28 October 1999
Iraqi Opposition Calls for Greater International Support
(INC to hold meeting in New York to discuss Iraq's future) (650) By William B. Reinckens Washington File Staff Writer Washington -- "We are united; we have a plan and a vision for the future of Iraq," said Salah A. Shaikhly, spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress (INC) at an October 28 breakfast news briefing on the INC's meeting in New York City this weekend. The meeting, which will be the INC's first in seven years, is expected to draw 350 delegates to affirm the Iraqi opposition's unity, define their vision for the future of Iraq and set plans for a new initiative to overthrow Saddam Hussein. "The regime is much weaker today than it has ever been in the past," said Sharif Ali bin al-Hussein, leader of the Constitutional Monarch Movement, who also spoke at the briefing. "What we don't want to see is Saddam benefit from oil funds," al-Hussein said, referring to the ongoing debate about the economic sanctions the United Nations Security Council has imposed on Iraq since its 1991 invasion of Kuwait. He added that the Iraqi opposition has been advancing ideas to the United Nations about the sanctions and how they should be applied to Iraq. "The suffering of the Iraqi people is deliberately caused by the Iraqi regime," he said. Revenues for humanitarian assistance from the UN-sponsored Oil-for-Food program are at their highest levels ever, and "the Iraqis are still suffering." Al-Hussein also noted that Iraqi ships have been intercepted carrying food and medicine that Baghdad has been illegally re-exporting. "It is incumbent upon all Arab nations to come to the aid of Iraq, in particular, the Arab media," said Shaikhly, blasting Arab and Islamic states for hiding behind historical and ideological rationalizations. "We must stop the effort by some countries to normalize relations with Iraq," he continued, adding that the Iraqi opposition would like to see Saddam Hussein indicted as a war criminal by the United Nations Security Council, as was in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Over the next few months, the Iraqi opposition will be actively supporting an international campaign to bring Saddam Hussein before the court, he said. Shaikhly warned that international companies which do business with Saddam Hussein will receive a letter stating that once the regime is removed their contracts will not be valid. The INC and other opposition groups "have not been sitting around" doing nothing to oppose the regime in Baghdad, Shaikhly said. "There have been a number of attempts within and outside to change the regime." "What we need is a new organization," he stated, one that is streamlined and better able to communicate a plan for Iraq's future. "We will not make the mistakes as we did before," he said pointing to failures to unseat Saddam Hussein after the Gulf War and in 1995. At the time, Iraqi forces pushed into northern Iraq and fighting occurred between the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Democratic Party. Hamid Bayati, the London-based representative of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, who was scheduled to attend the briefing, sent a letter in support of the goals of the INC's New York meeting. Shaikhly was asked about the Clinton Administration's support for the Iraqi opposition. He noted that the first non-lethal equipment authorized under the Iraq Liberation Act is being delivered. Under the terms of the Act, the opposition is eligible for up to $2 million in office supplies and an additional $3 million in military training. The New York Times today reported that the U.S. Air Force Special Operations headquarters would soon be training four Iraqi opposition leaders, two of whom were former officers in the Iraqi armed forces. It said they would attend a 10-day course on civil-military affairs. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)
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