Report from the Brigade: the ninth day of the invasion (CSCAweb: 07-04-03)
Baghdad/Madrid, 28 March, 2003.
Translation from Spanish by Donald Murphy. (www.nodo50.org/csca)The Brigade reports today that during the past night Baghdad experienced the heaviest and most punishing attacks against the city since the aggression began nine days ago.
Beginning at 22:30 local time, US bomb attacks, which had been kept up throughout the day, intensified spectacularly in various parts of the city, at the same time affecting the area where the Brigade has its lodgings. From 2:30 to 7:30 in the morning, they became fiercer still, with simultaneous explosions being heard in surrounding areas. The noise of the impacts was heard all night long, along with the sounds of B-52 combat planes and fighter jets which continue to maintain the pressure level on the city.
Damage caused to telecommunications centres, the one located in Ma'amun street as well that next to the Hotel Al Rashid, have left the city without telephone lines. Communication has still not been re-established. There have also been power outages, although electricity has not been cut off completely.
The Spanish Brigade Against the War has decided to go this morning to the Spnaish Embassy in Baghdad to take down the Spanish flag and replace it with the flag of Iraq, in denunciation of the Aznar government’s bellicose position and the active participation in the war by the Spanish military, as well as the government's allowing US invading forces to use its air, ground and maritime space.
The Brigade has issued the following declaration:
communiqué: Removal of the Spanish flag from the Spanish Embassy in Baghdad
After eight days of indiscriminate bombing on Basora, Baghdad, Mosul and other Iraqi cities, when victims already number in the hundreds and after verifying that the objective of this aggression is none other than a massacre of the Iraqi people in the streets of Addamiyya, Sa'ab, Al Qadisiyya, etc., we the members of the Spanish Brigade Against the War have decided to remove the Spanish flag which waves over this Embassy and replace it with the flag of Iraq: we consider it an intolerable offence that a flag which represents one of the governments most deeply implicated in the aggression against the Iraqi people should wave in plain sight of the local populace while its country is being attacked, invaded and occupied militarily.
The war against Iraq is illegal and immoral. The Spanish government was the first to support the option of war promoted by the Bush Administration, and has gradually been playing a greater role in this aggression, and in doing so placing itself on the margin of international legality, violating the statutes of its own Constitution and losing all democratic legitimacy through its contempt for a citizenry which is overwhelmingly opposed to the war. At the same time that its contributes to the perpetration of an illegal act against a sovereign nation, it submits the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Spain and the will of its citizens to the interests and imperialistic designs of the United States in this part of the world.
On the same level as the Bush Administration and the Blair government, the Spanish government is guilty of war crimes against this people. The Spanish government has sent ships and troops to the region which will participate in the occupation, and thanks to the logistic support it is providing to US armed forces in Spanish territory, the B-52's are able to carry out their bombing missions with impunity from their bases in the US and the UK. We have seen some of their victims: Ahmed, Haura, Wisan, Ahmedi, Tayar, Ali…, all unarmed civilians who have been injured or killed in their homes or in the streets, at night or in broad daylight.
Finally, as part of the Spanish and International Anti-War Movement, we denounce by this action the brutal repression which those who are demanding an immediate end to this barbarism are suffering at the hands of the Aznar government. From here in Baghdad we unite our voices to theirs against this crime. Side by side with this people who are resisting and demanding respect for their sovereignty and their right to self-rule, we ask you once again to increase your efforts to put an end to the war.
Stop the war against Iraq. All our solidarity with the people of Iraq.
Baghdad, 28 March, 2003
The Spanish Brigade Against the War: Mª Teresa Tuñón Álvarez, Mª Rosa Pañarroya Miranda, Ana Mª Rodríguez Alonso, Mino Marino García Villar, José Bielsa Fernández, Imanol Telleria, Javier Barandiaran, Manu Fernández y Carlos Varea González
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