“Now we have an international dictatorship.”

Dozens of boxes containing copies of Iraq’s Constitution taken to the dump

About two dozen boxes of the booklets were found thrown in a Dora garbage dump apparently a sign of opposition or of shopkeepers fears of having the document around.

[…]

Some 5 million copies arrived in Iraq on Monday, but distribution does not appear to have started in the north and south, where the constitution is expected to pass by a wide margin.

In Basra and Hillah, major Shiite towns in the south, no copies have been passed out, nor in Nineveh a mixed northern province of Sunnis and Kurds that could be crucial to the constitution’s passage or rejection. Kurdish-language copies had not yet reached many Kurdish areas. Parts of Baghdad were expected to start seeing their copies in the coming days.

Dora was one of the first Baghdad districts to get its copies and the document faced a tough audience.

link via AntiWar.com

This link is to Frank Santiago’s interview of Bill and Jean Basinger published in the Des Moines Register on July 5, 2005. They are two of the amazing people it was my honour to meet on the bus I rode to D.C. last week. The text which accompanies their picture is the speech Jean delivered in Des Moines after she and Bill returned from Iraq (continued in the extended entry). Isn’t it telling that Bill and Jean could manage this task when the American media establishment with all of its resources cannot…or will not?

In 1980, before our family returned from 6 years of mission work in South Korea, the Korean people asked us to educate the American people about the role the U.S. government was playing in supporting the dictator Park Chung Hee who was denying them their human rights and democracy. In February when we were in Iraq the people said over and over, “Please tell the American people what your government is doing in denying us our independence and freedom. They have us locked in a culture of violence. Please tell our stories.”

After long years of oppression, 3 wars, 10 years of sanctions, and now continuing oppression under the coalition occupation, the people of Iraq have a great desire to overthrow their current oppressors. Let me share their comments and their stories in their own words.

Of course the most frequently asked question is, “Isn’t it good that Saddam is gone?” In the words of Eman Almed Khammsas, the Director of Occupation Watch, “It is good that Saddam is gone, but life is not better. Now we have an international dictatorship.”

She told us of the lack of any real effect at reconstruction for the benefit of the Iraqi people. She said that at least 5 huge military bases are being built by U.S. companies. According to an article in The Des Moines Register, U.S. troops are “living large” in quarters at Camp Victory that are air-conditioned and are complete with shopping centers and even a Burger King. This in a country where Iraqis are lucky to have 8 hours of electricity a day, where sewers are plugged with debris from the war, where phone service is almost nonexistent, gas is rationed, every shopping center in Baghdad destroyed by the bombing, and most water is not fit to drink. She told us of a contract to rebuild schools. The estimated cost for the paint and windows was $300 and the Bechtel Group received the contract for $18,000 per school.

In another example a bombed out bridge was replaced. The estimate of an Iraqi contractor was $300,000, but an American Company got the contract for $50 million dollars.

Volunteers with the NGO called, “Architects for People in Need” have been doing quality work with donated funds from people in the U.S. and Europe, even though the Director and his wife know they are in danger. We asked the Director, “Why do you do this work?” He replied, “Just for the pleasure of knowing that a certain number of Iraqi children have a safe, clean place to go to school and that people in a village have safe drinking water. I have made enough money, now I want to help others.” Too bad our U.S. government and corporations don’t share those feelings.

People told us over and over, “We want security, why doesn’t the coalition guard our borders? Anyone can come in. We think they want the terrorists to come here so they can fight them in our country.”

“Jobs, we want jobs.” Over 70% of the Iraqi people are unemployed. 90% live in poverty. According to the article in The Des Moines Register, Halliburton is bringing in people from the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Pakistan to work on the U.S. bases. More and more the Coalition troops are staying on the bases and the under equipped, under trained Iraq security forces and Iraqi military are out in front in the line of fire.

All of us have heard of the people being detained at Quantanamo Bay, but how many of you know that between 12,000 and 18,000 Iraqis are being detained in Iraqi prisons without due process in terrible conditions. Families are desperate because they can’t find their loved ones. Only recently the Iraqi Assistance Center released a list of 8000 such people. Families are told they will have to wait 6 months before they are allowed to visit. There are stories of torture and of women prisoners being held hostages until their husbands surrendered and also being raped.

Christian Peacemakers visited the office of every U.S. Senator and Representative last week. The Senators and Representatives said they will not ask for an investigation of the detainees unless they hear from their constituents. I urged you to contact them on and asked that the detainees receive due process and family visitation.

Many homes and villages have been raided in the middle of the night and men and boys are taken away to prison. Abu Siffa is one of those villages.

We visited them to hear their story. They said that the coalition forces came in the middle of the night and forced them out of their homes at gunpoint in their night clothes. They placed bags over the heads of 82 men and boys and took them away in handcuffs. Only two boys have been released. They can’t have school as all of the teachers were taken and there are only two men left to do the farming. Several nights later the troops returned and shot up several houses. They returned a third time and set one of the houses on fire. The only reason they gave was that they suspected one man in the village of being a supporter of Saddam. This kind of “collective punishment” is illegal under the Geneva Conventions.

One of the members of the delegation began to cry when she heard this story and one of the men said, “Thank you for caring, thank you for the drops that fall from your eyes.” After they had told their story they served a banquet to us and they said, “We love the American people, but we hate Bush and his gang.”

Dr. Muslim, the head of the Hospital of Hemotology, told us, “America destroyed Iraq to get Saddam. Three wars, sanctions , and now the occupation have ruined Iraq’s medical system which used to be the best in the Middle East. We are victims twice: victims of Saddam and victims of this war. Previously Iraqis were imprisoned in Saddam’s prisons. Now we are imprisoned in our homes by fear, lack of security, and no money for food. We have two choices: 1) a clean choice through elections, 2) a dirty choice through civil war. This will lead to chaos, not only for Iraq, but the whole region.”

Christian Peacemakers are holding a vigil and fast during the 40 days of Lent to call attention to the thousands of detainees in Iraq’s prisons and to call for due process for them. During the time we were there the daily vigils were held in Liberty Square in Baghdad. One Christian Peacemaker reported the following conversation with a man who came to the noon vigil. He said, “The first time I saw a dead boy I was so upset I couldn’t sleep all night, now it seems so normal to us. Recently I carried away the dead after a bombing. I gathered up body parts in a bucket and it didn’t even bother me. This is now a normal part of life. We smile and go on. This should not be normal. There must be something better for Iraq.”

“People accept seeing men armed with weapons guarding stores, buildings, and apartment buildings. We accept American convoys of tanks and humvees with their guns pointing directly in our faces. We have become accustomed to the sound of gun fire and explosions. Living with violence has become normal….this is not normal. There must be something better for Iraq and for the U.S.” No, this should not be normal. Remember the next time someone says, “Isn’t it good that Saddam is gone.” The answer is “Yes, It is good that Saddam is gone, but life is not better.”