Thousands in Baghdad Call for US Withdrawal 

Aljazeera (Doha) 18apr03

Tens of thousands of demonstrators in Baghdad protested against the United States presence in Iraq on Friday, following Friday prayers.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis demonstrated following Friday prayers

Waving banners in English and Arabic reading “Leave our country, we want peace,” protestors outside of the Abu Hanifa Al-Numan Mosque chanted “No to America, no to Saddam” and “This homeland is for the Shia and Sunni,” in a sign of unity among the two groups.

The majority of Iraq’s 25-million strong population is 60 percent Shia, which had been ruled ruthlessly under Saddam Hussein’s mostly Sunni elitist regime. In recent days there has been mounting discontent from among the Shia to Washington’s presence in Iraq.

Protestors called for unity among Iraqis and urged all to put aside past conflicts and differences.

Al-Jazeera TV correspondent Youseff Al-Shouly reported it was the first non-state organized protest in the Iraqi capital in decades, describing it as a significant development.

In the first Friday prayers since US tanks rolled into the heart of Baghdad last week, Imam Ahmad Al-Kubaisi said in his sermon the United States invaded Iraq to defend Israel and denied that Iraqi possessed weapons of mass destruction. --Al Jazeera

source: http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/article.asp?cu_no=1&item_no=2820&version=1&template_id=277&parent_id=258 19apr03

Shia Clergy Denounce US Troop Presence 

Aljazeera (Doha) 18apr03

A cleric at one of Shia Islam’s holiest shrines in the Iraqi city Karbala denounced the presence of US troops in the country during Friday prayers, saying it amounted to imperialism by “unbelievers.”

“We reject this foreign occupation, which is a new imperialism. We don’t want it anymore,” Sheikh Kaazem Al-Abahadi Al-Nasari told thousands of Muslim faithful at the mausoleum of Imam Hussein, revered by the Shias and the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad.

An Iraqi Shia woman takes her child to the Imam Hussein mosque in Karbala, some 100 km south of Baghdad for preparations ahead of the anniversary of Imam Hussein's death next week

“We don’t need the Americans. They’re here to control our oil. They’re unbelievers, but as for us, we have the power of faith,” he said.

Friday prayers resumed at this sacred site last week for the first time since May 2002 after being banned by deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, fearful of Shia opposition to his rule.

Iraq’s 25- million strong community is 60 percent Shia and were violently repressed and politically not represented under Hussein.

The Shias are flexing their collective muscle for the first time in decades.

Sheikh Nasri denounced “those politicians who are coming back to Iraq supported by the Americans and British, who given the opportunity would only obey American orders.”

His speech may have been a veiled jab at Ahmad Chalabi, who bills himself as a secular Shia, and reportedly a Pentagon favorite for leading Iraq. Chalabi, who left Iraq in 1958 and returned in recent months, said Friday he had no plans for running the country.

Sheikh Nasri also called on Shias to back the Hawza, the Shia religious school in another holy city Najaf, which has witnessed violence in recent days over who will lead the religious community.

Spirits were also high in the Shia shantytown in Baghdad were the Al-Hikma mosque held the first Friday prayers since 1999 riots sparked by the assassination of a prominent cleric Mohammad Sadeq Sadr.

Some 50,000 people jammed the streets of Al-Sadr City, formerly known as Saddam City, patrolled by Kalashnikov-wielding guards.

Hundreds of thousands poured out of mosques and demonstrated against Washington’s presence. The sermons around the city offered the first clear reaction among Muslim clergy to the three-week war and US occupation.

At the Al-Hikma mosque Sheikh Mohammad Fartusi said the Shia would not accept a brand of democracy “that allows Iraqis to say what they want but gives them no say in their destiny.”

“This form of government would be worse than Saddam Hussein,” he said. He also urged the faithful to follow the Hawza in Najaf.

If they initially offered a cautious hand, Iraqis are becoming increasingly critical of the US failure to restore order and basic services such as water and electricity.

The head of the Tehran-based Supreme Assembly of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI), which has a major following in Iraq, has called for a “political regime guaranteeing liberty, independence and justice for all Iraqis under the reign of Islam.”

