JUNE 14, 2003 : (WASHINGTON, DC : GLEN RANGWALA TAKES PART IN EPIC IRAQ FORUM EVENING LECTURE SERIES "CONSEQUENCES of WAR & OCCUPATION" )Glen Rangwala, PhD is a lecturer in politics at Cambridge University, UK. He has been a coordinator of the Campaign against Sanctions on Iraq for the past five years. His work on the allegations made about Iraq's prohibited weapons have been covered by every major news outlet, most notably when he discovered that the "intelligence" dossier released by the British government had been plagiarized from a PhD student's thesis. He acts as an advisor to British parliamentarians on policy towards Iraq. He is beginning an in-depth academic study on Iraq's changing society from 1990 to the present day, and will be assessing the outcomes of the US-led reconstruction attempts. Hear Glen Rangwala now.Or download and listen.
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AFP: Anti-war protesters regroup
SAY THEIR NEW FOCUS IS "ANTI-OCCUPATION"
EPIC Press Room | Press Release Archive
Agence France-Presse
April 10, 2003
WASHINGTON (AFP) Far from celebrating the presumed quick end to the war in Iraq, US peace activists say they are outraged at the prospect of a lengthy military occupation there, and are gearing up for more protests. Massive rallies had been planned for this weekend to call for an end to the US and British-led war, across the United States and in major cities around the world.
Now organizers say the rallying cry of those protests will be an end to the impending occupation of Iraq by coalition forces.
"It's more urgent and more important than ever that there be a mobilization" said Sara Flounders, co-director of the New York-based International Action Center who is helping to organize the demonstration.
She insisted that despite the fast-changing events in Iraq, this weekend's world-wide protest "is absolutely going forward -- if anything with greater determination and greater clarity.
"Only now the focus is, 'no' to colonial occupation," said Flounders.
This weekend's protests are organized by ANSWER coalition, a confederation of anti-war and social action groups that was a key organizer of many of the massive demonstrations held in the weeks before the start of the war. Protests are planned in San Francisco, Washington and several other US cities as well as 40 countries including Britain, Italy, Japan and Korea, said Flounders. Some groups say they are also pushing for the United Nations to take the lead in the post-war reconstruction of Iraq.
Anti-war organizer Medea Benjamin of the San-Francisco based group Global Exchange,[see also Code Pink] said coming protests will lambaste US-led efforts "to privatize humanitarian aid instead of using more traditional channels like the Red Cross and NGO's (non-governmental organizations)."
"We would like to see the UN take charge of the transition, which would strengthen the rule of law, not the rule of force."
"If the Iraqi people are to have a chance for democracy and a better life, the model that the US is trying to use is not going to lead them there," Benjamin said.
Another group, the Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC) this week launched the latest of numerous online petition drives, calling on their supporters to flood Congress with e-mails calling on legislators keep funding for Iraq humanitarian and and reconstruction out of the hands the US military.
"The State Department, in partnership with the UN and our allies, is the appropriate authority for US funds related to post-war Iraq," EPIC said in an action email sent to supporters.
Anti-occupation activists have wasted no time launching salvos at the planned interim government to be headed by former US general Jay Garner. Their new website -- stopjaygarner.com -- was up and running long before the Garner has even set foot in Iraq.
Garner, 64, who is awaiting confirmation of Saddam Hussein's downfall to make his move to Baghdad, is a retired three-star general who has come under fire for his links to defense industry and his ardent pro-Israel stance. He is also a former assistant deputy chief of staff during the 1991 Gulf War, has directed several major Defense Department programs including the Patriot anti-missile system, and is a personal friend of US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
But peace activists said none of those credentials qualify him to set up a peaceful Iraqi interim government. "As a former Army General who until recently was building weapons systems now being used in the Iraq war, Jay Garner is no man of peace. In fact, he's just the man to inflame Iraq and the region," according to the stopjaygarner.com site. "It is not too late to make a change," the statment said.
All rights reserved. © 2003 Agence France-Presse.