IRAQ: US arrests unemployed activists

BY ROHAN PEARCE

On November 23, US soldiers in Baghdad arrested Kasim Hadi and Adil Salih. Hadi and Salih are activists with the Union of the Unemployed in Iraq (UUI).

It was not the first time that UUI members have been arrested by US forces. In August, soldiers acting under the orders of Paul Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) arrested 55 UUI supporters, including Hadi, who is president of the group.

On November 26, the UUI stated: "Because of the American invasion of Iraq, millions of people have lost their jobs. Poverty, deprivation, lack of security and hunger rules the country. The US war against Iraq has nothing to do with human rights, weapons of mass destruction or the liberation of Iraq and democracy. The daily experience of people in Iraq shows this fact very clearly. The USA wants to impose its New World Order, dominance and hegemony on the world."

The UUI declared that not only does the CPA have no right to arrest its activists, but rejected the claim that the US has any right to occupy the country and "continue terrorism and warfare in Iraq". The UUI demanded "the immediate departure of US and [other] occupying forces from Iraq... They should leave the country to its unions and women organisations, and the progressive Iraqi population, who defend their interests."

Protests can be sent to the CPA via their web site (<http://www.cpa-iraq.org/CPA_contact.html>) or via US embassies. The UUI can be contacted at <info@uuiraq.com>.

From Green Left Weekly, December 3, 2003.

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From GLW issue 564