Interview with Iraqi Communist Party Leader Hamid Majeed Moussa
“Morning Star” - 29 May 2001 http://www.myspace.co.uk/cp-of-britain/
Iraqi Communist Party Leader:
Saddam is Serving the Interests
of US Imperialism
The following are excerpts from an interview with Comrade Hamid Majeed Moussa, the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Iraqi Communist Party.
Iraqi communist leader Hamid Majeed Moussa puts the blame for the tragedy that has befallen his country squarely on the shoulders of dictator Saddam Hussein.
The party’s General Secretary says that the resulting economic, political and social chaos caused by Saddam’s “medieval” regime has ruined the country ’s infrastructure.
However, the soaring prices, massive unemployment - about two-thirds of the workforce - and the collapse in health and education services have been exacerbated by the United Nations sanctions regime.
“There is little industrial and agricultural production. Even with all our natural resources, we need to import everything”, he notes.
“There is a health crisis and a shortage of medicines, with many women and children dying and lots of diseases that did not exist before the
sanctions.”
Depleted Uranium
Add to this the cancers that have been appearing as result of the use of NATO weaponry against Iraq, such as depleted uranium, he observes, and you have a human catastrophe.
“Over 300 tons of DU weaponry was dropped on our country and new illnesses have emerged and babies have been born with horrific deformities.
“However, there has never been a thorough investigation, even by the regime, to assess the damage caused by these poisons,” he says.
He reveals that the Iraqi Communist Party has called for an international investigation into the effects of depleted uranium, which has since been used widely in Bosnia and Kosovo by NATO, and allocation of resources to deal with the problem.
He says that this should include a full investigation into the effects of the Iraqi regime’s deadly chemical attacks on Kurds in the north and the marsh Arabs in the south.
Sanctions assist dictatorship
Moussa also makes it very clear that the UN sanctions regime is only assisting the dictatorship to maintain its iron grip on power.
“The regime aims to stay in power by any means necessary, and the sanctions assist this by crushing the people and the patriotic opposition,” he says.
“Evidence suggests that such sanctions are not hurting the Saddam clique, but helping in actually maintaining their control by hiding behind the suffering of the Iraqi people.”
He says that the Iraqi regime has up to £10 billion from UN oil-for-food programme available, but Baghdad will not use it to assist the people, preferring to deploy the cash for its own political battles.
“The Iraqi government is using food rationing against the Iraqi people by threatening to withdraw them. Threatening to take their food away,” he says.
He also explains that Iraqi communists were horrified at last February’s aggressive air raid by US and British planes on the capital Baghdad, as part of the air raids episode which has been going on far too long.
“The main victim is our people. Military acts and air strikes will not solve the Iraqi issue, that is if they will not further complicate and prolong it, providing the dictatorial regime with more opportunities to capitalise on the situation with demagogic slogans,” he says.
Saddam serves US imperialism
He points out that the ultimate tragedy is that Saddam is serving the interests of United States imperialism that he claims to be opposing.
“Since Saddam Hussein came to power, he has given the US opportunities to expand its interests in the region and smash Arab solidarity.
“Those who claim that the Iraqi regime is anti-imperialist are deluded,” he says.
Internal resistance
Despite the brutal repression inside Iraq, including the mass executions of democrats, there is still internal resistance to the regime.
This resistance is taking place across Iraq, even in Baghdad, and party literature is widely distributed through underground networks.
Iraqi communists also operate in regions not under Baghdad’s control, such as Iraqi Kurdistan, where the party has its headquarters and works openly, running four TV stations and a radio station which beams across Iraq.
The Iraqi Communist Party is also the only party which draws members from all backgrounds, including Arabs, Kurds, Turkomans, Assyrians and all other ethnic groups.
Democratic Future
Moussa said that this the kind of unity required to defeat the Iraqi regime and begin to build a democratic future for an Iraqi people who have already suffered too much.
“The patriotic opposition needs to fight to ensure their salvation from the economic blockade, dictatorial rule and to establish a democratic alternative.
“This struggle must intensify in order to bring about an end to the dictatorship’s terror and the horrific consequences of economic sanctions, and open the doors for establishing the new Iraq - a unified federal democratic Iraq,” he concludes.
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