Iraqi government's death threats force suspension of conference

The State* Campaign against Occupation and for Sovereignty in Iraq (CEOSI for its Spanish acronym) decided yesterday, in the last minute, to suspend the International Conference of the Iraqi Political Resistance at Xixon (Gijón), Asturias, which had the support of the local and regional government. The reason? Death threats.

Death threats that anyone who has read about Iraq under the current collaborationist regime knows are very real.

Previously, economic and political threats by the government of Nouri Al-Maliki, which cooperates with both the USA and Iran, for a fascist fundamentalist agenda, had got its desired results in form of visa denial by the pathetic submissive government of Rodríguez Zapatero.

To this, the organizers responded by continuing with the conference and establishing videoconference links with Baghdad, Amman and Damascus in order for the banned speakers to be able to address the audience.

But the criminal Maliki was not satisfied and began issuing death threats against the organizers if the conference ever took place.

Such threats have been transmitted directly by the government of Nouri Al-Maliki to the Spanish government, demanding the cancellation of the conference and associated activities. It is believed that the execution of such death threats would correspond to paramilitary groups linked directly to Al Maliki's government.

Under such extreme pressure and the collaborationist innaction of the Spanish government, current president of the EU, the CEOSI decided to suspend the conference altogether, preserving only a visit to the Spanish Parliament next monday, where what happened will be explained again.

The conference intended to bring together and into public limelight, representatives of various human rights groups, civil society organizations and opposition parties and movements of Iraq, such as the Union for the People (communist party), the Southern Iraq Tribes' Council, the National and Islamic Patriotic Front of Iraq, the Association of Muslim Ulemas of Iraq, the Political Council of Iraqi Resistance, National Iraqi Founding Congress, as well as European and US solidarity organizations (see schedule for details).

Source: CEOSI (press release PDF) (in Spanish)

________________________________
*State means State of Spain, a common terminology among anti-imperialists within the multiethnic realm, where the term Spain has a quasi-fascist meaning that many reject.