Justin Alexander
Jubilee Iraq
October 5, 2003

The first week of the consultation tour has already made clear that Iraqis across the political spectrum are very passionate on the issue of debt. We have met Islamic parties such as Al Da’wa and the Iraqi Islamic Party, Kurdish parties such as the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdish Islamic Union, secular parties such as the Iraqi National Accord and the Iraqi Communist Party, religious leaders such as Sheikh Moyaad of the Abu Khanifa Shrine, civil society groups such as the Women’s Freedom Organisation and student groups such as the Iraq Prospect Organisation.

They have all emphasised the depth of Iraqi suffering under Saddam’s regime, particularly during the wars. It astounds them that countries which financed Saddam, supplying him with cash, goods and weapons during the Iran-Iraq war, can have the hubris to assert that Iraqis should pay them. On the contrary, some have told us, if there is justice in the world then the countries which supported Saddam should be paying compensation to Iraqis. One of Iraq’s leading Sunni clerics told us that the longest verse in the Qu’ran concerns debt justice, and quoted an old Arabic proverb “When a camel falls to the ground, the knives are many.” Camels were killed first by slitting the throat and then sliced up in many places. Iraq is the camel he said. It is wounded and down on the ground, and the countries claiming debt and reparations are like the assailants with knives.

Jubilee Iraq volunteer Justin Alexander has arrived in Baghdad on Sunday, September 28, 2003 to survey Iraqi views on debt and reparations. He can be reached at the Al Fanar Hotel (in the shadow of the Palestine Meridian), Room 708, or by e-mail at Justin@jubileeiraq.org, or by satellite phone at +88-216-5201-1417 (connection variable!).