- BAGHDAD (IslamOnline.net)
- U.S. occupation authorities in Iraq have imposed strict restrictions
on the right of the Iraqi people to demonstrate, particularly in the capital
Baghdad, in what Iraqi political analysts described as the real face of
sugar-coated democracy clichés.
-
- A statement issued by the U.S.-led authority and broadcast
by the Iraqi media network Wednesday, December 31, said
- It demanded those who want to demonstrate or organize
a meeting to submit a written request to the occupation authorities no
less than a day before.
-
- The request, according to the statement, must include
the purpose and duration of the demonstration, an estimate of the maximum
number of demonstrators and names and addresses of the organizers.
-
- Detention Threat
-
- If a permit is granted, the American statement said,
demonstrators would not be allowed to wear the traditional galabiya (a
loose shirt-like garment), helmets, hoods or even cover their faces.
-
- Would-be Iraqi demonstrators must also not carry guns,
even the licensed, stones or sticks, added the statement.
-
- Last but not least, any demonstration must not last more
than four hours and should not be organized less than 500 meters away from
the headquarters of the occupation forces and the affiliated institutions.
-
- According to the statement issued by the U.S.-led occupation
forces no individual or group is allowed to organize marches or demonstrations
or even gather in streets, public places or buildings at any time without
a prior from the occupation command.
- any "breach" of these restrictions will result
in the detention and trial of the "violator".
-
- Ridicule
-
- Iraqi political analysts lashed out at the watertight
restrictions, stressing they unmask the ugly face of the occupation, justified
by sugar-coated clichés of bringing democracy to the oil-rich Arab
country.
-
- "It is unbelievable that a country boasting a democracy
record would clamp such rigid restrictions on the simplest forms of freedom
of expression, which is the right to demonstrate," said Dr. Abdel-Sattar
Gawwad, a political expert, told IslamOnline.net.
-
- "If the Americans are afraid of popular demonstrations,
what would they do with spiraling resistance against their presence?
-
- "Isn't it strange enough that the U.S. troops impose
restrictions on demonstrators? Why assuming protestors will attack armed-to-the-teeth
soldiers with stones?" Gawwad wondered.
-
- "Does this tell you something about claims by the
U.S. forces they were hardheartedly welcomed by Iraqis?" added the
political analysts.
-
- He also underlined "the repressive practices of
the occupation troops in Iraq such as the raiding of houses, killing of
innocents and random detention of Iraqi citizens."
-
- Such practices, Gawwad added, fanned armed resistance
against the U.S.-led occupation of the country.
-
- False Promises
-
- Mohiel-Din Ismail, an Iraqi writer, agreed that such
restrictions unveil the logic of occupation.
-
- They give the people hollow promises, restrict their
freedoms and now deprive them of the simplest right to demonstrate, he
added.
-
- "Where, then, is the (U.S.-sanctioned) Governing
Council? Isn't it - as claimed - the highest authority in Iraq? Should
it wait instructions from (U.S. administrator of Iraq) Paul Bremer and
the White House?" Ismail wondered.
-
- U.S.-led occupation forces have repeatedly opened fire
at Iraqi demonstrators, killing and wounding many of them.
-
- Amnesty International said Friday, November 21, U.S.
forces appeared to be destroying houses in Iraq as a form of collective
punishment for attacks on U.S. troops and warned that the practice would
violate the Geneva Conventions.
-
- Iraqi civilians are often exposed to random shooting
by American forces whenever occupation troops are attacked.
-
- The New York-based Human Right Watch accused the American
occupation forces of "excessive or indiscriminate use of force"
against civilians in Baghdad as well as failing to conduct proper investigations
in cases of civilian deaths in the Iraqi capital.
-
- In a 56-page report released Monday, October 20, the
group documented 20 cases of Iraq civilians deaths between May 1, when
U.S. President George Bush declared an end to the major combat operations
in Iraq, and September 30.
-
- http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-01/01/article04.shtml
|
