We are not alone, we are the majority!

[Michel Collon <michel.collon at skynet.be>]

We are not alone: WE are the majority!
Exclusive interview with Dirk Adriaensens, coordinator SOS Iraq and member
of the Executive committee of the BRussells Tribunal
By Gabriele Zamparini (*)
CONTACT : ONLY dirk.adriaensens at skynet.be

"War does not determine who is right.
Only who is left." - Bertrand Russell
The list of people who are part of this international network is really
impressive. Academics, activists, journalists, artists, human rights
advocates and two former "UN Assistant Secretary General & United Nations
Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq" who have told the world the truth. Even
more important, many among these people are Iraqis.

I asked Dirk Adriaensens, coordinator SOS Iraq and member of the Executive
committee of the BRussells Tribunal, to tell me more about this network.

QUESTION: Why the name, "BRussells Tribunal"? Tell me how did you start.

ANSWER: The BRussells Tribunal was originally a hearing committee composed
of academics, intellectuals and artists in the tradition of the Russell
Tribunal, set up in 1967 to investigate war crimes committed during the
Vietnam War. The hearing took place on 14-17th April 2004 at The
Beursschouwburg and Les Halles in Brussels, 2 prestigious venues in
Belgium. It was presided by Professor François Houtart, who participated in
the Bertrand Russell War Crimes Tribunal on US Crimes in Vietnam in 1967,
and who is one of the founding fathers of the World Social Forum in Porto
Alegre. The hearing committee was directed against the war in Iraq and the
imperial war policies of the Bush II administration. Its main focus was the
'Project for the New American Century', the think tank behind this war, in
particular three of the co-signatories of the mission statement: Donald
Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz.
Just before the war started, a petition was launched by Philosophy
Professor Lieven De Cauter. It was signed by some 500 artists, writers,
intellectuals and academics, including Richard Plunz, Irving Wolfharth,
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and François Houtart. It
called for moral and, if possible, legal action against the 'Project for
the New American Century' and those responsible for the war against Iraq.
It was published on March 21 in two Belgian newspapers, De Standaard and De
Morgen. It soon appeared that legal action was unlikely to succeed, hence
the idea to set up a 'Moral Court' or 'People's Court' to condemn the US
government's policy as well as the think tanks behind it.

A broad platform composed of several Belgian cultural organizations was
created to carry out the petition's first proposal: to set up a BRussells
Tribunal. At a networking conference set up by the Bertrand Russell Peace
Foundation at the end of June 2003 in Brussels, it was decided that a
series of hearings would be held in different places all over the world,
culminating in a final session in Istanbul. The BRussells Tribunal was one
of these commissions of inquiry, the opening session of the World Tribunal
on Iraq. The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation accepted to support the
initiative.

Our tribunal session itself had an impressive list of participants and
witnesses: Denis Halliday, Hans von Sponeck, Jacques Derrida, Ramsey Clark,
Nawal El Saadawi, Michael Parenti, Karen Parker, Jim Lobe, Tom Barry, Samir
Amin, Immanuel Wallerstein and many others. A part of your documentary "XXI
CENTURY" was showed as evidence against the PNAC, and was the opening
testimony of the Tribunal.

The BT is a network, not a formally structured organisation, working on a
zero budget. Every honest campaigner against this occupation, who agrees
with the different platform texts and the Istanbul conclusions, is welcome.
This is very important I think. It's a very mature network, having only one
goal: the end of the occupation of Iraq.

QUESTION: The BRussells Tribunal was a very successful initiative. Tell me
about the future.

ANSWER: The BRussells Tribunal was very successful in terms of quality and
attendance. The conclusions can be read on our website. And even in terms
of national attention of the Press we could not complain, really. But on
the other hand we have come to realize that neither the BRussells Tribunal
nor the World Tribunal on Iraq, with its final session in Istanbul last
June, are really known to the larger public. In that respect we failed to
break through the glass ceiling of mainstream media. There is still work to
do to let the world know. But we decided not only to focus on this
spreading of the conclusions.

