خمسٌ وسبعون امرأة ألهمت وغيّرت العالم/ الجزء الثالث
الجزء الثالث من كتيّبي (خمسٌ وسبعون امرأة ألهمت وغيّرت
العالم) المنشور في العدد 60 /2011 من مجلة الشرارة الصادرة عن الحزب
الشيوعي العراقي
The third episode of my book (Seventy-five women have inspired and
changed the world), published in Issue 60 / 2011 of AlSharara magazine
of the Iraqi Communist Party
خمسٌ وسبعون امرأة ألهمت وغيّرت العالم/ الجزء الثاني
الجزء الثاني من كتيّبي (خمسٌ وسبعون امرأة ألهمت وغيّرت
العالم) المنشور في العدد ٥٨ /٢٠١١ من مجلة الشرارة الصادرة عن الحزب
الشيوعي العراقي
The second episode of my book (Seventy-five women have inspired and changed the world), published in Issue 58 / 2011 of AlSharara magazine of the Iraqi Communist Party
The second episode of my book (Seventy-five women have inspired and changed the world), published in Issue 58 / 2011 of AlSharara magazine of the Iraqi Communist Party
Multiple Methods, One Murder
Multiple Methods, One Murder
Evan Al-Darraji
August 26, 2011
Since the dawn of humanity approximately 5000 years ago, Iraqis have been the object of death’s
harvest, be it through wars, revolutions, or genocides, among other
methods of termination that have been committed against us as I laid out
succinctly in my previous article, “Iraq: Carnivores and Vampires
Nation!”
Sometimes the reaper was one of us, and at other times a hateful
aggressor or someone coveting our land. All the same, the death toll
that the soul reapers have recorded has soared horrifically in recent
years, that is, since the fall of the previous regime in 2003 and the
American-Safavi invasion headed by our subservient agent-leaders who
employed an array of methods and tactics to terminate us and break our
unity. They started with blunt war and heavy munitions such as missiles,
bombs, and explosives most of which violated the treaties and protocols
on the prohibition of the use of biological and chemical weapons whose
impact continues on the soil, air, and water, and consequently destroys
organic matter including humans and result in illnesses, deformities,
and death. Such elements include white phosphorus, napalm, and depleted
uranium which were used by the U.S. Army and its allies in the war
against Iraq with the excuse of toppling the regime. They denied having
used these elements despite tests and traces that prove it, in addition
to the confessions of their allies. Added to this list are the mass
murders and individual assassinations, booby traps, and armed attacks by
terrorists and organized militia that fill the country, in support of
this faction or that.
Today, one of the
civilian humanitarian organizations, the Organization of Women’s Freedom
in Iraq (OWFI), presented a report it prepared: U.S. Army Base
Transforms the Town of Hawijah (30 miles south of Kirkuk) into a Crisis
Zone: Hundreds of Paralyzed Children and Teenagers with Cancer
Through a critical survey, the report established that “in a town of
109,000 people there is a generation of children who are suffering from
Poliomyelitis paralysis and cases of brain damage or atrophy. 412 of
these children and teenagers are registered patients in the health
clinic, whereas the actual numbers exceed 600 cases of child disability.
Cancer is also spreading like an epidemic among all age groups but
especially among teenagers, who await their death as the Iraqi and U.S.
governments make no efforts to provide treatment or medication. The U.S.
government is responsible for the radiation and the unleashing of their
arsenal to practice with live ammunition and explosives in a field that
was merely one and a half kilometers away from a residential
neighborhood and with no wall or a fence to prevent civilians, children,
and shepherds from entering.” (1)
Today we place in your hands this report based on the surveys that
the organization conducted on August 13-16, 20ll. It includes the ages
of the afflicted persons, whose ages range from infants to 19 years old.
They are suffering from a variety of tumors and deformities that
threaten their lives without finding adequate treatment or healthcare.
They mostly come from poor and needy families who can barely find enough
to eat! Hundreds of thousands are suffering. Hundreds of thousands are
facing the threat of this awful death as if there was a genocidal
conspiracy against these innocent people.
The strange thing is that the U.S. continues to claim that its war on
Iraq was ‘clean’!! Can you call a brutal war that has caused murder,
destruction, and displacement ‘clean’? They deny it, despite all the
evidence against them, a fact that only reveals their lies and
violations of international treaties and protocols such as the Geneva
Protocol of 1925 that prohibits the use of bacteriological methods of
warfare, in addition to asphyxiating and poisonous gases, among other
weapons. It was signed by twenty-nine countries, yet the United States
was conspicuously opposed to it. Moreover, in December 1966, the United
Nations General Assembly issued a resolution that dictated the need to
adhere strictly to the aforementioned protocol. During the 1960s,
Britain made the effort to disarm its biological weapons and received
broad support for these efforts, especially from the Soviet Union.
Likewise, in 1969 former President of the United States Richard Nixon
announced the country’s disapproval of the use of biological weapons,
and ordered the destruction of the country’s reserves.
The UN General Assembly also referred to its resolution number 2662 (25th session) that was made on December 7th,
1970, to take the necessary steps to remove the weapons of mass
destruction such as those that use chemical and bacteriological
(biological) factors from the military munitions of all countries.
What is the meaning of these treaties and resolutions? Are they mere
clichés and embellishments to be added to their ‘human rights’
counterparts that are being violated in Iraq in every way? Who is
responsible for demanding our most basic rights and for holding
accountable those who violate it? Where is the government, and what
position does it assume in defending the lives, health, and future of
the citizens of Iraq in the face of multiple levels of humanitarian
crises?
Whom do we hold accountable? To whom do we raise our grievances?
Translated from Arabic ( تعددت الاساليب والقتيل واحد) (by Yasmeen Hanoosh (many thanks to her)
The full report (OWFI Report: Hawijah in Crisis and the Legacy of US Bases)
