War in Iraq continues to rage

Compiled by Shane Perlowin

Aug. 11 (AGR) — From Hilla to Balad, Falluja to Najaf, Iraq has been rocked by intense clashes as Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s forces vowed resistance against the US and British occupation of the country.

At the very least, scores have been killed and hundreds wounded. The ongoing fighting in Najaf has been the heaviest in the city since a rebellion by Sadr’s followers in April and May. The city is home to the holiest shrines in Shiite Islam, and most Iraqi Shiites react with outrage when clashes erupt near the sacred sites.

The battle — which raged at its bloodiest in Najaf but also spread to Shia areas elsewhere in Iraq — marked the shattering of the fragile truce that two months ago had ended the previous uprising.

Each side blames the other for starting the violence. Both the Iraqi interim government and US forces are adamant that the fighting started when Sadr’s Mehdi Army insurgents attacked a police station in the early hours of Thursday, Aug. 5.

Sadr’s spokesmen insist the truce was broken when US forces surrounded the cleric’s home earlier in the week. Sadr has said that he would resist the US presence in Iraq “until my last drop of blood.”

His fighters, armed with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and assault weapons, are confronting armored combat vehicles and heavy weapons of the American forces.

Smoke rose from the old city in the center of Najaf after helicopter gunships attacked insurgents said to be hiding in a cemetery close to the sacred shrine of Imam Ali. Footage on Associated Press Television News showed roadside stalls burning as shops closed, leaving many streets deserted. A woman’s body was shown abandoned on an empty footpath. Insurgents shot down a US helicopter.

A convoy of humvees toured the city’s streets, urging people through loudspeakers to leave the city center and nearby town of Kufa and sending a warning to fighters. “Leave the city in peace or you will die,” the message said, naming districts to be evacuated, affecting about 75 percent of the city. After the announcement, witnesses said they saw streams of cars heading out of the city. A huge fire billowed up from the direction of the city center. The crack of sporadic gunfire rang out.

Ahmed Shaibani, an aide to Sadr, appealed for negotiations in a statement broadcast on the Arabiya television network. “We are ready to accept any peace plan or negotiate to bring peace to the holy city and all over Iraq,” he said. He added that the Mehdi army and the Islamic resistance control most of the central and southern governorates of the country, saying this “confirms the failure” of the occupying forces in Iraq.

The US military said Friday, Aug. 7, that 300 militiamen were killed in Najaf since fighting began, while the province’s coalition-appointed governor Adnan al-Zorfi said the number was as high as 400. The military also said three US soldiers were killed and 12 wounded. But Sadr’s spokesman Sheikh Ahmed al-Shaibani said only nine militiamen were killed in fighting and 20 wounded.

The fighting spread to the south, and in Nasiriyah Italian troops came under fire. According to Interior Ministry officials, eight Iraqis, including five militants, were killed and another 13 were wounded.

Iraq’s second city, Basra, under British control, was also tense. As’ad al-Basri, a spokesperson for the Sadr insurgents, said that five Mehdi Army members had been killed in engagements with British troops.

In Samarrah, a Sunni stronghold 60 miles north of Baghdad, a US convoy of 10 Humvees reportedly pulled out under cover of helicopter fire after coming under attack.

Armed followers of Sadr were also out in force on the streets of Shi’ite areas of Baghdad. Clashes broke out again in the sprawling Sadr City slum, the district of Baghdad named after Sadr’s father that is home to two million people. The fighting came despite a government-imposed curfew from 4 p.m. until 8 a.m. until further notice in the area.

American forces and humvees piled up on the edge of Sadr City near a local district council building; the Mehdi militia attacked American positions with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Residents in Sadr City say that American counter-fire, with cannons from Bradley combat vehicles and sniper fire, has been indiscriminate.

In the mixed Sunni and Shi’ite town of Mahawil south of Baghdad, guerrillas detonated a car bomb and sprayed gunfire at a police station, killing at least six people and wounding 24, Iraqi government officials said. Interior ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim said three masked gunmen opened fire on the police station in the town, about 40 miles south of Baghdad, and then fled. A bomb in a minibus then exploded outside the building.

Insurgents and Iraqi security forces also battled in Mosul after attacks on a police station, a power plant and a hospital, leaving at least 22 dead in the northern city often cited as a success story in restoring order in Iraq. Local officials imposed a curfew in an effort to dampen the deadliest violence in Mosul since nominal sovereignty was returned to Iraqi authorities at the end of June. At least 14 of the dead were civilians and the rest believed to be insurgents.

Iraq’s interim prime minister, the US appointed Ayad Allawi, sought to stamp his authority on the perilous security situation in southern Iraq, flying into Najaf and ordering the Mehdi fighters to leave. “We hope that this thing ends as soon as possible,” Allawi told reporters. “I believe gunmen should leave the holy sites ... quickly, lay down their weapons and return to the rule of order and law.”

Shortly after Allawi’s visit, witnesses said fighting again broke out once more at the cemetery, where much of the battle has raged.

Sheikh Ahmed al-Shaybani, a spokesman for Sadr in Najaf, said: “We were hoping that Mr Allawi would come here just to make the situation calm down. But, unfortunately, he has just complicated and escalated the situation by demanding that Moqtada’s people leave Najaf.”

