contributions

Haaretz (Isreal)
Media interest in the separation fence is dying down, although construction is continuing. The disengagement from Gaza is still making headlines, but does not go further than words at this stage. Between the rising and ebbing waves of interest, two basic assumptions are being established. One, that the separation fence is the way it is due to the typical Israeli brouhaha in government and administration procedures. Two, that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement is (…)

The Hindu
The former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, has been secretly flown out of Iraq by his U.S. captors and moved to a high-security air base in Qatar to prevent his supporters from forcing his release, a British newspaper claimed today.
In a front-page despatch from its authoritative and internationally respected West Asia correspondent, Robert Fisk, The Independent said the operation had been so hush-hush that even the authorities in Qatar were not told about it.
The U.S. (…)

Urgent information and appeal from Ewa Jasiewicz, who worked with Voices in the Wilderness and Occupation Watch in Iraq, lived there for 8 months (Basra and Baghdad) and in Palestine, mainly Jenin camp for 6 months, speaks Arabic, and who got back from Iraq 2 months ago. She is in regular contact with her friends in Basra and Baghdad.
I just spoke to friends in Baghdad - Paola Gaspiroli, Italian, from Occupation watch and Bridges to Baghdad, Journalist Leigh Gordon, England, (NUJ, Tribune, (…)

An overflow crowd of over 2,000 people packed the Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College on the evening of Wednesday, April 7 to hear a broad range of speakers accuse and condemn the Bush administration for undermining and eventually kidnapping Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide on February 29, 2004.
The event, entitled "The Truth Behind the Haiti Coup," highlighted the work done by the Haiti Commission of Inquiry, which presented the results of its findings from (…)

MISSION TO INVESTIGATE POLITICAL TRANSITION POSTPONES TRIP TO BAGHDAD.
URGES SUPPORT FOR IRAQIS’ DEMAND FOR A GENUINE END TO OCCUPATION
At the strong urging of the Baghdad-based support ream, we have decided to postpone the International Mission to Investigate the Political Transition in Iraq. The Baghdad team’s consensus recommendation, made two hours ago (2:15 pm, Friday, April 9, Baghdad time), was based on the following considerations:
Fighting has spread around Baghdad, making the (…)

Dear Friends,
This is Asako KAGEYAMA from Hokkaido, Japan. You might have already informed that three Japanese citizens have been captured in Iraq, by unknown group called Saraya al-Mujahadin. They said they would kill the Japanese citizens if Japanese SDF did not leave Iraq within three days.
The Japanese are aid worker Nahoko Takato, 34, Noriaki Imai,18 , and freelance cameraman Soichiro Koriyama, 32.
Nahoko and Noriaki are from my place and they are active peace workers. We (…)

Yesterday three Japanese were kidnapped on the way to Baghdad by one religious brigade. The brigade sent a letter demanding the Japanese government to withdraw the Self-Defense Forces, or Japanese Army from Iraq within three days and telling that they would kill them in the same way as Americans in Falluja if the Japanese government wouldn’t accept it.
Three Japanese were going to Baghdad to support Iraqi people. Naoko Takato at 34 is a NGO activist of medical care. She is particularly (…)

Eman Ahmed Khammas
Director, International Occupation Watch Center
Occupied Baghdad
To the peoples of the world and their representatives at the United Nations,
The Iraqi people call for international solidarity as they resist attacks by US-led Occupation Forces. It is clear that these attacks are designed to terrorize entire populations of Iraqi towns and neighborhoods.
According to reports, in Falluja alone, over three hundred Iraqis have been killed and hundreds more injured (…)

Opponents of the war in Iraq are gathering in cities across the United States over the Easter weekend in response to a call to action to protest the war.
The anti-war ANSWER Coalition has issued a call for "emergency local demonstrations" nationwide to protest the war in Iraq, call for the return of U.S. troops from Iraq, and a call for money for healthcare and education, not the war. ANSWER is an acronym for "Act Now to Stop War and Racism."
As of Thursday demonstrations were (…)

& new cities are announcing their plans by the hour!
The Iraqi people are uniting in widespread opposition to the occupation of their country and the U.S. government is attempting to crush this revolt with overwhelming violence. The Iraqi city of Fallujah is under siege.
According to the director of the city’s hospital, at least 280 Iraqi people have been killed since Sunday in Fallujah alone - and at least 460 have been killed throughout the country.
The number of injured in (…)