Wednesday
Jul 22, 1998
03:45 PM PDT
Introduction |Mid-East Rights | Legislative Activism | Direct Action & Civil Disobedience | Media Campaign
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July/Aug. 1998 (1419 A.H.) - Issue #2
Visit the Free Iraq Campaign
Free Iraq Campaign in DC
Recently Iraqi refugees, dissidents and their American supporters held a rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial to demand that Saddam Hussein be prosecuted for War Crimes, that UNSCR 688 be fully implemented and that economic sanctions against Iraq be ended. In a statement the organizers wrote:
"In Washington, several meetings were arranged. Republican and democrat congressmen and senators were
visited. Their foreign policy advisors met with us to discuss our demands. In addition, a meeting with the State
Department and the White House's National Security Council was convened.
The overall atmosphere we witnessed at congress is the frustration with the administration for the lack of any
policy towards Iraq. Their authority is limited to funding only. They explained that they have allocated some
money to support the Iraqi Opposition but its up to the administration to decide how it will spend the money. We
thanked them for their courageous votes in favor of the people of Iraq and conveyed our gratitude for siding with
the oppressed in Iraq.
At the State Department, the officials we met at the Iraq Desk and the War Crimes office were very supportive.
They welcomed our campaign and congratulated us for its success. We explained that the Iraqi people have all
but lost faith in the US administration for betraying the Iraqi people three times in a row. We explained that it will
take a great deal of initiative on their part in order to regain some amount of trust within the opposition community.
We stressed that the Iraqi people will refuse a hand-picked successor to Saddam in Iraq. Only a UN monitored
free election can guarantee a democratic political process whose outcome will be respected by all Iraqis.
At the White House, the officials were more interested in how to go about forging a broad-based Iraqi
Opposition to Saddam's regime in Baghdad. They vowed that the administration has rejected the latest overtures
by King Hussein to open a dialogue with Baghdad and assured us that if a broad-based Iraqi Opposition was to
emerge, they would fully support its activities. They welcomed a dialogue with all opposition groups including the
far right and far left ones. They promised to hand our petition including the three demands along with the list of
signatures up through the White House's chain of command."
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