Iraq-CELSI
Paremos
la guerra contra Iraq
English

Fifth Spanish Delegation to Iraq
CSCAweb:
01-7-02
Translated by John Catalinotto, IAC
From
28 December, 2002, to 5 January 2003 , a delegation comprising
138 members of political and social organizations and trade unions,
as well as journalist, have visited Iraq in a new iniciative
of the Spanish Campaign for Lifting the Sanctions on Iraq (SCLSI).
The SCLSI has organised this new journey to Iraq as an expression
of solidarity with the Iraqi people and a rejection of Washington's
and London's war plans, as well as a condemnation of the Aznar
government's decision to support and participate in the war.
The delegation carried more than 72,000 euros worth of ophthalmological
supplies.
The
United States is following with its determination and its plans
to attack, invade and occupy Iraq with the aim of installing
in Baghdad first a U.S. military administration and then a regime
that submits to U.S. regional and strategic interests.
Since
Iraq has accepted starting last September 16 the unconditonal
return of the United Nations (UN) arms inspectors, the Bush administration
has managed to sabotage every diplomatic initiative that could
eliminate the pretexts which would allow the U.S. to launch a
war.
After obtaining from the U.S. Congress a green light to proceed
to war, the Bush administration has used all its means of compulsion,
threat and bribery to get from the UN Security Council a new
resolution (Resolution 1441) that legitimizes a unilateral attact
against Iraq without
insisting on prior approval by the international organization.
Despite the arrival in Iraq of the arms inspectors and the onset
of their work, the Bush administration has in the last few weeks
intensified its pressure to obtain support for its aggression
against Iraq, particularly from NATO and the Arab governments.
The
threat of this new war and the disinformation campaign hides
the fact that Iraq is today a country devastated by more than
a decade of economic sanctions and continual military attacks:
according to data from the United Nations, in these 12 years
more than a million people,
800,000 of them younger than 5 years old, have died because of
the embargo.
The
declared objective of this new war against Iraq is "regime
change," that is, to change Baghdad's politcal leadership,
an objective which, besides being illegal, will lead to a much
more ambicious geopolitical reconfiguration of the Middle East
- as has been said, to a new Sykes-Picot Treaty - including in
the first period the definitive Israeli military assault against
Gaza and the West Bank, and perhaps a new exodus of the Palestinian
population. There is no moral imperative in this at all: this
new aggression against Iraq will be a war unleashed for base
political and economic interests, a new war for oil.
But
beyond the scenario for the Middle East, the occupation of Iraq
will put before the international community the fait accompli
of a new world order in which the juridical norms that have been
in effect until now will be annulled and replaced by the new
U.S. doctrine of "Preventive War," which was itself
anticipated by the post-September 11, 2001, call for a "global
war against terrorism." Bush's "Preventive War"
is no more than the most recent formulation of the hegemonic
will of the U.S., which intends to reintroduce direct military
intervention to impose its political, economic and cultural domination
on a planetary scale.
We
are meeting in Iraq in an initiative whose spirit is to contribute
to stopping the war against this country before it starts, an
initiative that is the continuation of the mobilizations that
have taken place in all of the Spanish state and at an international
level during the autumn, and
which anticipates those plans in the weeks to come -the International
Day of January 18 and that in Europe on February 15 launched
by the European Social Forum in Florence:
-
We have traveled to Iraq as a demonstration of our rejection
of the war plans of Washington and London against this country
and to demand one more time the end of the genocidal embargo
which has caused suffering among the Iraqi people for more than
12 years.
-
We have traveled to Iraq as a witness of our solidarity with
the Iraqi people, a people who were at the vanguard of the anti-colonial
and republican and anti-feudal struggle, for social and national
liberation, the first people in the Middle East who succeeded
in nationalizing
its oil wealth and which now - for all of this - are again threatened
with submission to direct colonial rule.
-
We have traveled to Iraq to express our understanding of and
sympathy with the defense of the principals of self-determination
and sovereignty of a people confronted with U.S. plans for imperialist
domination that the U.S. has openly formulated in its doctrine
of "Preventive War,"
anticipated since 9-11 by the so-called "global war against
terrorism"
Finally,
from Iraq we issue a call for a mobilization against the participation
and collaboration of the Spanish government in this illegal and
immoral war that is rejected by the overwhelming majority of
our citizens, as has been shown in opinion polls. Following the
Bush administration's demands that NATO member nations become
involved in the aggression against Iraq, the participation of
the Spanish state in this war will be twofold: to allow without
any restrictions the use of the jointly run Spanish-U.S. military
bases and as a member of the
alliance. In this way the Aznar goverment would be doubly violating
the conditions of the referendum on NATO and converting us into
direct executioners of the Iraqi people.
Our
complete solidarity with the Iraqi people
Stop the war against Iraq before it starts
Against the Spanish government's participation in the war
U.S. and NATO bases out of Spain
Enlaces
relacionados:
Vª
Delegación del Estado español a Iraq (28 de diciembre
de 2002 al 5 de enero de 2003): Un vuelo solidario a Iraq, por
un 2003 sin guerra ni sanciones
Salida
para Iraq en vuelo directo de una delegación del Estado
español integrada por 138 personas

.