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- Compensation for the victims
- War crimes prosecutions for those responsible
- An end to the occupation

GET INVOLVED:
- organise a local screening of the film ‘Testimonies from Fallujah’
- host an event for the national speaking tour
- get your group to sponsor the month
- order an information pack

Sponsored by Brent Stop the War, Iraq Occupation Focus, Justice Not Vengeance & Voices in the Wilderness UK. E-mail here if your group would like to add its name as a sponsor.

On 8 Nov 2004, after more than two months of aerial attacks, the US began its second major assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah, killing “at least 800 civilians” (estimate by high-ranking Red Cross Official, Inter Press Service, 16 Nov). UK forces played an active support role in the attack, with hundreds of troops redeployed from Southern Iraq to form part of a “ring of steel” around the city (Independent, 22 Oct)

COMPENSATE THE VICTIMS
More than 200,000 Iraqis fled the Nov assault, and many of these refugees were forced to spend the winter struggling to find food, shelter and medical provision in near-freezing temperatures.

Today, only about a third of the more than 200,000 refugees from the assault – which, according to the US State Dept, rendered 50% of the Fallujah’s housing uninhabitable or “severely damaged” (FT, 14 Apr) – have returned and those that have now live under an Orwellian regime of curfews, iris scans and intimidation (Washington Post, 14, 19 Apr).

The victims of last year’s assault must receive housing and compensation.

WAR CRIMES
There is ample evidence that serious war crimes were committed in the attack on Fallujah: the city was placed ‘under a strict night-time shoot-to-kill curfew’ with ‘anyone spotted in the soldiers’ night vision sights … shot’ (Times, 12 Nov); male refugees were prevented from leaving the combat zone (AP, 13 Nov); a health centre was bombed killing 60 patients and support staff (The Nation, 13 Dec); refugees from the city claimed that ‘a large number of people, including children, were killed by American snipers’ (Independent, 24 Nov) and that the US had used cluster bombs and phosphorus weapons in the offensive (Inter Press Service, 16 Nov).

Justice demands that those responsible for the assault – primarily, Bush & Blair – face prosecution for these crimes.

NOT JUST FALLUJAH: THE WAR CONTINUES
Though little-reported, the war is still very much in progress. Recent US military offensives in Ramadi, Baghdadi, Hit, Haditha, Mosul, Qaim and elsewhere, have killed scores of civilians and created thousands more refugees. On 28 June 2005 Iraq's deputy health minister ‘warn[ed] of starvation among the refugees who fled and continue to flee al-Qaim and surrounding areas to avoid massive U.S. military operations’, claiming that U.S. and Iraqi forces had banned ambulances and humanitarian aid from entering Qaim itself (United Press International).

According to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh – who broke the Abu Ghraib torture story last year – the current US strategy is ‘to go into the various major cities in the Sunni heartland … [and] make the people … more afraid of the [Americans and their proxy forces] than they are of the resistance’ (DemocracyNow.org, 11 May). Indeed, ‘[m]ass detentions and indiscriminate torture seem to be the main tools deployed to crush the insurgency’ (Financial Times, 29 Jun).

END THE OCCUPATION: BRING THE TROOPS HOME
Sixty percent of Britons want to see the withdrawal of British forces by the end of this year (Independent, 26 Apr).

Likewise, a Jan 2005 poll found 69% of Iraqi Shiites (who form roughly sixty percent of Iraq’s population) and 82% of Sunni Arabs favoured US withdrawal “either immediately or after an elected government is in place.” Since then one election has taken place and a second, to elect a “permanent” Government, is scheduled for December. Nonetheless the UK Foreign Secretary has stated only that US/UK forces are ‘likely to be completely out of the country within five years’ (Telegraph, 14 April) and the reality is that the US has no plans to leave.

UK participation in - and support for - the ongoing military occupation of Iraq must be terminated.

A CALL FOR ACTION
This November’s anniversary is therefore a chance for the peace and anti-war movements to use the tragic post-invasion history of Fallujah to educate the general public about the realities of the occupation, and to harness the British public’s desire to see British troops withdrawn from Iraq by the end of the year.

FOUR SUGGESTIONS FOR WHAT YOU CAN DO:

- Organise a local screening of the film ‘Testimonies from Fallujah’
Created in Iraq by Hamodi Jasim and brought to the world by independent US journalist Dahr Jamail, this 33 min film contains photos and footage from last November’s assault, as well as interviews with Iraqi survivors and refugees. DVD’s of the film, playable on computer or compatible (NTSC Region 1) format can be ordered from the Voices office (0845 458 2564) for non-profit screenings.

- Organise an event for the national speaking tour
Voices is hoping to have one or more speakers with personal experience of the US attacks on Fallujah, available to tour the UK during November. Contact Voices for more info. or if you or your group would be interested in hosting such an event.

- Get your group to sponsor the “Remember Fallujah” call.
E-mail Voices.

- Order an information action pack
Voices is compiling a “Remember Fallujah” info. pack in conjunction with JNV (www.j-n-v.org), copies of which will be available from October. Contact Voices.

voices uk - working in solidarity with ordinary families in iraq
5 Caledonian Road, King's Cross, London N1 9DX
telephone : 0845 458 2564
voices@viwuk.freeserve.co.uk