Press release from the Danish Committee for a Free Iraq
June 6, 2005
In the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten and the tv-station TV2, on June 6, the Danish Committee for a Free Iraq is linked to a so-called Saddam Party, which is claimed to be under formation “in Europe and maybe in Denmark” (1). Allegations insinuate that we call for terror.
We would like to make absolutely clear that the link between us and the alleged formation of a “Saddam Party” is completely without any foundation and profoundly absurd. The same goes for the accusation that we encourage terror. We view this smear campaign as an intent to criminalize political protest and to use the terror legislation to suppress freedom of speech. We regard the smear campaign against us as an emotional intent to discredit and suppress people and organizations, which are critical of the illegal occupation of Iraq, and to suppress supporters of the legitimate resistance against it.
Therefore, we would like to stress the following:
The Danish Committee for a Free Iraq´s purpose is to disseminate information and analyses of the illegal occupation of Iraq and the ensuing horrendous consequences to the Iraqi people. We do so, among other ways, through our website: www.fritirak.dk. Herein we also give space to Iraqi voices that are otherwise not heard in this country, especially those voices of the legitimate resistance movement in its breadth.
We have published, and will continue to do so, declarations and analyses from various parts of the Iraqi resistance, including the Baath Party, which that torturous occupying force has outlawed in Iraq. Our perception is that knowledge about the resistance´s positions is decisive in order to understand the reality of Iraq.
The Iraqi resistance movement, which the US-led occupying force is calling “terrorists” just as other occupying forces in history, has enormous popular support. This shows the results of the resistance movement: It has forced 13 nation states out of the occupying military coalition and forced the US into a tremendous quagmire.
Our committee attempts to increase the Danish people´s knowledge and understanding of what is actually taking place in Iraq, an understanding that the occupying power and its claque definitely do not wish. They wish to carry on spreading their new lies about “democracy” and “reconstruction” in Iraq, which replaced the old, lies about Iraq´s weapons of mass destruction and connections with Al-Qaeda when they were exposed.
We must always be clear: the war and subsequent occupation are illegal, a violation of international law, and that resistance against an occupying force, by all means, is legitimate according to the same international law.
We support the legitimate Iraqi resistance struggle, and we mean that all occupying powers, including the Danish one, must immediately leave Iraq and thereby return the country to its people.
On behalf of the Danish Committee for a Free Iraq
Carsten Kofoed, spokesman
Note:
1. The “trigger” of the smear campaign was the Danish publication of a statement of Izzat Al-Douri, Acting Chief Secretary of the Iraqi Baath Party, entitled “Letter from the militant leader of the Iraqi Resistance Izzat Ibrahim ad-Duri” on www.fritirak.dk, the website of the Danish Committee for a Free Iraq.
Danish translation: http://www.fritirak.dk/artikler/synspunkt/2005/0530-id.htm
Komiteen for et Frit Irak, The Committee for a Free Iraq, Denmark
Hjemmeside/Website: www.fritirak.dk
E-mail: fritirak@fritirak.dk
Talsmand/Spokesman: Carsten Kofoed, (+45) 61 27 41 77