In Brussels we had our session more than a year ago, and we were facing the
question what to do next, how to proceed according to our conclusions. We
decided to ACT. The ongoing atrocities in Iraq need our monitoring and the
Iraqis need our support. Apart from a Christmas vigil in several towns in
Belgium and participation in all sorts of public debates, we set up a mass
protest against the visit of Bush to Brussels on Sunday February 20th. It
was a big success and this time we got into the mainstream media. Even the
NYT and the International Herald Tribune. For us doing 'positive press
action' has become crucial. We regularly receive very strong material from
inside Iraq, and often we get these testimonies published, on progressive
websites like www.uruknet.info or even in the local mainstream media. More
important: these stories will never be "old news". They can later be used
in courts to judge the war crimes of the occupation forces, or they can be
compiled in a book so that this black page in history will be remembered.

We made 10 proposals, you can read them on our website, for the future
work, based on our experience and ideas. They were presented in the
workshop on the WTI at the Conference of the European Network for Peace and
Human Rights, 20/21 October 2005 at the European Parliament in Brussels. I
admit that our 10-point plan is ambitious, but I think we should be
ambitious and I tell you why.

An Iraqi told me - I think it was after the opening session - that the WTI
as a network was the only real instance where the whole worldwide protest
to this war and subsequent occupation could be kept alive, continue and
come together. Let's not squander this trust and dismiss its appeal too
quickly. The silence of the mainstream media on Iraq has become deafening.
I checked it out with many people: nobody has even heard about Tal Afar. We
have a tremendous responsibility. We have achieved a lot, and the session
of the WTI in Istanbul was a culminating point in the work of the worldwide
peace movement, but there are still huge potentialities. The occupation
forces are already starting to think about withdrawal. So we should think
about creative and effective ways to accelerate this withdrawal. The
BRussells Tribunal and the WTI should therefore even multiply their efforts.

QUESTION: The list of names that are part of your network is really
impressive. Tell me more about this. How do you work with them?

ANSWER: The BRussells Tribunal grew naturally. Problems were solved as they
occurred. I'll give an example. The Advisory committee was created after we
met with Dahr Jamail, Nadia McCaffrey, Abdul Ilah Al Bayaty, and others who
expressed their desire to keep on cooperating with us. We received a call
from Iraq for advice on international humanitarian law. Other people wanted
to stay in contact with us and asked us what plans we had for the future.
We also asked other people, like you, to join us because they were already
involved in some way or another with the Tribunal and were willing to
combine activism with their work as artists, journalists, academics, etc.

I've been involved in the anti-sanctions movement since 1990. For 13 years
it was a lonely fight, and I met a lot of good friends during that period.
Some of them, who remained active after the invasion, are now members of
our Advisory Committee. And the circle will be broadened as we continue.
Our consistent and effective way of working has attracted some fine and
influential people indeed. It's an explosive mixture of academics,
activists, lawyers, artists, journalists and intellectuals. They seem to
believe in the format of this network. In a way it's reassuring to belong
to an active group and be able to discuss recent developments and actions.
Otherwise the battle for peace and justice can get very lonely. Now all
these people are connected with each other through the internet and can ask
or give advice, bring ideas to the forum, spread important news etc. So we
also act as a sort of hub. The way this committee works is a rather new
concept, I don't know about any similar initiative. And it's very workable.

This Advisory committee does not only exist on paper, nor is it only a
discussion forum. When we issued Dahr Jamail's report: Iraqi Hospitals
ailing under occupation, the conclusions have been partly written and
amended by the Committee.

The Iraqis suggested having an action against the joint US-UE conference on
Iraq, held in Brussels on June 22 and the committee wrote the platform text
for the action. The Spanish committee CEOSI - member of the BT's committee
- did a similar action in Madrid on the same day with the same platform
text.

On August 9, 2005, Amnesty International launched a "Call for a human
rights based constitution". This action alert called on people to write to
Iraq's prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, asking him to make sure that the
constitution is one that respects human rights. After our Iraqi friends
raised serious questions about the relevance of such a call, we drafted, in
cooperation with them, an open letter to Amnesty International. We pleaded
that it would be more suitable if Amnesty International keeps on
concentrating its efforts on denouncing the grave violations of human
rights inflicted upon the Iraqi people by the occupying forces in order to
bring the responsible war criminals to justice, instead of starting a
campaign that de facto gives some legitimisation to this inhumane
occupation and its Quisling government, whose legality is highly
questionable.

