Human Rights in Iraq after the American Occupation
Published in Kitabat
(Iraq) on 23 June 2013
by Mustafa al-Hadithi (link to original)
One wonder of our time is the arrival of an occupier riding his tank along the path of crude dictatorship; he carries slogans of freedom and democracy, waving them around in open deception.
That happened in 2003, when the American occupiers came to Iraq, using that crude method to try to delude the noble Iraqi people into believing that the Americans had brought with them the democracy that they had promised. Oh, how they boasted about that!
No sooner had the occupation established its bases than those glossy slogans, which promised to spread the rights and freedoms that Islam had guaranteed before any forged laws did, vanished. It wasn’t long before those promises became a mirage with no existence on the ground. They were not implemented in any part of Iraq.
Year after year passes, and, even though the people demand their rights, these rights are still just ink on paper. Yet one axiom in managing the internal affairs of any state is that human rights must be seated in the community’s will and demands, not in the will of the occupier and those who came with him. Progress and justice are not glossy laws and slogans; they are the sovereignty of just law inspired by the will of the people, not an occupier’s lies or its phony collaborators.
Hence, upon investigating the causes of the deterioration of human rights in Iraq, we find that the main one is the lack of fair parliamentary elections. To this day, no free, fair election of the representatives of the people has occurred in Iraq; each election has seen massive breaches. Most members of Iraq’s parliament were either appointed by the party that controls all junctures of the country or acquired votes through fraud. Consequently, the parliament does not represent the will of Iraqi citizens. The laws that it issues do not express their will and therefore won’t produce legitimate elections.
Worse than that, most members of the Iraqi parliament cannot do a thing in the face of the ruling executive authority, either because the members feel weak due to the untruthfulness of the elections or because of the tyranny of said authority, to the extent that election results have been lost between the pincers of fraud and political pressure.
In light of the circumstances in which Iraq is living, we must, in an attempt to find a solution, ask a number of questions that are imposing themselves on conscious minds:
What really lies in store for us now that Iraq has been destroyed on the pretext of democracy and spreading human rights, which are non-existent on the ground?
What lies in store for us now that America has handed Iraq over to Iran, a country that considers Iraq the principal enemy of its destructive plan?
What lies in store for us now that Iran has intervened in Iraq’s most trivial details and sovereign decision-making?
What lies in store for us after the intellectual blockade on Iraq?
How much joy will some Arab states take in the deterioration and collapse happening in Iraq at the hands of those ruling it?
What lies in store for us after the killings and day-to-day destruction perpetrated by the Iraqi security apparatuses that the occupation established?
What lies in store for us after America and Iran intervened even in our choice of leaders?
What lies in store for us now that all those trying to demand freedom and democracy have been attacked and accused of terrorism, as is happening at the moment to the leaders of the popular movement in six Iraqi provinces rebelling against injustice, exclusion and marginalization?
What lies in store for us now that the current Iraqi government has withdrawn the licenses of all television channels that stand with the aspirations of the Iraqi people?
What lies in store for us, oh Iraqis, what lies in store?
Where are America and Iran, its ally, leading us?
Is there any way to change this unfortunate reality?
That happened in 2003, when the American occupiers came to Iraq, using that crude method to try to delude the noble Iraqi people into believing that the Americans had brought with them the democracy that they had promised. Oh, how they boasted about that!
No sooner had the occupation established its bases than those glossy slogans, which promised to spread the rights and freedoms that Islam had guaranteed before any forged laws did, vanished. It wasn’t long before those promises became a mirage with no existence on the ground. They were not implemented in any part of Iraq.
Year after year passes, and, even though the people demand their rights, these rights are still just ink on paper. Yet one axiom in managing the internal affairs of any state is that human rights must be seated in the community’s will and demands, not in the will of the occupier and those who came with him. Progress and justice are not glossy laws and slogans; they are the sovereignty of just law inspired by the will of the people, not an occupier’s lies or its phony collaborators.
Hence, upon investigating the causes of the deterioration of human rights in Iraq, we find that the main one is the lack of fair parliamentary elections. To this day, no free, fair election of the representatives of the people has occurred in Iraq; each election has seen massive breaches. Most members of Iraq’s parliament were either appointed by the party that controls all junctures of the country or acquired votes through fraud. Consequently, the parliament does not represent the will of Iraqi citizens. The laws that it issues do not express their will and therefore won’t produce legitimate elections.
Worse than that, most members of the Iraqi parliament cannot do a thing in the face of the ruling executive authority, either because the members feel weak due to the untruthfulness of the elections or because of the tyranny of said authority, to the extent that election results have been lost between the pincers of fraud and political pressure.
In light of the circumstances in which Iraq is living, we must, in an attempt to find a solution, ask a number of questions that are imposing themselves on conscious minds:
What really lies in store for us now that Iraq has been destroyed on the pretext of democracy and spreading human rights, which are non-existent on the ground?
What lies in store for us now that America has handed Iraq over to Iran, a country that considers Iraq the principal enemy of its destructive plan?
What lies in store for us now that Iran has intervened in Iraq’s most trivial details and sovereign decision-making?
What lies in store for us after the intellectual blockade on Iraq?
How much joy will some Arab states take in the deterioration and collapse happening in Iraq at the hands of those ruling it?
What lies in store for us after the killings and day-to-day destruction perpetrated by the Iraqi security apparatuses that the occupation established?
What lies in store for us after America and Iran intervened even in our choice of leaders?
What lies in store for us now that all those trying to demand freedom and democracy have been attacked and accused of terrorism, as is happening at the moment to the leaders of the popular movement in six Iraqi provinces rebelling against injustice, exclusion and marginalization?
What lies in store for us now that the current Iraqi government has withdrawn the licenses of all television channels that stand with the aspirations of the Iraqi people?
What lies in store for us, oh Iraqis, what lies in store?
Where are America and Iran, its ally, leading us?
Is there any way to change this unfortunate reality?
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