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World tribunal on Iraq

16 August 2005, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By Rafiqul Islam Rime, Agrabad, Chittagong
16 August 2005, 18:00 PM
I extend my heartiest congratulations to the great minds, intellectuals and writers of international repute for holding the tribunal on Iraq, a unique gesture towards humanity by the people that are conscience-stricken. The "Jury of Conscience" famous writer Arundhuti Roy, who won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel " God of small things", read the script that harshly criticised and condemned Bush & Blair along with other allies for invasion of Iraq on a false pretext that it had weapons of mass destruction. It read : " An exhaustible investigation of those responsible for crimes of aggression and crimes against humanity in Iraq." WTI also demanded " an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the coalition forces in Iraq."

Roy also called upon the US to immediately close down its prison in Guantanamao Bay, Cuba and demanded a review of all treaties signed with post-invasion Iraq, which she ruled out saying, " Should be considered null and void."

Furthermore, the WTI rightly criticised the United Nations for, as it said, having failed to properly manage the crisis. It also condemned the US firms, such as Halliburton, Carlyle, Boeing and Texaco.

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One can easily comprehend the motive behind this illegal invasion that unleashed hell upon Iraq and its citizens-- it's the lure of the oil resources in the region and to have a " Post" in that particular sensitive area in the Middle East. One point that is more ominous that the US has been trying to add the tag " terrorist" on all the Muslims in the world-- it's a war against Muslims in general. The point is established through different actions that the US has been taking against them; for example, the recent revelation by the US-HR (human rights) group that alleged that the US government pushed scores of US born Muslim men to jail without any charge after 9/11. The innocent Muslims have been harassed and humiliated. In addition

to it, the heinous act of dishonouring The Holy Quran by the US & British soldiers proves the point.

Finally, the rise of the voice of conscience, the WTI, is a wonderful gesture from humans for humans. I salute the great minds behind the humane effort.