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this comes from an email by Dahr Jamail and his Iraq Dispatches
Statement of the Council of Nineveh Province Notables, Sheikhs and Uleima.
In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful
A memorandum from Nineveh Province Dignitaries, Sheikhs and Uleima to:
General Secretary of the United Nations
General Secretary of the League of Arab Nations
General Secretary of the Organisation of Islamic States
Kings and Presidents of the Arab and Islamic States
All Humanitarian and Human Rights Organisations
In the light of the difficult circumstance that our country and people
in general and the Province of Nineveh in particular are going through,
a number of dignitaries and tribal chiefs from the Nineveh Province have
met to discuss the tragic condition of the people of the Province under
the shadow of the deficiency and absence of legislative and executive
authorities and their security and military authorities which have
changed to become tools for the oppression of the people of the Province
and to add further to their misery.
After discussions, it was decided to raise the following memorandum in
the hope it may find some response to this call to protect this Arabic
Islamic city and to assist our people in the Province of Nineveh.
We demand an International Committee of Enquiry in addition to an Iraqi
committee formed by representatives of Uleima, Sheikhs and Notables
drawn from central and southern Iraq to investigate the crimes committed
by the American occupation forces assisted by members of the Interior
Special Forces and National Guard. We especially point to the sectarian
crimes and the rape of Iraqi women which count as grave precedent in
Iraq. The Iraqi Government is partner to all of these crimes in the
absence of the media and in particular the killing and kidnapping of
journalists by mercenaries of the occupation after terrorising and
excluding satellite stations and Arabic and International media
preventing the coverage of what is going on to enable the slaughter of
Iraqi people without witnesses.
As we lay before the international public opinion and international
human rights organisations the truth of what is happening in Tel Afar of
the extreme use of force and the use of internationally forbidden
weapons of poison gases, cluster, microwave and napalm bombs, we demand
autopsies be carried out on the corpses of our sons who fell in the
barbaric aggression by international medical bodies to verify the
inhuman practices carried out by the American forces of occupation and
to expose the stooge militias that participated in the massacre of Tel Afar.
We warn as responsible people of the dangers of the ongoing ethnic
cleansing in Tel Afar and the left bank of the city of Mosul and
surrounding villages carried out by Beshmarga militias of the Kurdish
parties and Badir Brigade “which are acting as regular forces of the
National Guard” aided by the silence of the government where in
particular the homes of the Sunna in the city of Tel Afar are destroyed
after the men are arrested and women and children are forcibly evicted
under threat of death and rape.
We demand an end to the organised campaign of arrest against the Sunna.
About fifty to a hundred sons, sheikhs and teachers of the Province are
arrested only to be released days later after the payment of bribes
which exposes how low the perpetrators are and their aim of breaking the
morale of the people of the Province.
We demand the trial of the ministers of defence and interior for what
they have caused to our people in Tel Afar and Mosul as a result of
crimes rejected by human conscience. We also hold the government
responsible for the exterminations and bloody butchery which took place
in the city of Tel Afar and the extreme cruelty meted out to Sunna
civilians both Arab and Turcoman.
We also demand the removal of the Governor of Nineveh Duraid Kashmoola
who was too weak to do anything to assist the people of the Province and
for keeping silent about all the assassinations and arrests carried out
the Kurdish gangs and the Forces of Badir against the sons and notables
of the Province. We also site his silence and failure to put a stop to
Kurdish expansion which has encompassed all the villages of the
Province. Kurdish gangs have abrogated the right to the control of all
towns and villages surrounding Mosul where they treat all non Arabs even
though they are not Kurdish such as Yezidis, Assyrians and Shabak, as
Kurds by force. They also appointed party functionaries over such
villages, took down the Iraqi flags and raised Kurdish flags instead.
Kurdish militias have in fact occupied the left bank of the city of
Mosul itself and took down the Iraqi flags then raised Kurdish flags
instead. The Governor has not stirred because the Province is lead by
the Kurdish deputy Governor Khisro Kolani. He is the very person
responsible for leading all of the extermination and assassination
operations against the Uleima, the sons of the Province, its sheikhs and
teachers. All of the people of Mosul know that he is the person
responsible for the assassination of the previous Governor Dr. Osama
Yousif Kashmoola because he made a stand against the Kurdish tide.
While we warn of the gravity of the security situation in the Province
in general and Tel Afar in particular we lay the responsibility for the
latest sectarian escalation upon the party militias working as regular
forces such as the National Guard as represented by the wolf and thunder
brigades. In addition to arbitrary arrests, inhuman treatment, violation
of residents’ rights and the theft of their belongings they shout upon
entering towns in the Province “The army of AlHusain is here to break
the noses of the Sunnis”. This is a simple indicator of the sectarianism
and hatred of such groups which was not familiar to either Sunni or Shia
Iraqis and is a further clear indicator of the treachery of the parties
that entered from beyond the borders of the Iraqi people.
We demand the withdrawal of all militias and all armed manifestations
from the city of Mosul where these militias have established check
points and distributed weapons to young militia men in an effort to
terrorise the residents of Mosul. They have cut off roads arbitrarily
while the Governor does nothing; in fact he is the last to know. They
have hoisted Kurdish flags over buildings in order to establish a de
facto state as if we live in a country that is not Iraq. Every one knows
that Mosul (despite our belief that all Iraqi cities are for all Iraqis)
is an Arab city from old while the Kurdish residents in the left bank
are those who migrated in last few years under pressure of difficult
circumstances encountered in their areas. The people of Mosul opened
their arms to their brothers and embraced them not to turn their city
Kurdish because they believed in the unity of this country. This is in
sharp contrast with the banning of Iraqi Arabs from owning, building or
investing in the northern areas. In addition there is a campaign of
harassment to non Kurdish travellers to the north of Iraq.
We protest at the news blackout and total silence practiced by
international organisations and human rights organisations towards what
is taking place in Tel Afar and Mosul.
We protest at the news blackout and total silence practiced by Arab
satellite stations towards what happened and is happening in Tel Afar
and Mosul.
We protest the Arab, Islamic and International silence towards the use
of weapons of mass destruction against our people in Tel Afar and demand
an International Committee of Enquiry similar to the one investigating
the death of Al-Hariri or is the blood of the people of Iraq in Tel Afar
does not warrant investigating?
With God’s Peace and Blessings
The Council of Nineveh Province Notables, Sheikhs and Uleima.
Mosul 22/12/2005
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