24 May 2004	Monday	04 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

KARACHI, May 23: Speakers at a forum on Sunday demanded immediate withdrawal of the occupation forces of the United States and its allies from Iraq , and suggested that a multinational force under the United Nations control be sent there for transition of power to the Iraqi people.

The forum on A World Without Law was organized by the Karachi Women's Peace Committee at the PMA House. A former diplomat, Mehdi Masud, head of the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs Fatehyab Ali Khan, Shaista Zaidi, Talat Wazarat, Aun Rehman and Nargis Rehman were among those spoke on the occasion.

They condemned the atrocities, humiliation and torture meted out to Iraqi prisoners by the occupation forces. They pointed out that civilians were being attacked and killed by the alien troops, prisoners tortured and humiliated and places of worship desecrated,attacked and damaged. All this, they warned, was serious violation of international laws.

They said that although the US Defence Secretary had accepted the responsibility for the violation, no action was being taken against him. They call for an appropriate action so that others could be deterred from such an inhuman treatment.

They maintained that the purpose of establishing the UN was to ensure safety and security of mankind, protecting the rights of individuals and groups of people and avoiding wars and disasters like the one Iraq is undergoing, in all the member states.

At the time of its inception, they said, the world body's founding leaders might not have expected that at any stage, a country would become powerful enough to dare breach of world opinion and do anything at its own will.

The speakers rejected the Washington stand that Baghdad was not accepting UN resolutions that prompted the US to invade Iraq. They argued that Israel had not been accepting 32 UN resolutions, Turkey was ignoring 24 and Morocco 16.

"Even India has no regard for the UN resolutions on Kashmir," they added, and wondered that only Iraq was targeted and victimized.

They were of the view that the US had raised the baseless issue of weapons of mass destruction only to occupy Iraq. They said that during the 1991 Gulf War and the post-war economic sanctions, Iraq had completely been crippled. They said that more than one million Iraqis, most of them women, children and the elderly, had died owing to the sanctions.

Some of the speakers pointed out that biggest of the demonstrations held throughout the world against Iraq invasion were organized in European countries and the United States.

They said that people of the Third World in general, and Muslim states in particular, should get united and mobilize public opinion in Europe and elsewhere in order to force the occupation forces to quit Iraq.

The speakers held that the actual purpose of US attack on Iraq was to take over its huge natural resources and build military bases there to consolidate the occupation as well as to control the whole region.

They observed that the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussain in Iraq had been made powerful by Washington itself and were fully supported till they could serve the US purposes.

As soon as they accomplished the task and there was no more a role for them to play, the US removed Taliban and Saddam by using force and invaded both the countries.

They pointed out that while the US was portraying itself as the champion of democracy and human rights, it was in practice supporting dictatorial and non-representative regimes in the Third World, particularly in Islamic world.