Demand right of Iraqi resistance to speak

Italian and international organizers of a scheduled October conference in solidarity with the Iraqi resistance have changed the character of the event as Italian authorities continue to refuse visas for invited Iraqi representatives. It is now expected to gather broader participation from others in the anti-war movement who are demanding the right of the Iraqi opposition to speak in Europe to the world.

Now planned as a one-day event in Rome on Oct. 2, the conference will also express the anger of a growing number of Italians at the subservient role of the Silvio Berlusconi government and of Rome in general to U.S. imperialism.

The Free Iraq Committee had originally scheduled the event for Oct. 1-2 in Chian ciano, Italy, near Siena, and expected it to be similar to others held earlier in Paris and Berlin: a gathering of anti-imperialist intellectuals and organizers with some Iraqi representatives who could speak with authority.

To the organizers’ surprise and delight, a significant number of Iraqi spokespeople were willing and able to accept their invitation. They are leaders of Iraqi political organizations that support the resistance but are operating legally in Iraq as opponents of the U.S. puppet government.

These Iraqis include Sheikh Jawad al-Khalesi, leader of the Iraqi National Foun dation Congress; Ayatollah Sheikh Ahmed al-Baghdadi; Salah al-Mukhtar, former Iraqi ambassador to India and Vietnam; Sheikh Hassan al-Zangani, international spokesperson of the movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr and former editor of the paper Hawza, closed by the occupation authorities; Mohammad Faris, Iraqi Patriotic Communist Party; and Ibrahim al-Kubaysi, brother of the kidnapped secretary of the Iraqi Patriotic Alliance.

With such a prestigious and diverse group from Iraq, the conference itself could contribute to the struggle to liberate Iraq. It would give a platform to the Iraqi resistance, which is still in the process of forming a united liberation front.

However, Washington intervened with an arrogant letter from 44 right-wing U.S. Congress members ordering the Italian government to stop the conference and repress its organizers. The Italian Foreign Ministry reversed an earlier favorable decision by Italy’s Baghdad embassy and refused visas to the Iraqis.

Despite a hunger strike begun Aug. 31 by seven supporters of the Free Iraq Committee outside the Foreign Ministry in Rome and growing support by a broader sector of the Italian anti-war movement, the government continues to refuse visas. The hunger strike continued as of Sept. 12 and some of the participants were having health problems.

The committee still hopes to get a visa for Haj Ali al-Qaysi, the Iraqi known worldwide because of photographs showing him hooded in Abu-Ghraib prison.

At the Sept. 10 meeting, the organizers decided that since the Berlusconi regime had trampled on democratic rights by refusing visas to the Iraqis, the conference should change to a one-day protest conference in Rome. It will now demand the Iraqis’ right to be heard and will include Italian progressives who have protested the refusal of visas.