The latest statement on the action in solidarity with the Iraqi health
workers was drafted and amended by our committee. And don't forget that
members of our committee were actively involved in correcting the
falsifications by the mass media about the use of the White Phosphorous.

QUESTION: In my opinion, one of the most important aspects of your
organization is that it works closely with many Iraqis and Iraqi
organizations. In a situation where most of the media are cooperating with
the occupation forces in preventing information to reach the world public
opinion, your work is even more important. What can you tell us about this?

ANSWER: This may be indeed the most important aspect of the BRussells
Tribunal, and unique altogether in the Western Peace Movement. The backbone
of our committee is composed of patriotic Iraqis, both from inside Iraq and
from the Diaspora. They belong to different currents. We have people from
different Human Rights organisations inside Iraq. This choice wasn't made
accidentally. They are better aware of the pitfalls. They know better than
all of us the realities on the ground. They know better what has to be done
in the current situation and can help on a different number of issues. They
understand what's going on in Iraq. It's their country. If we want to
spread correct information and viewpoints to the Western audiences, we need
the Iraqis to advise us. The BRussells Tribunal is about THEIR country. So
we want to be a bridge between the Iraqi and the Western peace movement. We
publish regularly eyewitness accounts and Iraqi Human Rights reports that
we receive.

There's no chance to patronize the Iraqis: they decide the direction. As to
our position towards the Iraqi resistance: It's not our duty, nor our right
to judge this resistance. And we should certainly avoid affiliation to one
current or another resisting the occupation. We have to keep the same
distance from all currents and at the same time support and show our
solidarity with all the different currents of the real resistance, all this
in accordance to the Istanbul conclusions, that stated clearly the support
for the Iraqis' right to resist this dreadful occupation. And we certainly
make no distinction between "civil" and "armed" resistance. Resistance is
resistance against a rapacious power "by all means possible".

Among the peace movement in the West, there are a lot of false ideas and
viewpoints about the Iraqi resistance. It's about time that these
viewpoints are corrected. We want to contribute to that, by translating
statements, etc.

The media have successfully mixed up the 'Salvador Option' with actions of
the Iraqi resistance, and the views that the average person in the West
has, are totally biased. Three billion dollars out of the 87 billion dollar
Pentagon budget for 2004 was meant to create militias and for covert
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's our task to correct this distorted
vision, I believe. Does anyone know that most of the barbarous acts against
civilians are openly condemned by all fractions of the resistance? Only
about 3% of the victims of this occupation are caused by acts like suicide
bombs, etc. But these are the only ones reported by the mainstream media.
Be reasonable: if the resistance would target civilians, they would never
gain the massive support they currently have. The occupiers now use the
same arguments as the British did back in the 20's of the previous century:
"if we leave, there will be civil war". Most Iraqis and specialists on
Iraq, like Denis Halliday or Robert Fisk, state clearly that there will be
no civil war if the US troops leave. On the contrary: if they stay, there
will be a civil war, because all the illegal laws that the occupiers have
issued, including the recent constitution, are meant to divide the country
along sectarian lines, in order to "divide et impera".

QUESTION: Tell me about the ongoing BT's "Solidarity call with the plight
of Iraqi health workers"

ANSWER: As was suggested (mainly by Iraqis) at the WTI-workshop at the
European Network Conference on Peace and Human Rights, 20-21 October 2005,
Dr. Bert De Belder, coordinator of Medical Aid For The Third World, also a
member of our committee, has drafted a statement: "Stop violations of the
right to health in Iraq", meant for large diffusion and signing by
healthcare personnel and activists, in support of Iraqi colleagues.

The first paragraph reads: "As large-scale US-led military operations in
Iraq continue unabated, the health situation on the ground is at breaking
point. The Iraqi health infrastructure, medical doctors and hospital staff
are unable to cope with the deepening medical and humanitarian crisis. As
they themselves are often targets of harassment and attack, doctors and
medical staff find it near impossible to perform their duties as health
workers."

