Chris Slee, Melbourne
Donna Mulhearn, an Australian volunteer aid worker who has lived and worked in Baghdad for six months, and who visited Fallujah while the city was under attack by US forces, spoke to 50 people at a public meeting organised by the Moreland Peace Group on August 29.
Mulhearn described the hardships of life in Baghdad, where there is no reliable electricity supply. She reported that Iraqis were asking why the occupiers have been unable to restore electricity after nearly 18 months, whereas Iraqi engineers had restored power within three months of the end of the 1991 Gulf War.
She reported that the occupation authorities had rejected offers of assistance from Iraqi electricians. She suggested that electricity black-outs are used by the occupiers to punish Iraqis for resisting the occupation. They occur disproportionately in areas where the resistance is strongest.
She also noted that the US government wants to privatise the publicly owned Iraqi electricity system. US companies want to "start from scratch" with their own technology and are not interested in repairing existing power stations.
Mulhearn also reported that Baghdad residents had to put up with contaminated water coming out of their taps. Traffic on the roads is continually disrupted by US military movements and queues for petrol are 7-8 hours long, despite Iraq's vast oil resources.
She reported that Iraqis even blame the occupation for civilian deaths and injuries caused by resistance bombs aimed at the occupying forces, since if the occupiers were not in Iraq the resistance would not be targeting them.
She said that 90% of Iraqis now support the resistance. Some opponents of Saddam Hussein had hoped that the invasion would lead to a better life. But many such people are now disillusioned. Some say that life is now worse than under Hussein's regime.
Mulhearn said that there is a strong democracy movement in Iraq, including political parties, unions and other organisations that are united around the demand for elections. Press freedom is highly restricted — newspapers that criticise the government are often shut down.
She said that the "mainstream" of the armed resistance comprises "ordinary Iraqis who have no other agenda" than freeing their country from the occupation, but there are also some Islamic fundamentalists from outside Iraq, who may be responsible for attacks on Christian churches (though many Iraqis suspect the US and Israel of involvement in these attacks).
According to Mulhearn, rebel Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr was not very popular until recently, since most Iraqis do not agree with his goal of creating a theocratic state similar to Iran. However, he has gained support as a result of standing up to the US occupiers.
Mulhearn called for the withdrawal of Australian troops from Iraq, arguing that Australia should instead send people to help rebuild the country.
From Green Left Weekly, September 8, 2004.
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