Iraqi opposition calls for uprising
Iraqi opposition groups tonight called for a popular uprising to liberate the country from “dictatorship” and outlined a detailed plan for the future of Iraq.
The six-member Iraqi opposition leadership council – set up this year to formulate policies for a post-Saddam Iraq – urged the Iraqi armed forces to “sever ties with the Baghdad regime” and join them.
“The Iraqi opposition command, out of a sense of responsibility to save the people, army and people of Iraq ... calls on the people of Iraq in northern, central and southern Iraq to prepare for an uprising,” it said.
The Iraqi armed forces, it continued, should “reject carrying out orders of the tyrants and avoid turning their members into fuel for a destructive and losing war.” The statement said that after Iraqi armed forces join forces with the opposition in southern Iraq, the Iraqi opposition command would inform coalition countries “so that they can distinguish between opposition forces and other armed forces and safeguard security for citizens and guard against acts of vengeance and chaos.”
In northern Iraq, contact would be established with the liberated areas of Kurdistan to join forces. In central Iraq, Iraqi forces should announce they are joining the opposition and establish contact with the opposition command to co-ordinate.
The statement also called on Iraqi embassies and diplomatic missions abroad to sever ties with the Iraqi government and to establish ties with the Iraqi opposition front.
Afterward, the opposition front would announce a transitional, broad-based coalition government to run the affairs of the country.
“Among its tasks would be to negotiate with coalition countries and the United Nations to find and destroy weapons of mass destruction and place a timetable for the withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq,” the statement said.
The six-member leadership council was formed at a conference of 54 representatives of an opposition steering committee that met in Salahuddin in northern Iraq on March 1.
The statement was faxed from the Damascus offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan – one of two main Iraqi Kurdish factions opposing Saddam Hussein.
In a separate statement, the PUK said there is “genuine rage” against the Iraqi regime in Baghdad, Basra, Nasiriya and Najaf and “the people there are waiting for the spark of uprising to be lit.”
According to the PUK statement, the morale of the Baathists and members of the Iraqi army was very low, especially after British troops entered Basra, adding that people were starting to flee towards remote villages.
It also charged the Iraqi regime had transformed 18 hospitals into bases for Republican Guards and ammunition. It said authorities had expelled patients in those hospitals and that only Iraqi officials would be treated there.
