Support from Falluja for Simonas
Italian newspaper Repubblica (which has a timeline here)reports that in a post on the site Islamic-Minbar.com a group calling itself Ansar El Zawahri claims responsibility for kidnapping the Simonas, however Mohammed Salah, editor of Al Hayat has expressed doubt about the claim. This kidnapping is even harder to understand than Enzo's. Un Ponte Per Baghdad is well known throughout Iraq for supporting the Iraqi people through the long years of sanctions, in opposition to the war and now demonstrating solidarity through these difficult years of occupation. The kidnapping was carefully targetted - the kidnappers knew their names, where there office was and when they would be there. (photo: Simona Pari on left, Simona Torretta on right)
A statement of support of them (in arabic) has been issued by the human rights organisation in Fallujah, where Bridges to Baghdad provided medical aid during the siege in April. Also Islamonline reports a plea issued by Mohammed Bachar Sharif Al-Faidhi from the Committee of Muslim Ulema, Iraqi's most senior organisation of Sunni Muslim scholars; brothers Mohammad and Jaouad Mahdi Al-Khalisi from the Iraqi reform council; and Shlemon Wardnuni, the Catholic bishop of Baghdad: “In the name of God the merciful... we urge the kidnappers to release immediately and without pre-conditions the two Italians -- who were working in the interest of Iraq and the Iraqi people -- and their Iraqi colleagues.”
4 comments:
Justin, you may remember ... we met in Mumbai (seminar on Nonviolence). Please help us circulate, as widely as possible the following Appeal for the liberation of the hostages. It would be ideal if we could collect here (at my e-mail) all messages of support and news of any events/vigils etc.
Peace,
Lisa
Appeal for the Liberation of Simona Pari, Simona Torretta, Ra'ad Ali Abdul-Aziz and Mahnaz Bassam - from the Italian Peace Movement.
We, the Italian peace movement, we who are the brothers and sisters of Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, peaceworkers in Iraq, ask those who are holding them and their two Iraqi co-workers, Ra’ad Ali Abdul-Aziz and Mahnaz Bassam, to release them immediately. We beg you to consider the untold damage your actions are inflicting on the cause of peace and of the Iraqi people.
We endorse the words of the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy: “Bear witness to the debt of gratitude towards those who shared the suffering of the Iraqis during the years of the sanctions, who stayed in the country while bombs were raining down, who refused to abandon the country even during these last, horrible months of confusion and violence.”
We entreat you not to sever the bond of solidarity which - despite and against the economic sanctions and war, despite the decisions of our Italian government - people like our sisters have built and strengthened, bravely and with determination, for example organizing the delivery of drinking water to the inhabitants of the besieged cities of Falluja and Najaf.
“A Bridge to Baghdad”, their NGO, together with hundreds of social and political organisations in our country, were the organizers of enormous demonstrations in favour of peace and calling for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq; they did everything they could to avoid leaving the Iraqi people alone under the arbitrary rule of the occupying forces.
In the name of this struggle, in the name of truth, we beg you: release them immediately.
We ask the Iraqi people and all peace-loving people in the world, and in Italy, to help us in the effort to save the lives of Simona Pari, Simona Torretta, Ra’ad Ali Abdul-Aziz, Mahnaz Bassam. They were in Baghdad in our name, in the name of us all. Today, we are all captives, we are all in their prison with them.
Their release would shed a ray of light in this dark night of violence. As we write, in many Iraqi cities, war is still causing innocent victims. For this reason we continue to call for an end to all fighting, an end to the occupation.
Mobilization, pressure, lobbying, appeals, candlelight vigils, messages to governments - these are the tools we, the peace-loving people, can use. Let us use them all, now.
We ask the Italian peace movement to take to the streets, in every city, immediately, with the rainbow colours of our peace flags and in the name of our sisters and brothers who have been kidnapped in Iraq.
7 September 2004.
The Italian “Stop the War” Committee, which organized the mass demonstrations on 15 February 2003 and 20 March 2004.
A Bridge to Baghdad.
Sorry, it appears that I am anonymous, ie w/out e-mail address.
lisa.clark@libero.it
Peace.
Eyewitness accounts reveal those who captured the Simonas were equipped with "Zap Straps", law enforcement utility belts and other hardware not associated in the past with any of the armed resistance groups. Many were dressed as Iraqi National Police. They had very good intelligence and asked for the four abductees by name. They arrived en masse from the direction of a military checkpoint in vehicles that were in good repair. Approximately 15 minutes later, US patrols came from the direction of their departure. No other vehicle traffic is reported to have travelled that road in that direction from the time of the kidnapping.
The Occupation Forces have harassed and killed people who worked for the organization in the course of their breaking of numerous US seiges of Iraqi cities and towns, bringing in water and food and escorting ambulances which the Occupation Forces used for target practice. These actions indirectly supported the resistance militarily. This is because the US seige strategy was to starve and inflict as many civilian casualties as possible to terrify and demoralize the locals so that they would cease backing the resistance and capitulate. Most of the cities and towns held out and the US had to leave effective control in the hands of the resistance.
The Simonas were loved and respected by the resistance as was the entire organization. Every Iraqi and Muslim organization has called for their release, including the most hard line anti-US groups in and outside of Iraq, the head of one of which has gone on a hunger strike until the return of the "hostages". All Muslim charitable and scholarly organizations have done the same. It appears the abductors bluff has been called. Remember, In all verified resistance actions, the hostages have been released after a short time, once the hostage-takers have ascertained the veracity of their sympathies. The political sympathies of these abductees was well known prior to their abduction.
The only animus was from the US, their mercenaries, their quislings and their allies. Add to this another anonymous Internet posting purportedly from the kidnappers with no detail of origin and which quickly disappeared from the Internet. The group has never been heard of before. They are not exactly pressing their demands very strongly. This does not bode well for the abductees.
The "Zap Straps" are a clear giveaway. If the abductors were genuine Iraqis, they did not need them and would not have access to them. They would be superfluous. Any resistance to the abduction could have been met with lethal force. I am aware of no reports of Islamist or resistance groups ever using them in an abduction. They have always used the threat of firearms which are plentiful throughout the country.
Inquiries with respect to the Simonas whereabouts should be directed to the US and SISMI. After all, that's who has been surveilling A Bridge to Bagdad for years.
I fear their bodies will turn up dead (perhaps timed with the surfacing of a poorly faked video of unknown origin, or at least a note claiming responsibility) for consumption in the West to show the barbarity of the Iraqi resistance, Arabs, and Muslims generally, that they should murder even those who sympathize with them.
Pretty transparent, no?
A group of 20 armed men coming and returning from the direction of the "Green Zone"?
Hmmmmm.......
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