace
demonstrations to move the debate from a perception of just holding an
anti-US position to one that holds Saddam and his regime accountable for
human rights violations without using war:

Weapons and human rights inspectors in Iraq
End Saddam's ethnic cleansing without war
International tribunals for Saddam, not bombs for his people

Kimberlie

-----Original Message----

A challenge to us all:
_______________

Click here to read this story online:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0226/p11s02-coop.html

Headline:  If antiwar protesters succeed
Byline:   
Date: 02/26/2003

To publish an unsigned opinion piece is an exception to the Monitor's 
policy. But the views expressed here, if put with a name, could 
endanger the writer's extended family in Baghdad. The author - known to 
Monitor staff - was born and raised in Iraq. Now a US citizen with a 
business that requires extensive world travel, the author is in 
frequent touch with the Iraqi diaspora but is not connected with 
organized opposition to Saddam Hussein.

Since Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, started 
warning that a US invasion of Iraq would "open the gates of hell," the 
retort that has been flying around Iraqi exiles' websites is, "Good! 
We'd like to get out!"

It got me wondering: What if you antiwar protesters and politicians 
succeed in stopping a US-led war to change the regime in Baghdad? What 
then will you do?

Will you also demonstrate and demand "peaceful" actions to cure the 
abysmal human rights violations of the Iraqi people under the rule of 
Saddam Hussein?

Or, will you simply forget about us Iraqis once you discredit George W. 
Bush?

Will you demand that the United Nations send human rights inspectors to 
Iraq? Or are you only interested in weapons of "mass destruction" 
inspections, not of "mass torture" practices?

Will you also insist that such human rights inspectors be given time to 
discover Hussein's secret prisons and coercion as you do for the 
weapons inspectors? Or will you simply accept a "clean bill of health" 
if you can't find the thousands of buried corpses?

Will you pressure your own countries to host millions more Iraqi 
refugees (estimated now at 4 million) fleeing Hussein's brutality?Or 
will you prefer they stay in bondage?

Will you vigorously demand an international tribunal to indict 
Hussein's regime for crimes against humanity? Or will you simply 
dismiss him as "another" dictator of a "sovereign" country?

Will you question why Hussein builds lavish palaces while his people 
are suffering? Or will you simply blame it all on UN sanctions and US 
"hegemony?"

Will you decry the hypocritical oil and arms commerce of France, 
Germany, Russia, and China with the butcher of Baghdad? Or are you only 
against US interests in Iraqi oil?

Will you expose ethnic cleansing of native Iraqi non-Arabs (Kurds, 
Assyrians, Chaldeans, Turkomens), non-Sunni-Muslims (Shiite), and 
non-Muslims (Christians, Mandaens, Yezidis)? Or are these not 
equivalent to the cleansing of Bosnians and Kosovars?

Will you show concern about the brutal silencing of the "Iraqi street"? 
Or are you only worried about the orchestrated noises of "Arab and 
Islamist streets" outside Iraq?

Will you hear the cries of Iraqis executed in acid tanks in Baghdad? 
the Iraqi women raped in front of their husbands and fathers to extract 
confessions? Or of children tortured in front of their parents? Or of 
families billed for the bullets used to execute military "deserters" in 
front of their own homes?

No. I suspect that most of you will simply retire to your cappucino 
cafes to brainstorm the next hot topic to protest, and that you will 
simply forget about us Iraqis, once you succeed in discrediting 
President Bush.

Please, prove me wrong.

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