Besides, as is well known, Saudi Arabia is a country where the Sharia (Islamic law) is applied; amputations and floggings continue to take place. Arbitrariness and torture are commonplace, as well as the holding of political prisoners, secretly and without legal procedings. * JORDAN Support for Iraq JORDAN is one of the Arab countries where the masses have most clearly expressed their solidarity with Iraq. The explanation for this is that the majority of the population originates from the territories occupied by Israel in 1948.
Here is an extract from a communique by revolutionary Marxists in Jordan, issued at the start of the assault on Iraq:
"To overcome this aggression, it is necessary to construct the broadest possible front, supporting the people in arms. Those who are today calling for restraint, under the pretext that they do not have the means to enter the battle, aid the imperialist and Zionist plans for the isolation of Iraq, and are responsible for not having prepared for the war....Our slogan is: no to the isolation of the Iraqi army and people'. Every territory can be a front of the theatre for the imperialism
The February 3 edition of Le Journal du with various forms of manipulation and deceit, particularly the initial pretence that sanctions might resolve the crisis without war, which was never the administration's intent. In addition, the costs of
Dimanche, a French weekly newspaper generally considered on the right of the political spectrum, carried some interesting information on the background to the
SYRIA/FRANCE
THE following communiqué was issued in Paris on February 13, 1991, oil slicks currently threatening the delicate the operation were kept deliberately
4. There was very little principled dissent from the sanctions and the blockade environmental balance of the Gulf.
According to its correspondent Claude-
Marie Vadrot, "none of the five existing by the National Democratic Assembly of Syria, which includes the Syrian Communist Party, dissident Syrian
Ba'athists and others. Among other slicks in the gulf have resulted from a volagainst Iraq. Such dissent would have been necessary, not in order to apologize are the responsibility of the allied forces".
for Saddam Hussein's butchery in Kuwait and in Iraq, but to break the Bush admin-
The first slick dates from the allied bomistration's hegemony in setting the tone bardment on January 19 of three oil tank-
5. Finally, and most important, the ruling class was never really against the war.
They weren't sure how strongly they were for it, but they never opposed it. The bouruntary act of piracy, and four out of five ers. The second originates from the Kuwaiti reserves of Arabian Oil, bombed on January 20 by French and British planes. A third slick can be attributed to the bombardment by the Iraqis of the organizations expressing support for the appeal are the Communist Action Party of Syria, the Tunisian Communist Party and organizations of immigrants from
"We, political parties and Arab associations, signatories of this communiqué, forcefully condemn the aggression against Iraq, and all the geoisie were willing to hand Bush a tentareserves of Al Khafji. The fourth is due to tive mandate at each stage of the war buildup, which he skillfully employed to reserves of Al Ahmadi, and the fifth stems prepare the following escalation.
And so it was, ultimately, that the Unitreserves close to the island of Boubyane.
ed States went to war against the wishes
Vadrot adds "the films shown since last of its own population and with only hesitant and shaky support from its ruling do not show the famous Kuwaiti oil slick...
class. With the first night raid on Baghsome of the images are those of the small dad, public opinion swung in Bush's oilslick of Al Khafji and probably date from favor. To maintain the support of the people and the bourgeoisie for the war, it is necessary above all for Bush and co. to win the war decisively and with few US casualties. On the eve of the ground war, the result still hangs in the balance. * the bombardment by the allies of the from the bombing by British planes of Sunday and the photographs published 1983". The current slicks, estimated at around 500,000 tonnes of crude oil, are smaller than those created in 1983 as a more the genocide being perpetrated against the Iraqi people. The media disinformation machine in Europe have tried to make us believe that the massacre of over 500 civilians on Wednesday February 13 was due to an error in the surgery of the imperialist war machine.
"We denounce these warmongering pseudo-democrats who, in the name of human rights and international law, massacre a people, and we call on all those with a democratic consciousness to mobilize to put an end to this 5 so-called clean war". › March 4, 1991 • #201 International Viewpoint
Undermining the
"peace constitution"
JAPAN