27 February 2003
Iraqis Abroad Express Hope for Freedom in Their Homeland
(U.S. unveils new brochure: Iraq's Voices for Freedom) (1010) By Alicia Langley Washington File Writer Washington -- Although the world has had the opportunity to hear many messages about Iraq -- from the United States government, the United Nations, the American public, and anti-war protests around the world -- perhaps the most important voices of all, those of the Iraqi people, are still censured by fear. Iraqis who now live outside their homeland, however, are increasingly coming forward to tell their stories of life under Saddam Hussein's regime and express their hopes for the future of Iraq, a future that they hope will allow Iraq to flourish in democracy. Reporters gathered February 26 at the State Department's Foreign Press Center in Washington for a presentation by several of these Iraqis, and segments of videotaped interviews with several others. In addition, Iraqis now living in London joined the Washington panel to engage the international media through a satellite link. "I hope through the media people will hear our voices," said Steve Sharrif, who sought political asylum in the United States twelve years ago, after his father was tortured to death in Iraq. "I hope no one in Iraq will go through what we went through anymore. And we need the support of everyone who cares about human rights and human dignity, whether he's a media expert, whether he is a soldier in the army. Iraqi people are in desperate need for any help they can get to guarantee a future, a safe future, and a better future for Iraqis," he told journalists. Hussain Sinjari, who now heads the Iraq Institute for Democracy in Irbil, a city in northern Iraq not under the control of Saddam Hussein's control, noted that, "In the end, we ourselves, the people of Iraq, must push for democracy." "What I would like to tell those who protested against the war in Europe two weeks ago -- and I have all the respect for them and I agree with them that war is not something that anybody wants -- I want to remind them that they are forgetting something important here: they are forgetting that there is a dictatorship in Iraq, there is lack of freedom in Iraq. I wish they remembered that as well," Sinjari said. Free of the Ba'athist regime's control, Sinjari is able to publish an independent liberal newspaper printed in Arabic entitled "al-Ahali," which means "the people." Although the bi-weekly paper's circulation is relatively small (about 5000) now in northern Iraq, Sinjari said it reflects "a new Iraq -- a new voice for a new country." Dr. Muhammad Ihssan spoke to journalists about his flight from Iraq in 1990 and his returned in 2001 to become the Minister of Human Rights for the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq. Ihssan is one of many Iraqi professionals meeting with other Iraqis under the State Department's "Future of Iraq Project" to prepare recommendations "on how we can deal in Iraq from the first day of liberation." "I want to tell anybody who is listening that Iraqis -- with all their ethnicities and beliefs -- yearn for freedom and democracy. We share that with the American people," Ihssan said. He added that "the real Iraqi voices inside Iraq have been hijacked by this regime, hence, you can't hear the real Iraqi voices from inside the country, expressing that yearning." "If this regime falls, I hope it falls at the hands of the Iraqi people," said another Iraqi in a videotape interview. "I would like to see an Iraq that has its dignity and pride, to use its human and natural resources to enable Iraq to become what it can be, because Iraq, with its wealth and abilities, can become the Japan of the Middle East." Joining the Iraqis was Ambassador James Larocco, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department, who answered questions from the journalists and told them he understands the uncertainty felt by people facing the prospect of a war in Iraq. "I know in listening to the voices of people on the streets, not only in this country, but overseas, that there is great anxiety. And even from the Iraqi voices themselves, there is great anxiety about a war and what that might bring to the Iraqi people and what will happen afterwards in Iraq and throughout the region and for the entire world," Larocco said. He expressed the desire of the United States government to let the people of Iraq take control of their country after Saddam Hussein is deposed. "It will be up to the Iraqi people themselves to manage their resources and to develop their economy. They can do it. We know they can. They have the human resources, they have the natural resources to do it. We will help to stabilize the situation, but they will reconstruct their country," Larocco said. He also indicated that there is a broader, more optimistic vision beyond the goal of disarming Saddam Hussein and regime change in Iraq on which Bush Administration has primarily focused. "Our vision goes beyond Iraq. It goes to peace throughout the Middle East," Larocco said. "We know we must resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the wider Arab-Israeli conflict. The President of the United States last June made that very clear -- his personal commitment to this: a two-state solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace," Larocco said. The State Department has taken some of the personal accounts Iraqis living beyond the control of Saddam Hussein's rule and created an electronic brochure, available in six languages and available electronically at [http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/voices/], entitled "Iraq's Voices for Freedom." Their words are "illustrative of the type of oppression and harassment and torture, rape, et cetera, that are the hallmarks of this (Saddam's) regime," said Stuart Holliday, Coordinator of the Office for International Information Programs at the Department of State, which produced the brochure. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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