Silly Thinking

Here are real suggestions as to what to do about the Human rights situation in Iraq.

From Zmagazine:

Kamil Mahdi
It is not in the interest of the Iraqi people to simply go back to the position before this crisis. War, comprehensive sanctions and containment are all damaging to Iraqi society and detrimental to people's ability to challenge tyranny. Here we are, possibly within days of a cataclysm and certain military defeat, yet the regime's structures are intact.

The alternative to war is not the threat of war, which is implicit and understood. The alternative is to start a political process that empowers the people of Iraq and shifts the domestic balance in their favour. War and sanctions both write off the people and target them. The way to empower the people is by both shifting the agenda and establishing the credibility and authenticity of international concern. Propaganda and spin in the service of war will not convince Iraqis that this is not an imperialist project. The way out of the present impasse is:

1 Maintain weapons inspections to allay western concerns.

2 Introduce human-rights monitors.

3 Lift the economic blockade and demand professionalism and transparency in economic affairs under UN monitoring.

4 Implement Resolution 688, including an end to repression.

5 Genuinely support Iraqis, not by imposing an agenda and stooges on the opposition.

6 Start a process of truth and reconciliation.

7 Relieve debt and remove reparation to enhance moves toward democracy.

8 Move towards UN-supervised elections after a time.

9 Curb Ariel Sharon and move immediately towards a just Middle East peace under resolution 242, with recognition of Palestinian rights.

The Saddam regime is now in retreat and its project is doomed. This is an opportunity to undercut its domestic power base and also to curb extremism. The alternative to a political process is a devastating imperialist war, followed by a bloody liberation struggle.

· Kamil Mahdi is an Iraqi political exile and lecturer in Middle East economics at the University of Exeter.