Statements by other organisations condemning the massacre of Al-Hawija
Statement issued by the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) on the massacre of Al-Hawija
Maliki’s Crime and that of his Troops against the Protestors in Al-Hawija
23-04-2013
The General Secretariat issued a statement condemning Maliki’s crime and that of his troops against the citizens of Al Hawija in the strongest possible words; it affirmed that the protestors carried out what their duty dictates on them; they protested peacefully and demanded their legitimate rights, and they are now without reproach and cannot be blamed, however, this government understands nothing other than the language of blood.
Statement No. 887 Regarding Maliki’s Crime and that of his Troops against the Protestors in Al Hawija
Thanks be to God Almighty and Peace Be Upon His Prophet, His family, His followers and His allies.
Maliki and his troops have carried it out; his S.W.A.T. troops have stormed the Field of Fervor and Honour in valiant Al-Hawija at dawn, and insidiously fired live bullets at unarmed protestors; they ran over the wounded with their military vehicles, chasing and executing those who withdrew to the surrounding areas, killing and wounding one hundred and fifty protestors (150).
They committed this crime with the expectations that the voice of righteous will be silenced, and that they will quail, that the screams of anger will become faint; they did not realize that injustice increases the inflammation of anger, that it increases determination, and that the Righteous will desire revenge and retribution.
Maliki and his troops are continuing to implement the Waliy–el–Faqeeh’s agenda, based on ethnic and sectarian cleansing and their crime in the Field of Fervor and Honour in Al Hawijais nothing other than the beginning of targeting the other protest squares and fields in the same manner. Our people should know that, today, Maliki has declared war on them and that he will not stop until he is strongly deterred.
The General Secretariat condemns this heinous crime in the strongest possible expressions of condemnation and calls on the international community to condemn it and take whatever necessary steps to deal with it.
The association of Muslim Scholars pays its condolences to the Iraqi People and particularly to the valiant people of Al-Hawija on the martyrdom of their loved ones, and emphasizes that they acted according to the dictates of their duty: they protested peacefully and demanded their legitimate rights, and they are now without reproach and cannot be blamed, however this government understands nothing other than the language of blood. Its ill fate has driven it to test the Iraqi People’s patience who will not forgive it for this crime, nor will they forgive it for all the crimes it committed throughout its rule.
God Bless the Field of Fervor and Honour Martyrs, may He grant their families patience, and may He heal the wounded, and may He deal out the deserved punishment to Maliki and his troops.
The General Secretariat
13th Jamadi Al Akira, 1434
23rd April, 2013
Statement by The Central Committee of Coordination to Support the Iraqi Uprising On the Massacre of Al-Hawija
23-04-2013
On Tuesday, April 23, 2013 at dawn, forces of the Iraqi army, led by the commander of the ground forces criminal Ali Ghaidan attacked a public square in the town of Hawija, in the province of Tamim (Kirkuk), where there were approximately 4,000 peaceful protestors.
The attack resulted in the death of 50 civilians and wounding several hundreds according to security sources. The massacre comes after a siege of the square that lasted four days, cutting of water, food and medicine on the peaceful protesters. Many of the Iraqi cities in Anbar, Nineveh and Salahuddin announced civil disobedience to protest the siege of the protesters in Hawija.
For the last four months, millions of Iraqis in many cities have been participating in a sit-in protest against the repressive policy of the government of Nouri al-Maliki, especially against the inhuman treatment of detainees, torture, arbitrary arrests and abuses, particularly against women held in prison as hostages. They were also protesting against the administrative and financial corruption, the political paralysis and non-existent services and a sectarian government, wholly subjected to the will of the Iranian regime. It is important to remember that the head of the government, al-Maliki, has publicly threatened the peaceful protestors since the early days of the sit-in that he will use force to disperse them.
Although this is not the first time that the repressive Iraqi authorities assassinate the peaceful protestors, it had happened before in Fallujah, Baquba and other places during the past few months; and it has also carried out more arrests and violations of reprisals, and executions in response to the protest, instead of listening to the citizens and try to respond to their demands. But this time it has exceeded all limits and norms when the non-national sectarian army opened its fires against thousands of civilians in a horrific massacre, to the silence of the world, Arabs and Muslims.
The Central Committee of Coordination to Support the Iraqi Uprising, as it declares in the strongest expressions its condemnation and denunciation of these crimes, holds the illegal Iraqi authorities installed by the American occupation, the full responsibility for this slaughter, and all other crimes that preceded it. It also holds the entire international community, the United Nations, the Arab League and the Islamic Conference, and all human rights organizations and organizations calling for peace and democracy, holds them responsible for silence before shedding the Iraqi blood for 10 years of criminal occupation and its horrible consequences against the Iraqi people, land, economy, and culture.
At the same time, the Committee appeals to all the forces of good in the world, to support the Iraqi uprising of and the heroic Iraqi resistance in its struggle against the occupation, and exercise all the political, media, and legal pressures to expose this slaughter and prosecute its perpetrators.
Statement by the BRussel Tribunal
Hawija: Chronicle of an Announced Mass Murder
23-04-2013
The BRussells Tribunal is appalled to hear the news that at least 38 protesters (some reports say 50) were killed and hundreds injured when Maliki’s security forces stormed an anti-government protest camp in Hawija near Kirkuk on Tuesday 23 April and turned a peaceful demonstration into a slaughterhouse.
This attack was imminent and announced. It started around 5:00 am (0200 GMT) when security forces entered an open area near Hawijah, west of Kirkuk, where demonstrations have been held since January.
