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Largely unobserved by the large media, the US troops in the beginning of September carried out a new large-scale offensive against the town of Tal Afar in Northern Iraq. Again, hundreds of women, men and children were killed or suffered injuries. Most of the 200,000 inhabitants have fled. Before, Samarra, Bakuba, Qaim, Hit, and Haditha had become victims of similar attacks. Falludjah is in ruins since November 2004. This brutal military handling of the situation further fuels violence; the intervention of Kurd and radical- Shiite militias threatens to provoke civil-war like situations. We condemn these terror acts by the occupying troops. By the same token, we naturally also condemn the attempts of terrorist groups against innocent civilians. Yet, they as well are consequences of the US- American occupation, which is the main cause for the problems in Iraq and can in no way contribute to their solution. The occupation has been legitimised neither by the resolutions by the UN Security council nor by elections under the US- American protectorate. Instead of ending it and leaving the organisation of its society to the Iraqi people itself, as well as supplying the means for the compensation of the destructions it has caused, the US government puts its stakes on a dependent government and on the military destruction of resistance. The occupation policy intentionally deepens the ethnic, confessional and religious contrasts in Iraqi society and threatens the territorial integrity of the state of Iraq. The new constitution now voted reinforces these tendencies. It will change nothing to the reality of occupation. We ask the government of the United States to withdraw its troops without any conditions from Iraq and to pay compensation for the damages caused. We ask the UN Security Council to finally place the grave violations of the occupying troops against human rights, the Geneva Convention and other treaties on the agenda. We ask the fractions of the newly elected German federal parliament and the future federal government to immediately put an end to the political, economic and military support for this crime - which according to an order by the Federal administrative court is also an “offence against international law” - and to exercise our pressure on the allies for withdrawing their troops from Iraq. We demand asylum for all soldiers, who refuse to wage war in Iraq. For the
German original: http://www.iraktribunal.de/dokus/appell_okt2005.htm »»
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