The continuous bombing of American occupation forces over Al Sadr
City in Baghdad, the
joint siege imposed by American and Iraqi army over the last 12 days,
the spreading of
snipers on the roof of buildings, the indiscriminate fire on
civilians increased the numbers of
victims in Al Sadr City, which is now living hell for its inhabitants.
LAONF non violence group calls for immediate stopping of the bombing
from American
occupation forces: it is putting in serious danger people’s lives and
it is a major threat to
peace in Baghdad.
The LAONF group would like to remind Iraqi government its
responsibility to ensure safety
of civilians: what is going on now is a collective punishment for a
city where more than 2
million of Iraqi people live. 70% of them are women and children,
living in precarious houses
what could fall down any moment because of the intense bombing.
The total number of victims in the last few days are is worrying: Al
Shaheed As’sadr hospital
(Al Daghel area), counted 85 people killed, 446 injured, 153 out of
them are women and
children; Al Imam Ali hospital counted 115 people killed and 511
injured.
Many food items are no more available to civilians: most of the local
shops and food stores
have been burned down by snipers or because of the bombing.
We call the President of Iraq, the head of Iraqi Parliament, the
whole Iraqi government, the
United Nations Special Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) for:
1 – immediate cease fire, stop American bombing and withdrawal of all
American troops
surrounding the city;
2 – ending the siege and withdraw all snipers form the top of the
buildings;
3 – sending again Iraqi police to the city for granting public order;
4 - forbidding any kind of weapons inside the city;
5 – allowing representatives and activists of Iraqi and international
NGOs and international
agencies to enter the city and give immediate help to people in need.
As an actor in Iraqi civil society, we would like to remind to all
parties, specially those
convinced that weapons can solve the problem, that violence and
weapons are the real
problem.
We would like to call the attention of all parties on the
humanitarian crises going on in
Baghdad and on the worrying and fast increase of insecurity, that
will become worse if siege
and bombing will go on.
History will consider all of us accountable for the safety of
civilians in Iraq.
Hand in hand for re-establishing rule of law and rejecting this
collective punishment.