On Aug. 8 the government announced a reinstatement of capital punishment for people guilty of murder, endangering national security, and distributing drugs. They said the death penalty was necessary to help put down the country’s persistent insurgency. The announcement came a day after the government offered an amnesty to Iraqis who committed minor crimes since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime last year. When security returns to the country, the law will be revoked, they said. The law did not specify how the executions were to be carried out, or if they were to be done in public or private.

Warrants have been issued for the arrest of Ahmed Chalabi, once the Pentagon’s choice as future Iraqi leader, and his nephew Salem Chalabi, the man organizing the trial of Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s top investigating judge has confirmed.

Salem Chalabi is wanted as a suspect for the murder of a finance ministry official last June while his uncle, the former leader of the exiled Iraqi National Congress, is facing charges of counterfeiting banknotes.

The move is a fresh blow to a dynasty with close former links to the Bush administration. Ahmed Chalabi, who was a key figure in the consultations carried out by Washington in the approach to the invasion of Iraq, suffered a major reverse earlier this year when he was accused by US intelligence agencies of spying for Iran.

In other news, Poland’s prime minister, facing pressure to withdraw his troops, told President Bush on Monday that “no one wants to stay in Iraq forever.” Polish-led forces turned over control of two provinces to Marines because of the worsening violence in Najaf. President Bush said Poles “have been great allies” in Iraq and their troops have performed “brilliantly.”

Public opinion polls show that Poles overwhelmingly want to bring their troops home. Bush told the Polish PM, that when it comes to polls, “I try to make my decisions based upon what I think is right.’’

Poland has led the multinational force in Iraq since the war began. The coalition was a 23-nation force of 9,500 troops responsible for south-central Iraq. It has dwindled to 6,200 troops from 16 countries after several pulled out, most notably Spain, which withdrew its 1,300 soldiers after the election of a new government.

Poland has stressed it will not abandon its role leading the force, even though it is unpopular at home. But Polish officials have said they would like to reduce its troops from 2,400 to between 1,000 and 1,500 and put more of the burden on Iraqi forces by early next year.

Meanwhile, at the Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany, doctors are facing horrors seldom seen by the American public — more than 12,000 battlefield casualties from Iraq.

Their patients speak with tension in their faces. Not even the painkillers can stop all of the throbbing of their injuries. “Some shrapnel went through my eye,” says Staff Sgt. Daniel Beaty. Another injured soldier, Cpl. Jeff Swaser says: “The shrapnel came in through my side, punctured my lungs, fractured a couple of my ribs, and broke up into little pieces and put holes into various organs.”

The soldiers are all cared for by 1,800 doctors, nurses, and other staff who day after day after day are faced with broken bodies and broken lives. And the sight of each new wounded soldier seems to open up an emotional wound. “You walk in and you see young kids blown apart,” says Col. Bernie Roth, who works in the intensive care unit. “Sometimes half their brain is gone, arms gone, legs gone. It’s hard, it’s really hard.”

“We have to deal with very difficult things,” Roth says, “like young kids who just lost their arm, and being understanding when they’re mad, or calling up that mother of a little girl whose brain is irreparably damaged and is never going to be the same again.”

Sources: ABC News, AlJazeera.net, AP, BBC News, The Guardian, The Independent (UK), Los Angeles Times, NY Times, Reuters

Cleaning up lead on US- Mexico border

By Katherine Stapp

New York, New York, Aug. 6 (Tierramérica)— The residents of Colonia Chilpancingo, a desperately poor squatters’ camp just east of the Mexican city of Tijuana, for more than a decade lived in the shadow of the toxic dump of Metales y Derivados — until someone finally took responsibility for clean-up.

Over the past 10 years, the children of Chilpancingo, located near the US border and the Pacific coast, were poisoned with lead, and many were born with terrible defects, including anencephaly (without a brain).

An abandoned lead smelter, Metales y Derivados lies just 142 yards from Chilpancingo, home to more than 10,000 people. The site contains almost 24,000 tons of hazardous waste, including 7,000 metric tons of lead slag.

In 2002, a report by the environmental oversight commission of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) confirmed community health concerns about the toxic contamination from the smelter.

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation was created to monitor environmental problems related to NAFTA, a 10-year-old accord between Canada, Mexico and the United States.

But no action was taken on the Chilpancingo until this year, when a joint US-Mexico program called Border 2012 began funding a comprehensive clean up of the site to be completed in 2009.

“This year, thanks at least in part to the 2012 program, clean-up has begun at the Metales y Derivados site, where we’ve been working for 10 years to get action,” said Amelia Simpson, director of the Border Environmental Justice Campaign in San Diego, California, located across the border from Tijuana.

“The community has really benefited from the opportunity to participate in decisions on the project,” she added. “Our experience has really been positive.”

One of the advantages of Border 2012 over previous binational initiatives is the participation of indigenous groups, said activist Carlos Rincón, director of the Mexican project of the group Environmental Defense, based in the US border city of El Paso, Texas.

