Letter from Fallujah

The International Action Center has the text of the open letter sent by civil society organisations inside Fallujah to Kofi Annan. The central paragraphs are as follows:

Your Excellency and the whole world know that the Americans and their allies devastated our country under the pretext of the threat of WMD. Now, after all the destruction and the killing of thousand civilians, they have admitted that there no weapons were found. But they have said nothing about all the crimes they committed. Unfortunately everybody is now silent, and will not even dignify the murdered Iraqi civilians with words of condemnation. Are the Americans going to pay compensation as Iraq has been forced to do after the Gulf war?

We know that we are living in world of double standards. In Fallujah, they have created a new vague target,: AL ZARQAWI. This is a new pretext to justify their crimes, killing and daily bombardment of civilians. Almost a year has elapsed since they created this new pretext, and whenever they destroy houses, mosques, restaurants, and kill children and women they said "we have launched a successful operation against Al-Zarqawi." They will never say that they have killed him, because there is no such a person. And that means the killing of civilian and the daily genocide will continue.

The people of Fallujah assure you that this person, if he exists, is not in Fallujah and is probably not anywhere in Iraq. The people of Fallujah have announced many times that any person who sees Al-Zarqawi should kill him. Now everybody realises that this man is just a hypothetical hero created by the Americans. At the same time the representative of Fallujah, our tribal leader, has denounced on many occasions the kidnapping and killing of civilians, and we have no links to any groups committing such inhuman behaviour.

Excellency, we appeal to you, and to all world leaders to exert the greatest pressure on the American administration to stop their crimes in Fallujah and withdraw their army far away from the city. The city was very quiet and peaceful when its people ran it. We didn't witness any disorder in the city. The civil administration was going well given its limited recourses. We simply didn't welcome the occupation forces. This is our right according to the UN Charter, international law and the norms of humanity. If the Americans believe in the opposite, they should first from the UN and all its agencies before acting in a way contrary to the Charter they signed.

...

And, just to be clear who we're talking about here, it's signed:

Best regards.
Kassim Abdullsattar al-Jumaily
President
The Study Center of Human Rights & Democracy

On behalf of the people of Fallujah and for:
Al-Fallujah Shura Council
The Bar Association
The Teacher Union
Council of Tribes Leaders
The House of Fatwa and Religious Education

I am wondering at what point the realisation will sink in amongst the twittering ranks of the pro-war "left" that, for all the ill-founded bravado, Zaqarwi can no more be considered the "resistance" than, say, the US Marine Corp can be considered "democrats". No matter. For those with even a passing concern for humanity's well-being, the seige and bombardment of Fallujah - even now, prior to the post-election assualt - is intolerable.

(For those interested, Socialist Worker has an expanded version of Sami Ramadani's open letter on the Iraq Federation of Trade Unions.)