Category: gmoses

The Italian news agency AGI quotes Brahimi saying, “The large number of political prisoners in Iraq and the large number of office workers who have been fired more than once without any clear reason, are a big problem for the international community with regard to the peace process and their efforts to pacify the country.”

Brahimi was in Italy, assuring officials that prospects were good for the release of three remaining Italian citizens held hostage Iraq. A fourth Italian hostage had been killed. The hostage takers demanded Italy’s withdrawal from the US coalition in Iraq. And the Italian press reported rumors of ransom.

As for Brahimi’s main work these days, arranging a transition to Iraqi governance, Reuters reports that “Mr. Brahimi says the new government should be led by a prime minister, a president and two vice presidents until nationwide elections can be held next January.”

Sam Hamod of the Al Jazeerah Information Center translated some of Brahimi’s recent statements into plain English: “Dr. Lakhdar Brahimi, made very clear in his statements after meetings with Iraqi and American leaders in Iraq that Mr. Bremer and U.S. Military officers had inflamed the situation in Iraq and they had best change their ways. He pointed out that Iraqis were tired of the American arrests of people without charges, holding them without trials, torturing and brutalizing people who were under arrest, and often killing those they arrested. He also pointed out that Bremer was wrong to shut down Al Sadr’s newspaper; it was an undemocratic thing to do, and further that he had no valid reason for going after Al Sadr and that the attacks on Fallujah were criminal and against international law because of the targeting of civilians, ambulances and sanitation and electrical infrastructure. As far as Brahimi was concerned, the American behavior had been a disaster for the Iraqi people and had alienated the Iraqi people and turned them against America and it’s alleged quest to establish democracy. He also said that the puppet “governing council” should be totally disbanded and replaced by a popularly elected president, two vice presidents and a parliament or a congress, with America staying out of the picture and withdrawing as soon as possible so that the UN could come in and clean up the mess the Americans had made. Of course, he put matters in more diplomatic language than this, but those were his main points.”

As Hamod points out, the US has ensnared the region with contracts and troops, neither of which will be withdrawn in the near future.

And Michael Rubin, writing for National Review online says Iraqi perceptions of Brahimi converge with suspicions that the US is betraying democracy: “A staunch Nasserist, they say Brahimi is much more interested in rehabilitating former senior Baathist officers than in promoting democracy. Brahimi has demonstrated disdain not only for Iraq’s Kurdish minority, but also for Iraq’s Shia majority. As undersecretary of the Arab League between 1984 and 1991, Brahimi stood silent as Saddam massacred more than 100,000 Iraqi Kurds, and then perhaps 400,000 Iraqi Shia. As Iraqis discover and excavate new mass graves every week, there are constant reminders of Brahimi’s silence. Visiting Baghdad on U.N. business in 1997, Brahimi added insult to injury, as Iraqi television showed Brahimi embracing Saddam’s Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, a man whom Iraqis hope to try for crimes against humanity.”

“Kurdish and Shia leaders say privately that the Brahimi plan is dead-on-arrival.”

As for Bush’s nomination of John Negroponte as US Ambassador to Iraq, I can be brief. He was ambassador to Honduras during Iran-Contra, ambassdor to Mexico during repression of the Zapatistas in Chiapas, and ambassador to the UN when the US bolted into Iraq. Nothing to learn about peacemaking here. The superhighway of links to Negroponte’s record might begin with Al Martin at almartinraw.com, who is a veteran and former Iran-Contra insider.

“In a war between nations, peace journalism requires you to be non-partisan – to give equal coverage to peace efforts in your nation and those of all other combatant nations,” argued Curtin University’s Asian Media Studies professor Dr Krishna Sen speaking at the Asia Media Summit in Kuala Lumpur.

But News World Asia chairman Dr Andrew Taussig, said he disliked the phrase as it implied that journalism was “loaded”. [Does Dr. Taussig employ “war correspondents”?]

“While we know that peace for some may be defeat for others, let us, in particular, not depict peace journalists either as proxies of third parties or as people who can function only if they have squads of conciliators and psychotherapists following in their train.”

Dr. Sen warned that “development journalism” had been co-opted by governments to “supress rather than enlighten.” [By acting like business pages and Wall Street shows?] She said peace journalism shares that danger.

In what Reuters and AP call “two flashpoint cities” of Iraq, battles at Falluja and Najaf were somewhat calmed. But Western media do not report that air assaults continue.

Sunni Falluja was calmed by truce on the ground, although F-16s and Apache gunships continued to raid the vicinity via air, as Iraqi police vowed to collect heavy weapons from rebels, and the US promised to make way for ambulances and access to the city’s hospital. US troops are allowing 50 families per day back into the city, which emptied of about 1/3 of its 200,000 residents when US forces attacked in response to the killing and mutilation of American contractors there. It remains to be seen how negotiations between US authorities and civic leaders will hold up in the eyes of local militia, says Reuters.

“The difficulty with these discussions, as I understand them, is that the people who are causing the trouble aren’t part of the discussions,” Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing, referring to the Fallujah negotiations involving Iraqi and Sunni Muslim leaders, Fallujah officials and US representatives.

Calling Falluja a “final stand,” Rumsfeld said: “Thugs and assassins and former Saddam henchmen will not be allowed to carve out portions of that city and to oppose peace and freedom.”

But peacemaker Lakhdar Brahimi told Arab media that, “Collective punishments are not acceptable – cannot be acceptable, and to cordon off and besiege a city is not acceptable.”

Three reporters who made their way to Falluja via back roads report claims that Americans tried to take a bridge during the cease fire, but were deterred by insurgents. Meanwhile, F16s and Apache gunships were busy in the air. “Bush doesn’t need to dig mass graves – he collapses our houses on top of us,” shouted Abed Eid, pointing to the remains of three metal casings marked as AGM-114s – helicopter-fired “Hellfire” missiles – which slammed into his home [near Fallujah.]

And at Najaf, some civilians returned home as US forces prepared, “to pull back from a forward base,” in their attack on Al Sadr’s rebels.

“The Shi’ite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, called for a halt to attacks on Spain’s 1,400 troops near Najaf after the new government in Madrid said it was pulling out of the U.S.-led occupying coalition.”

Reuters quotes a senior US official saying he’s not sure what arrangements are being made between Iraqi negotiators at Najaf.

US commander Gen. Sanchez says he’s ready to resume the attack on the holy city of Najaf and kill Sadr. “We’ll be applying the same levels of constraint that we’ve always applied in operating in this country and making sure that we respect the people and that we respect their religious shrines,” he said.

Sam Hamod of Al Jazeera Information Service reports that, “according to short wave radio from the Aab world, many of the pilgrims who came to Najaf and Karbala for the Arabayn (40 days of respect for the martyr Husayn) have stayed on to support Sadr and to fight the Americans if necessary. Remember, these Shi’a pilgrims have come from all over the world; thus, other nations may become involved if their citizens are harmed by the U.S. troops with an attack on Najaf. Also, if America attacks Najaf, there will never be an end to Shi’a desire for revenge, as a matter of honor and of religious duty in their minds.But these matters, as important as they are, are rarely is talked about on American mass media.”