Platform of the Iraqi antioccupation forces 1) A clear, precise, public, and binding under international guarantees, timetable for the withdrawal of the occupation troops from Iraq in all their aspects and forms.
2) Abolition of the principle of repartition according to sectarian, racial or ethnic lines, and adoption of the principle of citizenship and equality in rights and duties in front of the law.
3) Acknowledgement of the principle of the right of the Iraqi people to reject occupation: recognition of the Iraqi resistance and its legitimate right to defend its country and its resources; rejection of terrorism which takes aim at innocent Iraqis, facilities and institutions of public utility, and places of worship
4) Since the elections that took place lacked legitimacy due to the fact that they were based on the Administrative Law, lacked legal and security conditions, were boycotted by a large number of people and rigged, the administration that will result from these elections does not have the right to conclude any agreement or treaty intringing on Iraq's sovereignty, the unity of its people, its land and its economy, and the preservation of its riches.
5) Adoption of democracy and elections as the only option for the transfer of power, and the preparation of conditions and laws allowing the political process to take place in honest and transparJane Kelly Predictably the insurgency against the US and allied occupation of Iraq has continued unabated since the elections on January 30.
On polling day itself there were 260 attacks including 9 suicide bombings, the highest daily total since the invasion of March 2003 and there have been daily attacks ever since.
During the election itself nearly 60 per cent of the population, over 8 million people, voted. Sunni calls for a boycott were largely followed in predominantly Sunni areas.
People in the Kurdish areas voted in very large numbers -Kurds make up 20 per cent of the population, but took 25 per cent of the vote gaining 75 SCaLS.
Those groups elected agree on the need to involve leaders of the under-represented Sunni community.
The US puppet Iyad Allawi's list received less than 15 per cent of votes, a crushing defeat for him and his American masters.
The Shia alliance gained 140 seats, secular Shiites 40 and small parties 20. The electoral coalition supported by Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani won nearly 50 percent of the
with followers of Moqtada al-Sadr having 10 per cent of the 100 top places.
Al-Sadr called a ceasefire demanded withdrawal of the occupying troops. However Dawa and SCIRI (Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution), both long in exile in Iran, and the largest Shia parties, made only very vague noises about withdrawal with no dates.
They want time to build and consolidate a state apparatus under their control, so as to avoid chaos after the occupiers withdraw. But it is the occupation itself that fosters chaos in the country and the rise at the margins of the US troops in Baghdad: the longer they stay, the deeper the chaos
fanatical terrorist groups.
Most of far left in Britain explicitly or implicitly supported the call for a boycott. But they were wrong, because the elections were forced on the US by mass demonstrations called by Sistani.
The majority of the population demanded the elections, though they did take place in appalling conditions. They are the beginning of process- the outcome and legitimacy of the Assembly will depend on what it does now.
If it tries to unite different interests and areas around the call for an end to the occupation, it will win the trust of the people. If it falls prey to US divide and rule tactics, it will not. Either way, the class struggle will develop as people get the opportunity to test out leaderships.
In addition, the occupiers are already carrying out a strategy 1n which they increase tensions, especially religious and ethnic divisions, in order to 'divide and rule. There are an increasing number of statements from Washington expressing their refusal to allow an Iranianstyle regime to be established in Iraq.
These should be seen in the context of Washington's escalating threats against the regional 'axis of evil', that supposedly runs from Hizbollah in Lebanon to Iran by way of the Syrian regime.
An Iraqi government allied to Iran, now highly probable in light of the election results, would be in this respect a catastrophe for Washington, which will do everything it can to block this scenario.
All this means that whatever attitude the Iraqi government adopts, the anti-war movement must continue to demand, more energetically than ever, the immediate withdrawal of the occupying troops from Iraq.
We must build the biggest mobilisation possible for the international day of action against the occupation of Iraq on 19 March 2005.
Our demands should be:
Immediate withdrawal of the occupying troops;
The right of the Iraqi people to decide its political future in full freedom and sovereignty;
The right of the Kurdish people to self-determination.