Pip Hinman
Anti-war groups across Australia responded quickly to the news that US-based Australian contractor Douglas Wood had been taken hostage in Iraq. Snap protests were held in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth in the first week of May to urge his release and repeat the call for Australian troops to leave Iraq.
The Stop the War coalitions in Sydney and Melbourne shot the blame straight to the federal government, arguing that its decision to join the "coalition of the willing" invasion meant it was complicit in the deaths of some 100,000 Iraqis and more than 1500 coalition troops. "It's clear that sending more troops and foreign contractors to a war zone is likely to have them killed, taken hostage, or wounded", said Margarita Windisch from the Melbourne Stop the War Coalition.
"The Philippines government did the right thing last year and pulled out its troops when a Filipino contractor was taken hostage. The Howard government must do the same", she said.
The Sydney Peace and Justice Coalition added its voice to the call for the withdrawal of Australian troops from Iraq. "This is the best way to respond to our government's decision to invade Iraq and to take part in the military occupation, and it is the best way to help free Douglas Wood", said Bruce Childs.
Wood has pleaded for the US, British and Australian forces to leave, a solution ruled out by foreign minister Alexander Downer and defence minister Robert Hill. The fact that the video of his plea was released the day Hill arrived in Baghdad indicates that the Shura (Consultative) Council of the Mujahideen of Iraq, the group responsible for his capture, was keen on making a political point.
Up until now, only a couple of Australian troops and contractors have been killed in Iraq. But this doesn't mean Australia is not seen by Iraqis as one of the unwelcome occupying powers. In the Philippines and in Italy, the taking of hostages led to a remobilisation of domestic opposition, forcing both governments to announce the withdrawal of troops. The Shura Council of the Mujahideen would probably be hoping for the same response in Australia.
Guiliana Sgrena, an Italian journalist who was released in March, only to have the Italian security agent protecting her killed by US fire as she was heading to the airport, told ABC radio on May 4 that public support for troop withdrawal helped secure her release and that Australians should do the same for Wood.
"I think that one of the question for kidnapping is the withdrawal of troops and I think in Italy all the people was mobilising ... was demonstrating for the withdrawal of troops", she said.
The pro-war big business press has downplayed Wood's call for the troops to leave, and echoed the government's line about not doing deals with "terrorists". According to May 3 Australian editorial: "we must not allow our sympathy and concern for a fellow Australian in dire need to compromise our logic or our resolve to complete the work we have started in Iraq ... there must be no question of ransom and no compromise of our foreign policy."
This is a travesty. It overlooks the facts about Australia's involvement in Iraq: the Coalition government invaded a sovereign nation ignoring majority opposition here and overseas, its "justification" was later confirmed to be based on a series of lies; the "work" it's doing is to help shore up the geo-political interests of the US elite; and after two years of occupation a majority of Iraqis want the occupying troops to leave.
Directly or indirectly, the violence in Iraq comes from Washington's attempts to subjugate the country. Whatever we may think about the images of the hostages facing death if their governments do not withdraw from Iraq, such actions are unlikely to disappear as long as the occupation continues. The best way for foreign governments to protect their nationals is to get their forces out of Iraq immediately.
[Pip Hinman is an activist in the Stop the War Coalition and a member of the Socialist Alliance.]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, May 11, 2005.
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