ARCHIVE
2003
Continuing
Collateral Damage: health and
environmental costs of war on Iraq
A November
2003 Medact report calculates the toll, and shows how the general
state of health of the Iraqi people, already poor by international
standards, has been compromised further by the war:
"The war in Iraq was declared officially at an end six months
ago, but the health and environmental costs of the conflict are still
being felt. Drawing on sources within and outside Iraq, the international
health charity Medact says that the health consequences of the 2003
war on Iraq will be felt by its people for years, maybe generations...
The
research was carried out by an international team of authors and advisers,
all experts on health and conflict. The new report estimates that
more than 20,000 Iraqis have died between the start of hostilities
and when the report was finalised late last month. The number of people
affected by the aftermath of the war is still rising as the Iraqi
people continue to pay the price in death, injury and mental and physical
ill health..."
Iraqi
Women's News has a variety of articles and features on
Iraqi women
http://www.iwda.org.au/features/iraq/women_of_iraq.htm
Iraqi
Women No Better Off, U.N. Official Says
by
Sue Pleming , Reuters September 24th, 2003
WASHINGTON - In many ways, Iraqi women are worse off than before U.S.
forces ousted Saddam Hussein and are too afraid to play a big political
role for fear of being a target of extremists, a senior U.N. official
said on Tuesday. Noeleen Heyzer, executive director of the United
Nations Development Fund for Women, said the poor security situation
prevented women from playing a bigger role in rebuilding Iraq...
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=2004
The
Day of the Jackals: Arundhati
Roy
The following
is the text of a talk by Arundhati Roy, pre-recorded for the May 31,
2003 United For Peace and Justice teach-in in Washington, DC. For the
full text click on the link to the Alternet site, below.
"Mesopotamia.
Babylon. The Tigris and Euphrates. How
many children, in how many classrooms, over how many centuries, have
hang-glided through the past, transported on the wings of these words?
And now the bombs
have fallen, incinerating and humiliating that ancient civilization.
On the steel torsos of their missiles, adolescent American soldiers
scrawled colorful messages in childish handwriting: For Saddam, from
the Fat Boy Posse..."
Statement
from the Iraqi Women's Rights Coalition, May 2003
"We are a group
of Iraqi women who are extremely concerned about women's rights and
freedom in Iraq.
We have decided to set up this coalition due to the regime change in
Iraq. We are working together to make sure that the new constitution
will exclude all the existent codes and laws which are based on Shariah
law and which discriminate against women.
Iraqi women have suffered from many forms of discrimination which has
led to the infliction of violence rape, torture, domestic violence
and 'honour killings' - under the Ba'athist regime for more than two
decades.
Women have also suffered institutionalised oppression in the form of
the prohibition of choice of marital and sexual partners; the lack of
rights concerning divorce; denial of freedom of expression in political
life; denial of access to independent travel and enforced veiling in
certain regions of Iraq.
Now that the war is over there is a chance for us, as Iraqi women, to
impose our fair demands on the new Government and to put an end to the
active discrimination that has been practiced in Iraq against women."
The coalition was founded in March 2003, London, England. For
a summary of its aims and activities, visit:
http://www.peacewomen.org/contacts/westasia/iraq/Coalition.html
The Future is Also in our Hands
Sumaya Farhat-Naser
is a Palestinian biologist and teacher, peace activist and author. During
years of work in her own community, in Jerusalem, and with Israeli peace
activists, she has become an important spokesperson for a just peace
for both peoples. Her second book, written in German during the current
occupation and Intifada, was published in English in spring 2003 under
the title: "Daughter of the Olive Trees." The following is her speech
given in Berlin on February 15, 2003, at the largest peace demonstration
ever in the German capitol, with half a million people participating.
(more)
Twenty-Five Things You Can Do To Resist the War Against Iraq
As the US government rushes into war, it is easy to get
overwhelmed, and to feel that there is nothing we can do. But as ever
more citizens wake up to the potentially catastrophic consequences of
Bush's war, as hundreds of thousands of people all over the globe protest
this war, there are more groups to get involved with, actions to take,
and ways to become informed and inspired. Long-term political activist
and writer Mina
Hamilton came up with this list.
(more)
DAWN's
Call to Resist the War against Iraq
"DEVELOPMENT
ALTERNATIVES WITH WOMEN FOR A NEW ERA is a network of women
scholars and activists from the economic South who engage in feminist
research and analysis of the global environment and are committed to working
for economic justice, gender justice and democracy."
See: http://www.dawn.org.fj/
"DAWN pays tribute to the millions of people who have gone out into
the
streets to demonstrate their stand for peace, most recently those who
turned
out on 15 and 16 February 2003 in over 600 cities worldwide, including
Adelaide, Amsterdam, Melbourne, Sydney, Berlin, London, Rome, Hong Kong,
Kuala Lumpur and Penang, Lahore and 20 other Pakistan cities, Manila,
New
York, Philadelphia, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Suva, and
Warsaw.
DAWN shares the understanding that any war against Iraq is not about weapons
of mass destruction or any of the other stated rationales, but about
imperial greed and the abuse of human rights and power.
DAWN calls upon all women and men
- in all war-mongering
countries to continue holding their representatives
fully accountable, including through campaigns pledging not to vote
for
individual politicians and political parties that have sought to justify
and
- support unilateralism
and preemptive attack instead of genuine
multilateralism and the rule of law; and
- worldwide, to
insist on the disarmament of all States and a total ban on
arms sales.
- To resist patriarchal
intolerance and all types of reactionary backlash
against citizens rights,
especially women's reproductive and sexual rights,
as these are linked to militarism and fundamentalism.
We want a world where equity, equality, diversity and genuine peace reign.
DAWN condemns all leaders and governments that brutalize citizens, violate
human rights, disregard international law, and use violence and destructive
weapons as a currency of power. This condemnation extends to the Iraqi
Government and Saddam Hussein, and even more so to the leaders of the
United
States, United Kingdom, Australia and others in the so-called Coalition
of
the Willing, who aided and abetted Saddam in the past and now propose
to
ignore majority public opinion to launch an unjustifiable war against
the
Iraqi people. We say "No to war, even as a last resort!"
back
to Iraq
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