BAGHDAD, July 9: The bombing may have stopped and Saddam vanished but the global anti-war movement believes its mission in Iraq is not over and has established a centre here to monitor abuses by the US-led occupation force.

The movement announced on Wednesday it had set up a centre in Baghdad to monitor abuses by the coalition forces.

The “International Occupation Watch Centre” will investigate and report on abuses such as “illegal detentions, the dismissal of more than 100,000 employees, improper searches, illegal seizures of properties”, according to Ted Lewis of non-governmental organisation Global Exchange.

“There were 40 million people in the streets against the war,” said Medea Benjamin of United for Peace and Justice, an organisation that groups about 600 anti-war non-governmental organisations.

“This is a reorganisation of the anti-war movement to say ‘no’ to the occupation,” she told AFP.

Coalition forces “must provide basic security and deliver basic services,” Lewis of Global Exchange added.

In short, the movement has high if far-fetched ambitions.

“We want the occupation forces to withdraw,” said Fabio Alberti from the organisation Bridges to Baghdad, formed during the decade of UN economic sanctions on Iraq to provide humanitarian relief to Iraqis.

Alberti believes “there is no reason for the occupation” now that Saddam Hussein is gone.

The centre has ties to dovish groups spanning the world from the Europe-based World Social Forum, to groups in Southeast Asia, an organisation called “Arabs Resisting Globalisation” and the US-based United for Peace and Justice coalition, Benjamin said. The activists are keeping a vigilant eye on all aspects of the coalition operations,—AFP