Conference for a just peace in Iraq-Palestine: against occupation, for the resistance
Second attempt launched in Italy

We call upon all forces in support of a just peace to add their names and
organisations to following call. Send your endorsement to:
conference@iraqiresistance.info

It is the second attempt to hold an international conference on Iraq (and
now also on Palestine) in Europe with important representatives of the
popular opposition to the occupation as last year it was impeded by the
Berlusconi government in Italy following the interference by the U.S. The
new Italian government led by Prodi tries to appear as advocating peace.
Despite the fact that they did not fully withdraw the Italian occupation
troops many people still believe their claim. If their stick to their words
the government must allow such a peace conference. See the open letter to
the the Foreign Minister D'Alema.

 

Against the occupation, for the resistance
A just peace in Iraq and Palestine

For an International Conference to give voice to all those who fight for the
freedom of the Iraqi people, for the political recognition of the
resistance, to bring its representatives, as well as those of other fighting
peoples in the Middle East, together with the forces of the anti-war and
anti-globalisation movement.

The conference should give voice to the legitimate representatives of the
Palestinian people and advocate the end of the embargo imposed by Israel,
the U.S. and the European Union against the government elected in last
January - an embargo which is starving the entire Palestinian people
modelled after the embargo against Iraq after 1991.

More then 3 years have passed since the beginning of the aggression against
Iraq. The occupation troops keep drowning the people in blood, bombing
cities and villages, torturing prisoners, killing dissidents and anyone
resisting but also an enormous numbers of innocent civilians (some sources
speak already of about 250.000 victims).

These crimes are being committed to subdue and exploit a country within a
well-defined American strategy aimed at controlling the entire Middle East
as the cornerstone of the American empire. In Iraq, this imperialist design
is facing an extraordinary popular resistance which is neither yielding to
the brutality of the occupation nor to an international balance of forces,
unfavourable as never before.

Today the resistance is confronting a new danger: faced with the failure of
all their attempts at "normalization", the U.S. is instigating a civil war
by the classical means of the "dirty war" of which they are the senior
expert. We are convinced that the resistance will be able to overcome this
difficult obstacle too, because it is deeply rooted within the Iraqi people.

In the last years, the liberation struggle of the Iraqi people has been the
vanguard of the resistance against the imperialist project in the Middle
East. It is fresh blood for the struggle of the Palestinian people against
the Zionist occupation, new hope for millions who still live in refugee
camps in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, and a new horizon for the Arab masses
which fight to bring down their authoritarian regimes servile to the U.S.

The resistance of the Iraqis has become a symbol for whoever is fighting
against oppression and injustice, not only in the Middle East but throughout
the globe.

It is therefore grave and intolerable that this liberation force is still
being denied the international political recognition it deserves.

About one year ago, the Italian government prevented the International
Conference of Chianciano scheduled for October 1-2, 2005, by denying visas
for the Iraqi exponents. This policy of complete and total alignment of the
Italian government to the explicit interests of Washington even brought them
as far as refusing entry to Haj Ali, the hooded prisoner of Abu Ghraib who
became the symbol of torture by the U.S. occupation.

Therefore we have to fight against this Europe without principles, without
dignity, servile to the U.S., to the point where it silences an entire
people and even torture victims; a Europe which in words likes to present
itself as the cradle of human rights, while in deeds it denies them in the
most blatant way. Quite recently this could be seen when the decision was
taken simply to starve the Palestinians by cutting the funds.

The time has come for the full political recognition of the Iraqi
resistance. It comprises every current -- regardless of existing political
and religious differences -- which intends to resist the occupation and to
defy the tri-partition of the country as conceived in the constitution
drafted and legitimised by the occupant.

Lending support to the resistance and obtaining its political recognition is
the biggest contribution the anti-war movement in the West can give to the
struggle against new wars and aggressions like the ones just being prepared.
And it is also the best way to say no to the "clash of civilisations" into
which the imperial project of the U.S. is dragging the world.

It is the moment to step up the support to the Palestinian cause, to end the
Zionist terror and occupation, to defeat the Israeli colonialism which is
the closest and most aggressive (not to speak of the nuclear arsenal which
is tolerated by the West) ally of the U.S. in their permanent war in the
Middle East.

We, the undersigned, responding also to the renewed interest expressed by
different sectors of the Iraqi resistance, therefore convene the
international conference again, for the beginning of autumn in Italy, the
country which prevented it but which will have a new government soon. The
task of the conference is to launch the movement against the war again, to
affirm the idea of a peace based on the right to self-determination of the
people, to give political support to whoever fights to liberate his country
from foreign occupation.

Support and recognise the Iraqi resistance!
End the hunger embargo, support and recognise the Palestinian government!
For the unity of all forces fighting the occupation and for a free and
united Iraq!
Against the U.S. and Israeli hegemony in the Middle East, for the victory of
the Iraqi and Palestinian people!
Let's unite the voices of the anti-war movement and the resistance in the
liberation struggle from war and imperialist oppression!

Free Iraq Committees Italy
Free Iraq Committee Germany
Free Iraq Committee Norway
Free Iraq Committee Malmo Sweden
Iraqi Communist Party (al Kader)
Dr. Hisham Bustani, Anti-Normalization Movement, Jordan
Democratic Patriot Communist Current Iraq
Anti-imperialist Camp
Hungarian Left Front
Iraqi Patriotic Alliance
Free Thought Association Ozgur-Der Turkey
Arab Palestine Club Vienna, Austria
Resistant Arab People's Alliance
RAD-ATTAC, Tunisia
Communist Youth Union (KSM), Czech Republic
Communist Initiative (KI), Austria
KKE-ml, Greece
Klaus von Raussendorff, Vereinigung fur Internationale Solidaritat (VIS)
e.V., Germany
Klaus Hartmann, undesvorsitzender des Deutschen Freidenker-Verbandes,
Germany
Human Dignity and Rights HDR, Duisburg, Germany
Initiativ e.V. Duisburg, Germany
Left Radicals of Afghanistan

Friday, 07 July 2006