Lebanon’s top Shia cleric Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah urged Iraqis on Friday to open their eyes to the US occupation and to rebuild Iraq without Washington or London’s supervision.

“We call on the oppressed good people of Iraq…to prevent the birth of a new dictator from inside and abroad and to open their eyes to the methods of the occupier,” said Fadlallah in his sermon.

“We trust you…to come together without American or British oversight to build a new Iraq that respects the people and gives them their rights,” he said.

The United States has appointed retired army general Jay Garner to lead an interim administration in Iraq.

Fadlallah warned that Washington would use the chaos in Iraq to show that Iraqis could not govern themselves.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Christians marked Good Friday with prayers for resurrection of peace and normality. But many Christians expressed concern that the collapse of Hussein’s government and the advent of democracy in a Muslim majority nation could spell an end to the relative religious freedom they enjoyed under the secular Baath Party.

Some fear a backlash from those who considered them allies of Hussein.

Christians account for about 400,000, most of them Chaldeans, an old Catholic sect that originated in Iraq. But there are other sects, including Protestants. --- Al Jazeera and agencies

source: http://english.aljazeera.net/xml/topics/printarticle.xml?cu_no=1&item_no=2826&version=1&template_id=277&parent_id=258 18apr03

US Accused of Blocking Medical Relief Plane

Aljazeera (Doha) 18apr03

A British aid agency accused the United States on Friday of disregarding the plight of children in northern Iraq by refusing to allow a plane full with medical supplies to land in the city of Arbil.

Save the Children argued the validity of US claims that it was unsafe to land at Arbil, which is between the oil-rich cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, saying the city was “as safe as many parts of London.”

"I can only guess that is because they have other priorities because the suggestion that it is not safe is very difficult to accept," Save the Children representative Brendan Paddy told BBC Radio from Arbil.

A United Nations convoy of trucks with food aid heading to northern Iraq passes through the Turkish border town of Silopi on April 16

“Medical supplies have to come in from the outside and at the moment that doesn’t seem to be happening,” Paddy said, adding that American flights were having daily access to the area.

But a US military spokesman in the Gulf told BBC that while the area around Arbil was not exposed to danger for military planes because they could defend themselves, it was risky for civilian planes.

He said he hoped the Save the Children plane could land “within days.”

The plane is ready to depart from Britain carrying medical supplies that are enough to help 40,000 people for three months. Iraqi hospitals, including those in Mosul, are in dire need of essential medical and food supplies, especially after they were either damaged by the fighting or looted following the collapse of the Iraqi government.

Save the Children accused the US on Thursday of violating the Geneva Convention by refusing to allow medical supplies to enter Arbil. The convention states that the occupying forces are obliged to protect civilians, restore law and order and facilitate humanitarian relief.

"What is more difficult to understand is not the ignoring of the Geneva Convention but ignoring the plight of the kids that we're seeing every day in Mosul," Paddy said.

In the meantime, 11 UN trucks carrying 102,000 litres of drinking water for thirsty Iraqis entered Iraq from Iran on Friday, the first time such an aid operation took place across the border between the two countries which were engaged in a devastating eight-year-old war in the 1980s.

A UN official said the aid convoy, which used the route of Shalamcheh in southwestern Khuzestan province, was supplied by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

UNICEF incorrectly said in a statement earlier this week that nine of the 12 trucks had crossed on Wednesday.

The convoy was destined for the southern city of Al Faw where the water would be handed to a local religious leader who would be in charge of distributing it to the population.

Due to bureaucratic delays in neighboring Iran, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has failed to send 100 tonnes of food, including vegetable oil, to distressed Iraqis for several days.

Iran could serve as a major relief route if clearance for convoys was obtained at the border, allowing aid to flow freely to northern Iraq. WFP has stockpiled 13,000 tonnes of food in Iran for hungry Iraqis. Iran closed its border with Iraq since the US-led war in Iraq started on March 20 to avoid an influx of refugees similar to what happened in the 1991 Gulf war.

--- Al Jazeera with agency inputs

source: http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/article.asp?cu_no=1&item_no=2828&version=1&template_id=277&parent_id=258 18apr03