Once fully signed, it will go immediately to the UN Commission on Human
Rights Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Mr. Paul Hunt (New
Zealand) and he should be encouraged to investigate as part of his mandate.
It will also be sent to the OAS as a kind of "amicus curiae" statement to
support the court case of Karen Parker.

At the coming WSF in Bamako, Karachi and Caracas there will be activities
and discussions on Bert's statement, on the report by Dahr Jamail and on
the testimonies and analyses about the use of WMD in Iraq.

QUESTION: Another thing the world knows little or nothing is the systematic
assassination of Iraqi intellectuals.

ANSWER: The Iraqis are very worried about what happens with the
"intellectual head" of Iraq. Academics, doctors and scientists are being
killed on a daily basis. This 'war on Learning', as Robert Fisk of the
Independent called it, is making Iraqi intellectual's work impossible and
further augments the view that a 'normal life' in Iraq is far too dangerous
for them. According to an article in the Times Higher Education Supplement
'there is a widespread feeling among the Iraqi academics that they are
witnessing a deliberate attempt to destroy intellectual life in Iraq'.
Furthermore, according to Dr Sinawi - a geologist formerly employed at
Baghdad University - the academic dismissals and the assassination of
intellectuals will bring a 'disruption of higher education in Iraq for
years to come. This will dramatically affect the standard of teaching and
research for generations'. Many academics in Iraq have been imprisoned,
have disappeared, or were forced into exile. We compiled a preliminary list
already. The BRussells Tribunal will very shortly start a campaign
"Academics For Peace", to create awareness on this disturbing evolution.
Our Spanish friends from CEOSI will probably host an international
conference in Madrid on this issue

QUESTION: Since your long experience as an activist working in these
issues, what would you suggest to the many people around the world who
share your feelings and your views but feel powerless and demoralized by
the current situation?

ANSWER: Do we have a choice, as human beings who want a peaceful world?
What will our children say about the world we leave to them? I believe we
have a tremendous responsibility. No time to quit now. The Iraqis are
successfully fighting the occupation. Let me remind you of what John Pilger
said in an interview with Democracy Now on Dec. 31 2003: "I think the
resistance in Iraq is incredibly important for all of us. I think that we
depend on the resistance to win so that other countries might not be
attacked, so that our world in a sense becomes more secure. Now, I don't
like resistances that produce the kind of terrible civilian atrocities that
this one has, but that is true of all of the resistances. This one is a
resistance against a rapacious power, that if it is not stopped in Iraq
will go on as we now know to North Korea where Mr. Cheney and others are
just chomping at the bit to have a crack at that country. So, what the
outcome of this resistance is terribly important for the rest of the world.
I think if the United States' military machine and the Bush administration
can suffer -- Well, the let's say, quote, defeat, unquote, because it was
never a complete defeat in Vietnam, but if they suffer something like that
in Iraq [they can be stopped]"

We have to help the Iraqi people when and where we can to put an end to
this illegal occupation. I went to see Robert Fisk in Antwerp on Nov. 2. He
said: "the US has already lost the war. Don't let the mainstream media try
to convince you of the opposite". So why should we be demoralized or feel
powerless?

We know that the current Western peace movement is quite weak. But is that
a reason to be discouraged? One advice: switch off your TV and look at some
decent news-outlets about Iraq, like www.uruknet.info And mind you: On
Alexa.com they're listed as the most read website on Iraq. They have more
online readers than CNN, BBC, NYT, you name it. So why the pessimism?

I believe that if we globalize resistance against this US war OF terror,
and even more important, work more closely TOGETHER with people and
organisations that believe that another world is possible, the demoralising
feeling vanishes. Our network is a very concrete example of that. We
started this because we couldn't remain silent. And look what we achieved
already after just 2 years. So connect with us and with other organisations
that you think you can trust. Try to explore new methods of action and
convincing people of the horrors of this war. The moment you become active
is the moment when you're busy changing the world. We are not alone: WE are
the majority!


(*) Gabriele Zamparini is an independent filmmaker, writer and journalist
living in London. He's the producer and director of the documentaries XXI
CENTURY and The Peace! DVD and author of American Voices of Dissent
(Paradigm Publishers). He can be reached at info at thecatsdream.com