Press Release
28 March 2008

Basra Assault Confirms Presence of British forces a Threat to Political and
Trade Union Rights in Iraq

In a series of telephone calls from Basra over the past 48 hours, Iraqi
trade union activists appeal for solidarity and describe how the so-called
‘Security Plan’ started midnight 24 March with intense shelling and fire
from all kind of weapons.

The attacking forces now besieging Basra stretched all the way to the city
from Dhi Qar province. Two armoured divisions are deployed, in addition to
thousands of policemen, backed by US and British planning and air cover.
They have cut off electricity supplies, food and water on the city of 1.5
million people. Hundreds have been killed or injured in a savage,
premeditated and unprovoked attack, now spreading to much of Iraq as the
people protest and show solidarity with Basra’s beleaguered people.

They describe the attack as far worse than the invasion of 2003 and begun
in the same barbaric manner that the criminal Saddam employed against Basra
to crush the March 1991 people’s uprising. They remind us that the present
puppet Iraqi government sentenced Saddam’s Defence Minister to death few
months ago for similar crimes of waging war on civilians. The assault is
backed by the US and British occupation forces, particularly in providing
air cover. US planes are also bombarding areas in the Basra, several
southern cities and Baghdad, where tens of thousands marched yesterday
denouncing the “puppet regime”. It is now, along with many other cities,
under a strict curfew enforced by regime and occupation forces.

Trade union leaders have asked us to inform the public in Britain that the
government’s attack on Basra serves the occupation. The city is “steadfast”
and the onslaught will end in “utter failure.” The city streets were free
of the occupying forces before the assault and the regime’s attacks will
make it even more dependent on the occupation forces, they stressed.

Naftana, the UK support committee for the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions in
the struggle for democratic trade unionism in Iraq, condemns British
collusion in the preparation of the assault on Basra city and British
participation in air strikes.

Naftana urges all to join in calling for an immediate withdrawal of British
forces from Iraq, ending the US-led occupation, and the payment of
reparations to Iraq.

In the absence of adequate media coverage of the nature and context of this
savage onslaught, Naftana wants to set the record straight on UK involvement.

In December 2007, the Basra Development Commission (BDC) was formally
announced after discussions between Gordon Browne and Iraqi Deputy Prime
Minister Barham Salih. (1) Browne appointed a British businessman, Michael
Wareing, Chief Executive of KPMG International as “Commissioner”,
apparently heading the BDC. (2) Wareing visited Basra in February and made
outrageous comments, confirming his real interests to be those of predatory
business rather than the security, development and well-being of Basra and
its people.

Wareing told The Observer: “If you look at many other economies in the
world, particularly the oil-rich economies, many of these places are quite
challenging countries in which to do business. … Frankly, if you can
successfully operate in the Niger Delta, that is a very different benchmark
from imagining that Basra needs to be like London or Paris.” (3)

Wareing’s appointment was welcomed by Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham
Salih, a major advocate of the 2003 invasion and of privatisation. On March
13 the British Defence Minister Des Browne met with Salih in Basra Airport.
Browne promised to show new action on ‘security’ in Basra province and to
bring Umm Qasr port up to ‘the highest international standards’. (4) What
this meant was made clear by Salih who threatened the Governor, people of
Basra and port workers’ union of Umm Qasr saying ‘there must be a very
strong military presence in Basra to eradicate these militias’. (5)

What Salih, himself a former militia leader, was concerned about were
organised port workers who had earlier confronted the American SSA Marine
corporation in Umm Qasr and the Danish Maersk corporation in Khor az-Zubair
in the two years after these companies were imposed by the occupying
forces in 2003. (6) The new plans involve privatisation measures opposed by
the port workers, who are supported by other trade unions and port
management. It is likely that the planned corporate takeover of the port is
required in order to facilitate the activities of international oil companies.

Nevertheless, the scale of what was afoot was not apparent, but the link
between military action and breaking trade unionism was. On March 17-18
the US Vice-President Dick Cheney was in Baghdad meeting with the Iraqi
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki who presently heads the attack on Basra
city. (7) Top of the agenda was the oil law (8) and how to insure its
passage. The oil law means that international oil majors will control Iraqi
oil for many decades.

Various reports reveal that the present carnage was coordinated and agreed
with British and American leaders. Naftana believes they commanded it.
Why? The tide of national public opinion has turned against long-term
troop deployment in both the UK and the USA. If the war was fought for oil
and total domination of Iraq, then those most closely associated to those
interests must speed up their plans. The present onslaught aims to break
popular resistance, especially from the Sadrist movement, to the passage of
the oil law and to the occupation itself. Beyond that, with local
elections looming next autumn, it aims to destroy morally and physically
the popular base which would otherwise be set to drive, first from local
power, and subsequently from national power, the US/UK allies, Nouri
al-Maliki (al-Dawa party), his main allies in the Supreme Islamic Council,
led by Abdulaziz al-Hakim, and the Kurdish leaders, Talbani and Barzani.

Naftana calls on all who support democratic trade unionism to stand by the
people of Iraq, with the port workers of Umm Qasr and the oil workers of
Southern Iraq, with workers in Baghdad and many other cities who are in
danger of physical elimination.

Naftana

For further information on Naftana and IFOU:

Sabah Jawad – 07985
336886  sabah.jawad@googlemail.com
Kamil Mahdi –  k.a.mahdi@exeter.ac.uk
Sami Ramadani – 07863 138748  sami.ramadani@londonmet.ac.uk

Notes for editors: Naftana (‘Our Oil’ in Arabic) is an independent
UK-based committee supporting democratic trade unionism in Iraq. It works
in solidarity with the IFOU. It strives to publicise the union’s struggle
for Iraqi social and economic rights and its stand against the
privatisation of Iraqi oil demanded by the occupying powers. For more
information see the IFOU’s website HYPERLINK
FastMail.FM WARNING: URL text and host don't match, possible phishing attempt. URL disabled. Original URL='" http://www.basraoilunion.org"'. Original text='" http://www.basraoilunion.org"'. For more information on phishing click here. www.basraoilunion.org

(1)  http://www.eeegr.com/events/info.php?refnum=562&startnum=A0

(2)  http://www.kpmg.com/Press/KPMGLeaderappointed.htm
(3)  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/24/iraq.oil
(4)  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7294144.stm
(5) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/world/middleeast/13basra.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=iraqi+troops+move+to+seize+control+of+iraqi+port&st=nyt&oref=slogin
(6) Since 2003 the first shortened its name to SSA Marine. See on Umm Qasr:
 http://www.allbusiness.com/transportation/marine-transportation-ferries/5665051-1.html
and  http://www.publici.net/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=56
and on Khor az-Zubair  http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13196
and  http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12490
(7)  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120593326652748375.html
(8) http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080317082409.1u8it4sf&show_article=1



**************************************************************************