This November: Remember Fallujah
voices uk | 07.11.2005 12:10 | Anti-militarism | History | Iraq | World
A month of events in November 2005 to remember what happened in Fallujah and other cities in Iraq and to demand justice for those attacked.
One year ago this month the US, with the support of the British, began its second major assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah. This massive and unprecedented offensive killed many hundreds of civilians, destroyed much of the city's housing and created tens of thousands of refugees. An earlier attack in April 2004 had killed at least 600 civilians. See Jo Wilding’s report of riding an ambulance inside the city during the siege. Report
US forces committed major war crimes during the assaults including: bombing residential areas and killing many civilians; imposing a 'shoot-to-kill curfew' and using snipers to fire on unarmed civilians; targetting and shutting health facilities; and, using phosphorus weapons. See the Italian documentary showing use of phosphorus weapons, background to film.
Over twenty UK Remember Fallujah events are taking place including: non-profit film screenings; a national speaking tour with US author and activist Rahul Mahajan (in Fallujah during the April 2004 siege Report); an international teach-in, Voices from Occupied Iraq organised by Iraq Occupation Focus; vigils to mark the attacks on Fallujah last year; a screening in Manchester of 'Caught in the Crossfire' about the second seige of Falluja 'Jo Wilding's Diary from Iraq' by Manchester Indymedia.
See www.rememberfallujah.org for more information on all the events, on what happened in Fallujah and the ongoing attacks on Iraqi cities.
remember fallujah
How many people killed?
How many families torn apart?
How many homes destroyed?
How many livelihoods gone?
How many lives ruined?
A city sacrificed.
Remember Fallujah...
One year ago this month the US, with the support of the British, began its second major assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah (an attack originally codenamed “Thanksgiving Massacre”). This massive and unpredented offensive devastated a city the size of Plymouth (the US State Department estimated 100% of the city’s housing was damaged to some degree) and killed many hundreds of civilians. British troops had been redeployed specially from southern Iraq to help form a “ring of steel” around the city.
An earlier attack in April 2004 had killed at least 600 civilians. See Jo Wilding’s report of riding an ambulance inside the city during the siege. Report
US forces committed major war crimes during the assaults including:
- warplanes, fighter bombers, military helicopters and gunships were used to attack residential areas, killing many civilians
- a 'shoot-to-kill curfew' was imposed with 'anyone spotted in the soldiers' night vision sights…shot' (Times, 12 Nov 04) and there were numerous press reports of US snipers firing on - and killing - unarmed civilians, including children
- several reports strongly suggested that US snipers targeted ambulances in Fallujah
- the city's main hospital was closed by marines and a sniper was placed on top of the hospital's water tower in violation of the Geneva Convention (Guardian, 24 April 04)
- U.S. forces blocked an aid convoy trying to enter Falluja's main hospital. The convoy turned back after three days. (Reuters, 15 Nov 2004).
- male refugees were prevented from leaving the combat zone (AP, 13 Nov 04)
- US forces were filmed killing an unarmed, wounded Iraqi (Guardian, 16 Nov 04)
- US warplanes dropped 3 bombs on the Central Health Centre clinic, killing 35 patients (including 5 children under the age of ten) and 24 medical staff (The Nation, 13 Dec 04)
- US forces used phosphorus weapons 'that create a screen of fire that cannot be extinguished with water' (Washington Post, 10 Nov 04).
The November 2004 assault was trailed well in advance and generated a brief spurt of anti-war activity here in the UK. Reports
Since then, however, media reports on Fallujah have been few and far between, and the plight of the city’s inhabitants – including the estimated 200,000 civilians who fled the attack and have yet to return to their homes – appears to have been largely been forgotten. Not long after the assault the US and Iraqi leaders declared that Fallujah would become a "model city"' (Boston Globe, 5 Dec) and have used daily intimidation, curfews, ID cards, repression, torture and detentions to try and create it.
Meanwhile, further assaults during the past year on Iraqi cities including Qaim, Karabila and Tal Afar have killed many more Iraqi civilians and created thousands more refugees with little media coverage or response from the anti-war movement.
”My son got shrapnel in his stomach when our house was hit at dawn, but we couldn’t take him for treatment We just bandaged his stomach and gave him water, but he was losing a lot of blood. He died this afternoon” - Fallujah resident Mohammed Abboud, November 2004.
'Asked what he would tell Iraqis about televised images "of Americans and coalition soldiers killing innocent civilians," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the senior military spokesman in Iraq answered "Change the channel."' - (New York Times, 12 April)..
Month of events
It is vital that we do not allow the war crimes committed in Fallujah and the ongoing attacks on Iraq's civilian population to be forgotten. We also need to demand justice and compensation for the victims of these assaults.
Over twenty events are taking place around the UK to Remember Fallujah. Events taking place include:
- non-profit film screenings of the documentaries Testimonies from Fallujah, A Letter to the Prime Minister, Occupation Dreamland and Fallujah: April 2004
- a national speaking tour with US author and activist Rahul Mahajan (in Fallujah during the April 2004 siege Report)
- an international teach-in, Voices from Occupied Iraq organised by Iraq Occupation Focus
- vigils to mark the attacks on Fallujah last year
The month will start on 8 November (a year to the day last November’s attack started), at the ICA in London with screenings of the films Occupation Dreamland (an award-winning documentary about marines in Fallujah) and Testimonies from Fallujah, followed by a discussion with author and activist Milan Rai. Milan Rai visited Fallujah on several occasions during the sanctions years and was convicted earlier this year of causing over £2000 worth of criminal damage when he spray-painted the Foreign Office with the slogan “Don’t attack Fallujah” just before last year’s offensive. Report.
