Statement of Solidarity with Iraqi Journalist Muntazir El Zaydi and the demand for his release

The undersigned Jordanian civil society organizations declare their full solidarity with the Iraqi journalist Muntazir El Zaydi who threw his shoes in the face of US President George W. Bush during his fourth secret visit to Baghdad. The undersigned declare, irrespective of the method of expression which El Zaydi used, that he was expressing the real feelings of the majority of the Iraqi people and all the Arab people and their denunciation of the aggressive policy of the US president George W. Bush toward the Iraqi people.

This policy dictates that President Bush should stand trial for all his crimes which led to the destruction of Iraq, the killing of hundreds of thousands of the Iraqi people, and the displacement of one quarter of the Iraqi population whether at home or abroad.

This policy has brought to Iraq civil war, ugly sectarian divisions, the killing or wounding of tens of thousands of US soldiers and mercenaries, and finally the conclusion of the humiliating security agreement which infringed on the national sovereignty of Iraq.

The undersigned would like to express their profound concern over the torture and harsh treatment of the Iraqi journalist and four of his colleagues of the El Baghdadiyah Television Station. Their harsh treatment is tantamount to a blatant violation of international law and human rights, all the more so because it coincides with the celebration by the world at large of the Sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human rights.

The Jordanian Civil Society Organizations would also like to denounce the bestial beating of the Iraqi journalist by US and Iraqi security men. The Iraqi authorities have not as yet disclosed the place to which they took him. Needless to say, everyone knows the record of these authorities of torturing detainees until death.

We demand the immediate release of the Iraqi journalist and call for providing all the legal guarantees for a fair trial and for the protection of the journalist’s life, which is now in danger.

We also demand that his lawyers and family members be allowed to see him and to be reassured about him. We demand the safeguarding of his dignity, and providing him with the health care he needs, all the more so because the media has leaked a report that hand of the Iraqi journalist was broken.

We also demand that committees of volunteers of Iraqi and Arab lawyers be allowed to act as his defense attorney and follow up the conditions of his detention.

We would also want to declare that what happened was a clear message to the world that the majority of the Iraqis are refusing the American occupation. We view what the Iraqi journalist did as falling within the context of the expression of the dignity of the great country of Iraq as well as the feeling of frustration and despair in view of the deteriorating conditions of a country in which more than five million Iraqi children have become orphaned because of the American occupation of Iraq.

Iraq is a country of an old and genuine civilization which has suddenly turned, due to the actions of the Bush Administration, into a collective graveyards, an arena of killing, violation of the simplest human rights, starvation, absence of electricity and potable water, loss of security and reassurance, non-availability of employment opportunities, and the spread of cholera despite the enormous oil wealth of Iraq.

Signatures in alphabetical order:

1-        The Academy of Change for Democratic Studies.

2-        The Amman Center for Human Rights studies.

3-        The Arab organization of Human rights in Jordan.

4-         The Arab Women Society.

5-        The Center for Family Awareness and Guidance.

6-        The Center of Arab Media Women.

7-        The Club of Alumni of Universities and Institutes of the former Soviet union and the Federal Republic of Russia.

8-        The Club of the Alumini of Iraqi Universities.

9-        The Club of the Alumni of Egyptian Universities.

10-    The freedoms Committee of the Jordanian Professional Unions.

11-    The East and West Center for the Development of Human Resources.

12-    The El Badil Center for Studies and Training.

13-    The El faneeq Center for Economic and information Studies.

14-     The El Zahara’ Charity Society.

15-    The Freedoms Committee of the Jordanian Engineers Association.

16-    The Group of Amnesty International/Jordan.

17-     The Jordanian Commission for Democratic Culture.

18-    The Jordanian network for Civil Society Organizations.

19-    The Jordanian network of Human Rights Trainers.

20-    The Jordanian Society for Human rights

21-    The Jordanian Women Union.

22-    The Judhour Center for the Rights of Citizens.

23-    The Law Group "Meezan" for Human Rights.

24-    The Madaba Establishment for the Support of Development.

25-    The Madaba Society for Sustainable Development.

26-    The National Society for Freedom and Democracy "Jund".

27-    The News Agency of Jordanian poets "Arar."       

28-    The observatory of Human and the Environment.

29-    The preparatory Committee for the National Union of Jordanian Workers.

30-    The Society of housewives.

31-     The Society of Jordanian Jurists.

32-     The Society of khawlah Bint El Azwar.

33-    The Society of the Ladies of El Sakhleh.

34-    The Union of the Jordanian Engineering Offices.