Reflections on the "New American" Revolution
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Iraqi Constitution: Chewing on Meaningless Words
this constitution is being written in a war zone, in a country on the verge of a civil war. This process is designed not to represent the Iraqi people's need for a constitution but to comply with an imposed timetable aimed at legitimising the occupation. The drafting process has increasingly proved a dividing, rather than a unifying, process. Under Saddam Hussein, we had a constitution described as "progressive and secular". It did not stop him violating human rights, women's included. The same is happening now. The militias of the parties heading the interim government are involved in daily violations of Iraqis' human rights, women's in particular, with the US-led occupation's blessing. Will the new constitution put an end to this violence? ...
Despite all the rhetoric of "building a new democracy", Iraqis are buckling under the burdens and abuse of the US-led occupation and its local Iraqi sub-contractors. Daily life for most Iraqis is still a struggle for survival. Human rights under occupation have proved, like weapons of mass destruction, to be a mirage. Torture and ill-treatment - even the torture of children in adult facilities - is widespread. Depleted uranium and other banned weapons have been used against Iraqi cities by occupying troops.
Iraqi women were long the most liberated in the Middle East. Occupation has largely confined them to their homes. A typical Iraqi woman's day begins with the struggle to get the basics: electricity, petrol or a cylinder of gas, water, food and medication. It ends with a sigh of relief at surviving death threats and violent attacks. For most women, simply to venture on to the street is to risk being attacked or kidnapped for profit or revenge. Young girls are sold to neighbouring countries for prostitution.
In a land awash with oil, 16 million Iraqis rely on monthly food rations for survival. None has been received since May. Privatisation threatens free public services. Acute malnutrition among children has doubled. Unemployment, at 70%, has fuelled poverty, prostitution, backstreet abortions and honour killings.
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