|
Saddam US same coin { June 4 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2003%20News%20archives/June%202003%20News/4n/Iraqis%20Protest%20US%20Presence,%20Women%20Body%20Searches%20by%20male%20US%20soldiers.htmhttp://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2003%20News%20archives/June%202003%20News/4n/Iraqis%20Protest%20US%20Presence,%20Women%20Body%20Searches%20by%20male%20US%20soldiers.htm
News, June 2003, Al-Jazeerah.info
Iraqis Protest US Presence, Women Body Searches by male US soldiers
Reuters • Agence France Presse, Arab News
BAGHDAD, 4 June 2003 — Thousands of Iraqi Muslims marched through Baghdad yesterday, threatening violence unless US troops withdraw from the country and venting their anger over body searches of women in the capital. Many Iraqis welcomed the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein by the US-led forces, but nearly eight weeks later, protests against the foreign military presence are growing and many say they want to run their country.
“We advise you to leave our country or you will make enemies out of us,” said Shiite cleric Muaaed Al-Khazraji in a speech through a loudhailer. “Please go home and we will be very grateful because you got rid of Saddam.”
The protesters marched from a large mosque to the headquarters of the US-led administration chanting: “Down, down America! Down, down Saddam! Yes, yes for an Islamic state.”
Some threatened to chop off the hands of any soldier who tried to search an Iraqi woman. Security searches are common at checkpoints in the city. “It is unacceptable in Islam that a man searches the body of a woman. The American troops are doing that to our women,” cleric Ali Baghdadi said.
The crowd carried banners and one read in English: “Saddam and America are two faces of the same coin.” “We call for setting up an Iraqi national government immediately,” said Sttar Nsyyaif, 33.
On Monday, Iraq’s tribal leaders also told the Americans they could face war if they did not leave soon and thousands of sacked Iraqi soldiers had swarmed angrily around the US headquarters in Baghdad.
Yesterday’s demonstrators, both Shiite and Sunni Muslims, also protested about the detention of Jasim Al-Saadi, a Shiite cleric, who was arrested two days ago by US troops and released yesterday. They also criticized US moves to disarm Iraqis as part of efforts to restore law and order after the war. “We need these weapons to defend our country against the Americans and any other occupier,” Nsyyaif said.
Earlier, hundreds of sacked Iraqi civil servants protested about losing their jobs after the US-led civil demonstration dissolved several former government offices.
A mass grave containing the remains of 200 Kurdish children has been discovered in the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk, the Kurdish newspaper Taakhi reported yesterday.
“Citizens discovered on May 30 a communal grave close to Debs, in Kirkuk. But this is different from other mass graves discovered since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s terrorist regime because it contains the remains of 200 child victims of the repression of the Kurdish uprising” in 1991, the paper said. “Even dolls were buried with the children,” it said. Dozens of mass graves have been uncovered all over Iraq since Saddam’s ouster by invading US-led forces on April 9.
Meanwhile, around 40 people were incarcerated yesterday in a prison just opened in Basra, along with a court under the supervision of the British Army occupying southern Iraq, prison sources said.
“The prisoners, most of whom were involved in robberies or armed attacks, were previously held in Umm Qasr (further south) and were transferred in the morning to Basra prison,” which was opened on Monday, one prison guard told AFP.
The jail, located in the center of Iraq’s main southern city, is the first to be opened since the war that toppled Saddam and can accommodate 300 inmates. It will be run jointly by British Sgt. Tom Mossat and an Iraqi director, Moshtaq Mohammad.
|
|