See www.rememberfallujah.org for more information on Fallujah and details of all the events this month and details of the films being screened.
Remember Fallujah is Sponsored by Brent Stop the War, Iraq Occupation Focus, Justice Not Vengeance, Sutton for Peace and Justice, Voices in the Wilderness UK and the Wrexham Peace and Justice Forum.
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Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
Twin Town
07.11.2005 14:29
Ilyan
Remember Husayba
08.11.2005 01:56
When will these retarded, infantile bullies from the USA realise that they are not wanted, certainly not liked and go "home", to the territories in North America that their forefathers "stole" from the indigineous indian tribes over 200 years ago?
DOWN with the USA bullies (the military, the republican administration and it's perverted, sick right wing religious supporters), the sooner the better.
Auntie War
Quite right
10.11.2005 15:21
Leave them to it
Reflections on the 1st anniversary of Fallujah -- and the 400th anniversary of G
18.11.2005 18:57
By rupert read
So, the Remembrance services are over, and it’s time to put away the poppies, for another year. I have taken off my red poppy (which I wear for the benefit of some of war’s worst victims: the soldiers themselves), and my white poppy (which I wear so as to say: never again. No more war.).
The other historic event that we commemorate each November is the foiling of the attempt by Guy Fawkes to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Last week, I took the part of Guy Fawkes in an enjoyable and informative modern 're-trial' of Fawkes held at Norwich Magistrate's Court, under the auspices of ‘Norwich Churches Together’.
Now, unlike Guy Fawkes, I am a committed believer in non-violent methods. I am a Quaker, and a member of the Norwich ‘Peace Police’. (The 'Peace Police' are a group of friends who join together in non-violent ‘direct-action’ campaigning for peace. Our motto is ‘Upholding and _enforcing_ international law -- through _non-violent_ means’.).
I disagree very strongly with the methods that Guy Fawkes chose; but I also disagree very strongly with what was done to him. I absolutely love fireworks and bonfires (as long as they aren’t let off too anti-socially, late at night!); but I have always felt vaguely uncomfortable that on Guy Fawkes Night we celebrate the torture and burning and violent execution of this man. The event in the Magistrates’ Court was a chance for me to explain that: to explain why it is always wrong to torture even those who might threaten us or our way of life. Why torture is incompatible with civilisation. This message is very important today, when our government is complicit with the torture of so many (including Britons) at places like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, and when our government is complicit in ‘exporting’ people for even more appalling tortures in various countries, as part of the CIA’s ‘extraordinary rendition’ programme. (At least in the seventeenth century the government was honest about its (horrific) use of torture. Today, our government pretends to be innocent of torture which in effect it commissions, in foreign countries.)
Much of the threat of violence that faced the British government in 1605 was due to its own violence: its insufficient tolerance of religious minorities, its lack of democratic accountability, its violent state and military apparatus. Many things have changed since then – but aren’t there also some worrying similarities? What threat the British government -- and, rather more so, we the British _people_ (let us not forget the awful events of July, in London) – what threat we do face today from non-state terrorism exists largely as a _result_ of the government’s own actions. What am I referring to? Well, for instance, the extraordinary decision unlawfully to attack Iraq, in 2003. (The attack on Iraq is agreed by most international lawyers to have been unlawful, because it was a ‘pre-emptive strike’, a war of aggression, which lacked good cause and lacked UN backing.) That attack has brought in its train events such as last November’s lethal ‘coalition’ assault on Fallujah, in which chemicals including phosphor were used as weapons. (And this attack on Fallujah, which cost hundreds of civilians their lives, has unfortunately become another event which we should remember, each November.)
Guy Fawkes was acting violently against a state (his own) that was if anything even more violent, even more destructive. The same is true of fundamentalist terrorists today. Until our government stops its criminal activities, which have resulted in many tens of thousands of innocents dying in Iraq, and (this summer) in tens of innocents dying in London, it has itself to blame for the violent revenges that, tragically and appallingly, are wreaked upon it -- or, rather, upon us.
For stating these truths, I could potentially be vulnerable to prosecution under the ‘Glorification of Terrorism’ act, very recently passed in the House of Commons. Not because I am glorifying terrorism: I would of course never dream of doing that. But because what I am saying might be twisted into sounding as if it is an apology for terrorism, a way of excusing terrorism. Whereas what I actually think is: terrorist methods are _never_ right. Whether they are used by private individuals, or by governments.
As a passionate believer in the rule of law and in non-violence, I have the right to criticise those who would wreak revenge on Britain and its government, through violence. But what right does the (violent, criminal) British government itself have, to make similar criticisms?
After the fireworks and poppies have all been put away, this question remains.
Dr. Rupert Read
e-mail:
rupert.read@norwichgreenparty.org