Launched in September 2002, the Border 2012 program sets a deadline of 10 years to achieve cleaner air and water throughout the region, address problems created by hazardous waste dumps, and tackle the numerous health problems faced by border communities as a result of environmental degradation, primarily water-borne and respiratory illnesses.

To date, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has contributed some $475 million to over 50 water and wastewater projects along the US-Mexico border, providing access to potable water and sanitary treatment systems for 6.5 million border area residents.

The two countries also signed a binational air monitoring agreement in late June, and the EPA committed up to 13 million dollars toward the clean up of a wastewater treatment plant in the northwestern city of Mexicali, Mexico.

“It’s a small program, but it has the potential to do great things,” said Nancy Woo, an official with the EPA who works primarily on Border 2012 projects in the US states of California and Arizona.

“All of these problems are so closely tied to socio-economic issues, and the huge population growth in the border region. It is challenging, because we’re playing catch-up with the environmental infrastructure,” she said.

According to Woo, the Border 2012 priorities are the shared US-Mexican watersheds, like the Rio Grande (known in Mexico as Rio Bravo), and the areas suffering from high levels of air pollution, like the sister cities of Mexicali and Imperial.

The area encompassed by the program extends 100 km to each side of the US-Mexico border, which runs more than 3,100 km from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. Over the last 20 years, population in the border region has swelled to more than 12 million people.

Much of this growth has been in urban areas. From 1990 to 2000, the population of Ciudad Juárez (across the border from El Paso) grew 50 percent, in large part due to the explosion of maquiladoras — factories assembling products for export, emblematic of the production shift from the United States to Mexico.

This boom has overwhelmed existing wastewater treatment, potable water supplies, and solid waste disposal facilities, experts say.

But some activists complain that Border 2012 does not have enough resources to meet its own goals.

“Environmental activists forced elected officials to recognize what NAFTA would do to the border when it took effect a decade ago,” said Talli Nauman, an associate in the Americas Program of the New Mexico-based Interhemispheric Resource Center.

“At that time, they convinced the US Congress to allot 15 million dollars a year to run Border 2012’s predecessor, called the Border 21 Program. But now that NAFTA has become a fact of life and is taken for granted, legislators have only designated three million dollars a year to Border 2012,” she said.

“The bottom line is the bottom line,” said Nauman. “Unless Border 2012 receives more funding and uses it strategically, sustainable development will remain a mere principle. It will not become a reality... clean-up and prevention measures will be inadequate relative to the growing demand.”

Charges dropped against NC union organizers

By Shawn Gaynor

Asheville, North Carolina, Aug. 11 (AGR) – Two union organizers from the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), who had been charged with criminal trespass after meeting with farm workers at a Nash county labor camp, had their charges dropped during an Aug. 3 court appearance in what the union is calling a “clear victory for farm workers, rights.”

On JUne 25 The immigrant workers were meeting with FLOC organizers Francisco Heredia and Blake Pendergrass to discuss their concerns over substandard living and working conditions and a pay-rate below the minimum wage.

After Tim Fisher, the owner of the farm where the meeting was taking place, saw the organizers and became uncomfortable about them speaking to the farm laborers in Spanish, Nash County deputies arrived, disrupted the meeting, and at the request of Fisher handcuffed the organizers and charged them with criminal trespassing. Workers told the sheriffs’ deputies and the grower that the FLOC organizers were invited guests of the workers.

Pendergrass, in a speech to supporters, said, “The district attorney dropped the charges because it is not in the state’s best interest to continue this case. They do not want people to hear about the workers’ living conditions in the labor camps. They do not want us to see the illegally locked kitchens that force workers to buy their food from the grower.”

Federal courts, the North Carolina Supreme Court, and the NC Attorney General have recognized workers’ rights to receive visitors, to determine for themselves who those visitors are to be, and the existence of a landlord-tenant relationship between farm workers who live in grower-provided housing.

The decision to drop the charges against Heredia and Pendergrass upheld FLOC’s contention these arrests were illegal. A 1988 decision by then-Attorney General Mike Easely confirmed the rights of farm workers to receive visitors including labor organizers in the labor camps where they have a landlord-tenant relationship.

“This illegal arrest, in clear violation of North Carolina law, is blatant harassment by law enforcement officers, colluding with growers, to intimidate workers seeking to organize themselves into a legal union,” said Baldemar Velasquez, FLOC president.

Activists and a multitude of organizations attended the trial in Nash County Court to show support for Heredia and Pendergrass.

Following the arrests FLOC launched a public fight to have the charges dropped by the District Attorney. Over 65 organizations from 18 states have joined in support, including the NC AFL-CIO, Black Workers for Justice and the DC-based anti-slavery organization Free the Slaves.

Francisco Rocha, who testified that the organizers had been welcome in the camp, said that being in prison was better than living in a labor camp since even prisoners had the right to visitors.

Following the announcement that charges were dropped, farm worker supporters marched from the courthouse carrying coffins representing the deaths of two farm workers that resulted from abusive working conditions and the failure of their employers to provide needed medical attention.

Supporters reassembled eight blocks away in front of Lowe’s Grocery where they rallied in support of FLOC’s five-year boycott of Mt. Olive pickles.