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| 10 April 2005 | Sunday | 30 Safar 1426 |
Huge rally demands US to quit Iraq: 29 killed on invasion’s anniversary
Chanting “No, no, USA,” followers of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr converged on Firdous Square, where US troops helped Iraqis pull down a huge statue of former president Saddam two years ago.
The rally, organised by Sadr, is believed to be the largest demonstration since US troops entered the country.
“O God, cut off their necks, the way they are cutting off our necks and terrorising us,” said Sadr representative Sheikh Nasir al-Saaidi, reading a speech from his boss. “There will be no peace, no security, until the occupation leaves.”
Iraqi flags fluttered in the sea of demonstrators, many of whom were dressed in black, the uniform of Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia. Many wore green and black Islamic headbands.
Sadr followers said the rally was the first of many to pressure the new Iraqi government to demand that US troops withdraw, but they stressed Sadr was not calling for a resumption of armed struggle against the US military.
“We’ve organised ourselves now to continue these demonstrations until we force the government and national assembly to take our demands seriously and carry them out,” Moayad al-Khazrajy, a senior aide to Sadr, told AFP.
“We’ve received strict orders from Sayed Moqtada not to carry weapons and even if we’re fired at by occupation forces not to respond. For the time being, our position is peaceful.”
Khazraji read off to the crowd Sadr’s demands of the Iraqi government. They included a quick trial for Saddam; making Thursday the second day off in the week not Saturday, due its association with the Jewish Sabbath; the freeing of all Iraqi detainees; the strengthening of border security; and that the parliament respect the resistance and bring it into the political process.
Some waved the notorious picture of a hooded naked Iraqi detainee, with wires attached to his body. It was released during the Abu Ghraib prison scandal last year that blemished the US record in Iraq.
Sunni clerics from the Committee of Muslim Scholars, which organized a boycott of historic January elections, also urged followers to join the protest.
A shopkeeper from Sadr City, Baqr Mussa, vented frustration at the continuing US presence and the failure by the Americans to execute Saddam.
“We are very angry. We don’t believe we’ve just lived two years since the war. All the buildings are still burnt and destroyed,” Mussa said. “Saddam is still in the prison and they have not even judged him yet for all his crimes. We are very angry, and we want all the world to hear our voice.”
Sadr, a voice of Iraq’s Shia urban poor, rocketed to prominence in the power vacuum after the fall of Saddam two years ago. He quickly founded his thousands-strong Mehdi Army militia.—AFP
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