BAGHDAD: Iraq has a long history of civilization that has contributed both knowledge and wisdom to humanity. For many centuries, Islam also immunized Iraq against religious or sectarian strife and protected its population from the oppression that peoples of the ancient world had been subjected to. Generation after generation of Iraqis succeeded in maintaining peaceful coexistence among their diverse sects and races, despite the hardships and challenges they faced. It is by virtue of this cohesion that Iraq managed to rise up again and put its house in order in the wake of every calamity.

In recent times, one of the most difficult periods has been the past 35 years, during which Iraq was subjected to one-party rule that dragged the country through a series of misadventures, with heavy losses for the Iraqi people. During the last chapter of that painful era, Iraqis were for many years punished with sanctions that caused the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, most of them children. The sanctions ended with an invasion, followed by an occupation by US and British troops, in complete contravention of international law and in defiance of the UN. The invaders resorted to pretexts that soon proved to be false, including the lie about weapons of mass destruction.

Things became much worse under occupation, which has delivered none of the promised dividends of democracy, freedom, security and prosperity. Instead, Iraqis have been living in fear, poverty, oppression and a lack of freedom.

The occupation troops have resorted to excessive force, indiscriminate killing and collective punishment of the population. They have besieged entire towns, storming into them, instilling fear and horror among residents and destroying their homes. Iraqis have been humiliated and stripped of their basic human rights; they have been subjected to brutal and ghastly forms of torture, as the infamous Abu Ghraib prison case and the British troops’ abuse of detainees in Basra have shown.

In the meantime there has been a scandalous failure by successive Iraqi governments to attend to the basic needs of the population. There has been a continuous rise in unemployment, which has been used to force young men to join the military and security establishments, which in turn throw them into the furnace of a destructive, yet futile, war. Many other young men find themselves drawn into drug trafficking because Iraq has become a theatre for this sinister industry although it had until the invasion been one of the few countries in the world that had no significant drugs problem.

The conduct and motivation of the occupation authorities were suspect right from the start, when they encouraged the organized theft of public properties; left weapon dumps unguarded; dissolved the Iraqi army and replaced it with militias whose agendas are incompatible with the collective interests of the Iraqi people; and when it introduced sectarian and racial quotas in political life, paving the way for serious sectarian and racial conflict that has been exploited by some political groups for their own exclusive ends.

This is what has become of Iraq under occupation. The US and its allies bear full legal and moral responsibility for all this: they are the ones who instigated it by illegally invading Iraq.

This is Iraq’s reality today. It goes without saying that the continuation of this dreadful situation will have very serious repercussions not only for Iraq but for the region and the entire world. What is the solution? The cause of the problem, the source of the trouble, is the occupation which has brought all this upon Iraq and the Iraqis. This has to be eliminated. But the US administration remains committed to its occupation and insistent on pushing ahead with a political process that is entirely without credibility.

The refusal by some Iraqi political groups and religious authorities to endorse this process is not born out of a rejection of peaceful political engagement or a decision to opt for a violent solution — as the occupation-sponsored media machine alleges — but stems from a belief in justice, freedom and independence as basic prerequisites for any genuine political process. None of these prerequisites are present, and therefore the current political process cannot provide the Iraqi people with peace and security. The abuses witnessed during previous elections, as well as during the draft constitution referendum — which had the effect of denying the will of the majority of the Iraqis — only generate scepticism and reinforce the suspicions of those who are boycotting elections. Whether Iraqis take part or not, few regard these latest occupation-sponsored elections as any more free or fair than those that preceded them, and they will not help to solve the crisis facing the country.

For the political process to succeed it must proceed in a healthy environment which will take shape only when occupation comes to an end. The solution to the Iraqi problem is simple and logical: it is one that fully complies with international legality and would serve to reinforce it; that would put an end to the daily haemorrhage of Iraqi blood; that would lay the foundations for a state of law that protects the rights of all its citizens and seeks to secure basic human dignity; that provides an alternative to occupation, as explained in the memorandum submitted to the United Nations and the Arab League.

This solution must be based, first, on an announcement by the US and its allies of a timetable for withdrawing their troops. Second, it would entail replacing the occupation forces with a UN force whose main task would be to fill the security void. This would be followed, thirdly, by the formation of an interim Iraqi government for six months under the supervision of the UN in order to conduct genuine parliamentary elections in which all parts of the Iraqi population would take part. Finally, the duly elected Iraqi government would take charge of the task of rebuilding the country’s civil and military institutions. Nothing will work in Iraq unless the root of the problem is addressed: the occupation must end. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service

LISBON: Ely Silva has had it with Portugal. Disheartened by low pay, a lack of prospects and a stagnant economy, the 25-year-old security guard, like a growing number of Portuguese, has decided on a traditional solution — emigration.

“There’s no work here, you can earn enough to pay the bills and that’s all. I prefer to make sacrifices to get a better future,” Silva said after joining job seekers streaming into an employment agency promising work abroad.

In a mini-revival of an old pattern that scattered almost five million Portuguese around the world, more and more Portuguese are turning their backs on an economy that the central bank forecasts will grow only 0.3 per cent this year.

The number of emigrants jumped to 27,000 in 2003, a 31 per cent rise in two years, government numbers show.

Almost all head for other countries in western Europe, with Britain a favourite destination.

More than 150 emigrants a week were registering with the Portuguese consulate in London last March, up 50 per cent from late 2004, Lusa news agency reported.

About 109,000 Portuguese are registered in Britain, but consular officials estimate that is less than half the number who live there.

“The attitude in Portugal is, ‘If things aren’t going well, I’m emigrating,’” said Maria Engracia Leandro, a sociology professor at Portugal’s University of Minho.

Decades ago, the average Portuguese emigrant was a farm worker with little schooling or training, she said.

Now those leaving are younger and better educated — a loss the nation of 10 million people can ill afford as it seeks to boost growth and bring its economy into line with the rest of the 25-nation European Union.

“The best-qualified people are abandoning the country, so that threatens the potential growth of the economy over the long term,” said Cristina Casalinho, an economist with Banco BPI.

The pattern threatens to deepen a brain drain that five years ago was already the worst among the 30 industrialized countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a World Bank study released in October showed.

According to the report, nearly one in five Portuguese university graduates was living abroad.

Casalinho said she knew about 50 Portuguese with doctorates who were working abroad.

“There’s a lot of insecurity, people don’t have hope in the country, in the government. So they’re getting out,” said Paulo Norton, who owns the employment agency where Silva, the security guard, was looking for work.

Norton, who is based in the northern city of Oporto, opened a second office in Lisbon this year to handle annual growth of 20 to 25 per cent in the number of people seeking jobs abroad.

The exodus signals frustration with the Socialist government’s efforts to revive an economy that from 1999 to 2004 had the third-lowest growth rate in the European Union.

Unemployment stands at 7.7 per cent, the highest rate in at least seven years. The Portuguese also face tax hikes aimed at narrowing the widest budget deficit in the euro currency zone.

Another factor driving emigration is the reluctance of Portuguese workers to take low-paid jobs in construction or service industries.—Reuters