Monday, November 04, 2002

Someone finally says it. Of course not an American media source. It is Bangladeshi.

I am writing in protest against the article: "Bush's war agenda under doubts," by Prof. Rashiduzzaman, Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey. It was published on November 1.

In this current deluge of articles and opinion pieces by self-styled outside experts, no one seems to be listening to what the Iraqi dissidents are saying. Unlike the Soviet dissidents during the Cold War, who got all the media attention, Iraqi dissidents are all but ignored at a time when the future of their country is at stake. Before we listen to what others are saying, it is time their voice was heard.

Haithem Al-Hassani, a spokesman for the Iraqi-Canadian Co-ordinating Committee, a Toronto-based alliance of various Iraqi groups in exile, told the press recently: "We have an outlaw regime such as in Iraq that is not a legitimate regime... This needs to be stood up to."

Mr. Al-Hassani said those who oppose war with Iraq on the grounds that that civilians would be killed fail to understand that people are already dying due to Saddam's misrule. "In any war situation there must be some innocents that will die but the thing is in Iraq, as we speak, innocents are dying, I'm talking in thousands." Another Iraqi-Canadian, who said his family in Iraq would be harmed if his name were published, told Toronto's National Post that he too was against war with Iraq - until he visited his native country a few months ago. After seeing how Saddam had diverted money to lavish palaces and weapons while the Iraqi people go without food, water, schools and hospitals, he said he now wants Canada to support a war to oust Saddam. "I was against doing anything against my country but I am with it now. Let [ Iraqis ] suffer for a few months, but they will be living like humans for the rest of their lives." The man said his recent visit to Basra was an eye-opener. There was shortage of food and water and Saddam's forces controlled every facet of life. "My family, I had a big family there, all of them are against Saddam.

"I said, "Then why are you cheering him on the TV?' They said, 'every day there is an event or something there, they knock from door to door, take the people, the families, from houses to participate in this cheering, or election or whatever, by force. If you are not going you are on the blacklist. If you are on the blacklist, your son or your daughter or your wife will disappear. Or you are going to lose your job. Iraq is the worst country in the Middle East.' "

Hamid Ali Alkifaey, an Iraqi journalist living in Britain, wrote in The Independent, London: "When I was recently asked by the Fabian Society to give a talk about the nature of the threat that Saddam Hussein represents, I didn't know where to start. ... Perhaps the best place to start is with the present threat of weapons of mass destruction, which the world fears, and to explian why the United Nations' plan for weapons inspection will never work. The threat does not stem from the possession of these weapons alone. Many countries in the world possess these weapons, but few people feel threatened by them. The threat comes from the nature of Saddam Hussein himself. Since his rise to power he has had three obsessions: secrecy, security and weapons. He was lucky to have been able to achieve all three, but at a huge cost to Iraq's people, to its neighbours and to the environment."

Ridha Saleh, another Iraqi-Canadian, wrote in The Toronto Star: "Indeed, as I am aware from my communications with friends and relatives in Iraq, most citizens of that country are waiting with bated breath for a strike that will free them from their current state of oppression."

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