On 21 April the BRussells Tribunal received and published the following communication:
SAVE THE 4000 PEACEFUL PROTESTORS IN HAWIJA NOW!
URGENT ………. URGENT
4,000 Peaceful Protestors in Hawija are now surrounded by government army troops and are about to be attacked.
They have been surrounded by these troops for the past 3 days without water, food and medical aid.
FRIDAY Protestors were attacked, one killed and 4 injured. Medical treatment was with-held.
SATURDAY, government troops stormed the field of protest and destroyed all the kitchen facilities as well as medical facilities.
Roads leading to field were cut off.
SAVE THE PEACEFUL IRAQI REVOLUTION – SAVE THE 4,000 MEN AND CHILDREN IN HAWIJA.
PLEASE PUT AN END TO THE MASSACRE.
In our newsletter of 23 April we mentioned that:
General Ali Ghaidan Majid, the Iraqi Land Forces Commander openly threatened all protesters anywhere in Iraq that he is authorized and determined to take serious actions against the demonstrators on the pretexts that they are Terrorists, Ba'athists…
He claimed that his troops are protecting the demonstrators while the demonstrators themselves are suffering from the unacceptable repression by the armed forces.
Our newsletter came too late. At least 38 lives are lost.
Will the world finally start listening to the Iraqi people?
For more than 120 days now the protesters have made urgent appeals to the international media to do a fair coverage of the nationwide anti-sectarian demonstrations and to see for themselves what the main demands are: “no to the partition of the country”, “no to sectarianism” and “abolishing the divisive constitution”.
For more than 120 days the international media have misrepresented the demonstrations by labelling them “sectarian” and “sunni” protests against a “shia majority” government.
For more than 120 days the international mainstream media have paid no attention to the just demands of millions of Iraqi citizens. Torture and rape of women, men and children in regular and secret prisons? Unlawful arrests? Poor public services? Corruption? They never heard of any of the human rights violations that forced millions of the Iraqi people to demonstrate into the streets and squares, day after day, after day, nationwide. The media only report about the demonstrations when protesters are being killed.
How much longer are the mainstream media going to keep silent, ignore the truth and spread the lies which Nouri Al-Maliki, the butcher of Hawija, orders them to write.
For 4 months now the BRussells Tribunal and the International Anti-Occupation Network are trying to reach out to the media, appeal to politicians and the international community. There is little indignation about the open-air prison, that is Iraq. They could have intervened in different international forums, if they had taken the reports of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others seriously. They could have condemned the current sectarian Iraqi government like the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, did when she said: “Executing people in batches like this is obscene. It is like processing animals in a slaughterhouse. The criminal justice system in Iraq is still not functioning adequately, with numerous convictions based on confessions obtained under torture and ill-treatment, a weak judiciary and trial proceedings that fall short of international standards.”
The BRussells Tribunal wishes to express its condolences to the families of the martyrs. We want to tell them that the lives of their husbands and sons have not been taken away in vain. They will be remembered as real patriots who have put their own lives in the balance for a better future of their country, for alleviating the suffering of their fellow citizens.
What now?
This mass murder has sent shock waves through the communities across the land. Near Hawija, reports emerged that claimed some armed tribesman had taken control of government checkpoints.
“The peaceful demonstrations are over due to what happened today,” said Saddoun al-Obaidi, a tribal leader in Hawija who was a leader of the protest movement. “Now we are going to carry weapons. We have all the weapons we need, and we are getting support from other provinces. This will not pass easily. Something bad will happen soon.”
Elsewhere, the reaction from other protest areas was swift. In Falluja, where clashes between the army and protesters in January killed at least seven protesters, thousands of citizens took to the streets demanding the international community stop what they described as the “massacres of the government.”
Protest leaders, tribal chiefs and local Muslim scholars are meeting to consider a response.
In Baghdad, leaders of Iraqiya, the biggest political party, announced they were suspending participation in Parliament. In Mosul, in the north, which has hosted continuing protests, a spokesman for the Sunni movement there, Salim al-Jabouri, said, “the demonstrators in Mosul left the sit-in area to take up arms in support of the demonstrators in Hawija and take revenge for them.”
If protesters respond violently to the Iraqi government's raid, it could set off a chain reaction that could envelope the entire region. Sunni religious leaders who have counseled peaceful protests for months are calling on their followers to take up arms against the Baghdad government.
"We were always telling the protesters not to carry a gun or start attacking the armed forces because we wanted the peaceful demanding to go on," said Abdul Malik Al Sa'adi.
"Now self-defense has become a religious and legal duty, so defend yourselves and he who will be killed defending his money, family or country will be considered a martyr."
Meanwhile Martin Kobler, the United Nations’ representative in Iraq, made a very weak statement “I encourage the Iraqi security forces to exercise the utmost self-restraint in maintaining law and order and the demonstrators to continue to preserve the peaceful character of the demonstrations”. This answer of a UN representative will only spark more anger. Why is there no strong condemnation?
Hawija: a wake-up call?
We hope that the Hawija massacre will be a wake-up call for the International Community. We appeal to all human rights organisation and peace movements to intensify their support for the Iraqi protest movement.
We also hope that the Iraqi people will achieve their goals: stop the human rights violations, reclaim their resources, live in a peaceful and united, non-sectarian country, governed by the Iraqi people and not by a puppet government in the American Green Zone.
Documenting and reporting human rights violations in Iraq
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