‘Let Iraqis speak at anti-war conference’

Supporters of the Free Iraq Committee in Italy began their sixth day of a hunger strike on Sept. 5 in front of the Foreign Ministry building in Rome. The hunger strikers are demanding that Italy’s Foreign Ministry grant visas to Iraqis invited to speak at the international conference, “Leave Iraq in Peace—Support the Legitimate Resistance of the Iraqi People,” scheduled for Oct. 1-2. So far, the government has refused to do so.

The invited Iraqis represent diverse civilian organizations that operate legally in Iraq. They all also politically support the Iraqi resistance to the U.S.-led occupation of their country.

The Italian Foreign Ministry office in Baghdad had at first said it would grant the visas. Only after 44 rightist members of the U.S. Congress wrote a letter demanding that the Italian government bar the conference did the ministry reject the visa applications.

Most Italians, as distinct from the rightist government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, were against the U.S. attack on Iraq. Most support a democratic discussion of the Iraq occupation. In addition, growing resentment over U.S. longtime manipulation of Italy’s political life has led to more active support for the Oct. 1-2 conference.

The Iraqis who accepted invitations to the conference 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 Viet nam; 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.

On Sept. 2 the Free Iraq Committee requested a visa for Haj Ali to speak at the conference. Haj Ali is the man tortured by U.S. personnel in Abu Ghraib prison who appeared in photos wearing a hood and attached to electrodes. The committee is challenging the government, seeing if it dares reject his visa on the basis of “national security,” which is the excuse given for the other refusals.

The number of hunger strikers had grown to seven by the fourth day. They include veterans of the anti-imperialist movement and youth active against the occupation of Iraq. The last report from the committee states that the “comrades are doing well.”