IN BAGHDAD AND KARBALA: AT HUGE MUSLIM RALLIES, CRIES OF “U.S. OUT"

IN BAGHDAD AND KARBALA: AT HUGE MUSLIM RALLIES, CRIES OF “U.S. OUT"

By Greg Butterfield

April 25, 2003--Days after U.S. troops gunned down 19 protesters in the northern city of Mosul, thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of Baghdad April 18 to demand the withdrawal of U.S. and British occupation forces.

In a powerful rebuff to President George W. Bush's claim to be the "liberator" of Iraq, Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims and secular forces all answered the call for a united protest by the Abu Hanafi Mosque, a large Sunni religious center in the capital, after traditional Friday prayers.

Over loudspeakers that could be heard blocks away by U.S. troops, Abu Hanafi prayer leader Ahmed al-Kubeisy said: "You are the masters today. But I warn you against thinking of staying. Get out before we kick you out." (New York Times, April 19)

The crowd, estimated at up to 10,000 people, marched from the 1,300-year- old mosque through the wreckage of downtown Baghdad. "Leave our country. We want peace," one of their banners said. Another read, "No to sectarianism, one Islamic state, no to America."

Fergal Keane, writing in the April 19 Independent of Britain, gave this description of the charged atmosphere in Baghdad: "They are shouting slogans forbidden under the secular rule of Saddam, slogans which, if George Bush could hear them, would surely cause him to revolve with anxiety: 'With our blood and our souls we will defend Islam.' The same slogans rattled the walls of the Shah's palace in Iran a quarter of a century ago. ...

"An imam came over to me and asked to be interviewed. 'The Americans are here in our country for one thing. They want the oil. They want to defend Israel. If they don't leave soon there will be queues of mujahedin lining up to drive them out.' Again it was rhetoric familiar from the streets of Cairo and Beirut. But this was Baghdad, and there were American troops just up the road. ...

"Then came one of those moments you live through with every nerve of your body vibrating. I saw young men breaking away from the main crowd and running toward a street corner. There was some shouting. Then I spotted American helmets bobbing above the crowd. 'Look, buddy, I've got the gun--now back off,' a voice shouted. An Iraqi man was confronting an American soldier. 'Go ahead and shoot me. Go ahead,' the man said. A woman shouted into my face: 'It's about our pride. It's just about our pride.'"

Meanwhile, in stark contrast to the demonstration in the midst of devastation caused by weeks of U.S. bombings, a press conference was held at the exclusive Hunter's Club in a wealthy and relatively unscathed part of Baghdad. There, under heavy U.S. Special Forces guard, Ahmad Chalabi was wooing the international media.

Chalabi has been identified as the favorite of War Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon to be the future president of Iraq. Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress received millions of dollars from the Clinton and Bush administrations, but has no support in the country. In fact, the Pentagon recently created a mercenary militia for the INC.

Until he was flown into northern Iraq by U.S. forces, Chalabi had not set foot in the country since he was 12. His wealthy family fled the 1958 nationalist revolution against British colonialism. Chalabi is wanted in Jordan, where he was convicted in absentia of fraud and embezzlement after the collapse of his Petra Bank cost the Jordanian government $300 million in the early 1990s.

During his news conference, shots were fired at Chalabi's bodyguards outside. (The Independent, April 19)

U.S. ARRESTS, THEN RELEASES, SHIITE LEADER

The French Press Agency reported April 22 that after two days of protests, U.S. forces released Sheik Mohammed al-Fartusi, a prominent Shiite cleric in Bagh dad who had spoken out against the occupation and in favor of Shiite-Sunni unity.

Before Fartusi's release, supporters staged a sit-down protest in front of the Palestine Hotel, which U.S. forces have transformed into a command post. A protester who identified himself as Sheik Ahmed said they were trying "to find out if America is here to export freedom or terrorism." Another charged, "The United States wants to create problems between Sunnis and Shiites."

Fartusi and five others were seized at a U.S. checkpoint 10 miles south of Bagh dad on April 20. The group was returning from Karbala, where up to a million Shiites were gathering to mark a holy day honoring Imam Hussein, grandson of the Muslim prophet Mohammad.

The gathering of Shiite pilgrims in Kar bala climaxed on April 21, 22 and 23, with hundreds of thousands joining in chants and protests against U.S./British occupation.

"These public demonstrations are ... to express Shiite power to the Americans," said Sheik Abdul Mahdi al-Karabalai.

"Midmorning, even as pockets in the crowd chanted anti-American and anti- Israeli slogans, two U.S. Humvees drove through the masses to the edge of the Abbas Mosque, with soldiers in sunglasses waving self-consciously like beauty queens on parade," reported the April 23 Christian Science Monitor.

"We don't want the Americans driving here," said Haidar Ghazi, a student. "We want them to go."

Al Jazeera reported, "The crowd repeated slogans calling for unity between Shia and Sunnis, and between Shia political groups ... 'No Sunnis, no Shias, Islamic unity,' they chanted.

"Some also shouted slogans demanding a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. 'If America stays, it will suffer,' shouted a group of some 3,000 people as they passed in front of a hotel housing foreign reporters. 'No to colonialism, no to occupation,' 'No to America, no to Saddam, no to tyranny, no to Israel,' they continued."