Oh, My God! Who Will Come To Tell You The Truth?-Delegation of Iraqi Women

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Tue Mar-07-06 03:17 PM
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Oh, My God! Who Will Come To Tell You The Truth?-Delegation of Iraqi Women

Oh, my God! Who will come to tell you the truth? We are come to tell you the truth.

We Are Human, Like You
By davidswanson
Created 2006-03-07 11:23
By David Swanson

Andy Shallal.

A delegation of women from Iraq told stories last night in Washington, D.C., unlike anything we've ever heard about this war from the media in the United States. And the media was not there, so I'm going to tell you what they said.

Eman Khamas with microphone.

Eman Ahmad Khamas is a human rights advocate who has documented abuses by the U.S. military in Iraq. She is a member of Women's Will, and is married with two daughters. She said:

"Hundreds of Iraqi mothers and wives are, like you, waiting for a knock on the door�

"This occupation has destroyed Iraq. Americans don't know that tens of thousands of Iraqis are in prisons. Americans don't know how many have been killed. Lancet reported 100,000 in 2004, not counting Falluja. Now it is something like double this number.

"Hundreds of thousands of families must search for men who are missing, and they are left with nothing to support themselves.

"Many people do not know about the bombing of cities. Bush said the war ended on May 1, 2003. That's not true. Many Iraqi cities have been bombed severely. And families are buried in the rubble.

"'Get the troops back home' is not enough. Yes, the occupation has to end immediately, but those responsible for these crimes have to be held responsible."

Faiza Al-Araji is a civil engineer, a blogger (http://afamilyinbaghdad.blogspot.com ) and a religious Shia with a Sunni husband. She has three children. After one of her sons was recently held by the Ministry of the Interior, the family fled to Jordan. She said, very rapidly, very passionately:

"Please work on ending this occupation. You live in a beautiful country. We are human, like you. And we deserve to have a life, like you.

"This will destroy our country. People are dying day and night. And your media is telling you the lies. Baghdad was shining. It was very nice. Even under Saddam it was the shining Baghdad. Now it is full of garbage and tanks and barriers. People are dying. They are not normal people. You cannot see three years of dying and lack of security and lack of medicine, lack of everything.

"We see Mr. Bush on television lying that Iraqis are happy for their freedom. Oh, my God! Who will come to tell you the truth? We are come to tell you the truth. And what we have done? This is what we are always asking: What we have done?

...........................

Souad Al-Jazairyis an Iraqi now living in the United States, a writer, journalist and TV producer. She is active with the Iraqi Women's League. She said:

"There were 30 years under the dictatorship of Saddam, brought by the CIA to Iraq. Then 13 years with no food. Then the bombs. Now they're destroying Iraq by dividing them. They want to provoke a civil war. They are turning neighbors against neighbors. It's not just about oil, in my opinion. They want to control all of Asia."

Nadje Al-Ali is a writer/researcher specializing in women in the Middle East. She is a founding member of Act Together: Women's Action on Iraq and mother of a three-year-old daughter. She is currently living in the UK and working on a book about women in Iraq. She said:

"Iraqis have not just suffered for three years. At least 5,000 children per month died according to UNICEF under 13 years of sanctions. And prior to that the regime was backed by the US.

"Women are suffering. Everyone is scared, but if a woman is kidnapped � and most middle-class families have had a member kidnapped) she can be sexually molested or raped. A lot of families keep their women folk inside. This was not the case before.

Medea Benjamin and Cindy Sheehan were expected at Monday's event, but got held up in New York by being arrested at the United Nations.

http://www.democrats.com/node/8100