Stop the bombing of Fallujah

United States weapons are still killing Iraqis as the government that the U.S. 10-year-long occupation installed bombs the rebellious cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. According to supporters of Iraqi sovereignty around the world, the regime of Nouri al-Maliki has exaggerated the presence of al-Qaida-like groups to justify its assault on the population.

Workers World received a release from the Iraq Solidarity Association in Sweden, dated Feb. 18, summarizing the atrocities caused in Fallujah and announcing a solidarity contribution to the city. The ISAS is one of many groups supporting an initiative for a meeting in mid-April in Brussels, Belgium, to look into ways of filing legal claims for reparations for the Iraqi people from U.S. and British imperialism, the countries that led the 2003 invasion and occupation that is still bringing harm to Iraqis.

Fallujah was one of Iraq’s small cities hit particularly hard by a relentless U.S. military assault in 2004. Thousands of residents were killed and much of the city destroyed at that time.

Fallujah – the city that never surrenders

“According to direct reports from inside Fallujah,” says the Feb. 18 statement, “the General Hospital has received at least 92 dead and 542 wounded since the government attack began. The city is surrounded by government troops that have to-date attacked the hospital eight times. Doctors and nurses have been killed or wounded in the attacks.

“The hospitals in Anbar Province suffer greatly from a lack of medicine and medical equipment. Some of the staff have been evacuated. The U.N. reports that 62,679 families or more than 370,000 people have been forced to flee the attacks in Anbar.

“In Fallujah itself, there is no food, and the inhabitants are reduced to drinking unsanitary river water. The people who remain to defend the city refuse to give up their homes and neighborhoods to government troops or to the handful of terrorists who seek to control the town. Fallujah has been in the foreground during the last year of widespread popular, national, nonsectarian protests against the regime that is the result of the U.S. occupation.

“The Iraq Solidarity Association in Sweden has decided to grant 3,000 euros (about $4,000) in emergency aid for humanitarian efforts to help the civilians who are fleeing from Fallujah in Anbar Province. The sum is being transferred through the Geneva International Centre for Justice, which has direct contact with humanitarian organizations inside Iraq. GICJ´s President is Hans von Sponeck, the former U.N. Assistant Secretary general and Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq.

“We encourage world opinion to condemn the crimes of the al-Maliki regime and demand an end to the attacks on civilians. The suffering that has plagued the people of Iraq since the invasion and occupation in 2003 must be brought to an end!”

The discussion about finding ways to win reparations for Iraq will take place on April 16-17 in a designated part of the 18th Congress of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, a nongovernmental organization having consultative status with the U.N. Economic and Social Council. These two days will be dedicated to several commissions on topics and themes in which legal activists worldwide are involved, called “Accountability and Justice for Iraq,” organized in cooperation with the BRussells Tribunal.

For more information on the April meeting, contact: IADL@brussellstribunal.org. Follow this event on facebook: tinyurl.com/l7ouqy7.