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Iraq
women hold up a sign that reads: "Bremer creates more enemies
in Iraq by his tough and unjust decisions."
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Additional
reporting by Ayman Qenawi, IOL Staff
BAGHDAD,
June 5 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - In a move that is
likely to trigger an outcry from Iraqi parties, politicians and
scholars as well as international human rights advocates, the U.S.-led
occupation administration said Thursday, June 5, it would outlaw any
"incitement" against the Anglo-American forces in Iraq even
inside mosque.
The
new measure, which is to "go out fairly shortly", would
prohibit "incitement" to "armed insurrection",
including attacks on the U.S. and British troops, an administration
spokesman said.
He
said the ban would be applicable even to mosques if preachers
encourage attacks against the Anglo-American forces in their sermonsć
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"If
someone says: 'Don't shake hands with coalition military', we would
not consider that incitement. If someone said attack our forces and
drive the coalition out of their province, we would consider that to
be incitement," the spokesman argued.
In
their drafted
resolution to the U.N. Security Council to lift the
long-running international sanctions imposed on Iraq, Washington and
London assumed their responsibility as "the occupation
power".
However,
the envisaged ban would strip the Iraqi of their simplest rights,
namely, the right to resist the occupation of their country.
"One
of the pretexts propagated by the United States and Britain for waging
war against Iraq was to liberate the Iraqi people and grant them
democracy and freedom of expression," Abdul Hadi Ahmed, an
Egyptian journalist and foreign affairs expert told IslamOnline.net.
"Now
they are going to ban Iraqis, including politicians and scholars, from
expressing their opposition to the occupation and rallying Iraqis to
resist it, a legitimate right stipulated by international law,"
the journalist-cum-expert asserted.
He
vocalized fears that the Americans might exploit the new ban to
suppress anti-occupation opposition and not only armed resistance, in
light of mounting criticism
by various Iraqi powers of the U.S. decision to scrap
an Iraqi national conference which was to debate the formation of an
interim Iraqi government.
"The
United States might think it has the right to curb armed resistance
but it certainly does not have the right to silence those who oppose
its occupation of their country," Ahmed stressed.
The
announcement of the imminent ban came just hours after a U.S.
soldier was killed and five were wounded in Fallujah, where
anti-occupation sentiments have been on the boil since at least 16
Iraqis were gunned down by U.S. troops in April.
Ironically,
the U.S.-led occupation administration spokesman said they had no
intention of stifling the public demonstrations, adding calls for
peaceful protests against the American troops would remain lawful.
"Nothing
in this notice will be designed to curb public debate. It is certainly
not going to be illegal to criticize the coalition."
He
said enforcement of the new ban would be "down to the authority
and down to the military who are supporting us.
"If
someone basically breaks the guidelines in that notice, we will take
action."
He
said the ban would be published in a re-launched Iraqi legal gazette
along with other orders it has issued so far.
The
first edition was expected to appear in the next two weeks and would
be distributed free.
U.S.
administrator of Iraq had already banned
members of the once ruling Baath party, numbering in hundreds of
thousands, from holding any public offices in the occupied country.
He
had also dissolved
the Iraqi army, driving some 400,000 military personnel jobless.
