Strasbourg, 18/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - Just back from a dangerous nine day visit to Iraq, André Brie (GUE/NGL, Germany) and Paulo Casaca (PES, Portugal), speaking in Strasbourg on Wednesday, painted a bleak picture of the situation in Iraq. In order to react to the “great disappointment” of the Iraqi people “over the EU's passivity” and allow Europe to become more involved in the future of the country, they proposed setting up a platform, “A Future for Iraq”, to be launched at an upcoming plenary session. This would be “an instrument for Europeans and Iraqis to try to find a solution to the current situation. We believe there is one region - Iraqi Kurdistan - where things are going quite well,” Mr Casaca said. He thought that the Kurdish leaders were more concerned today with developing their region in areas such as “the environment, health and education”, than driven by a “desire for revenge”. “We don't want to separate” Kurdistan from Iraq, he said, but to use this “safe and prosperous” region as a platform for projects for the country as a whole.
The two men painted a bleak picture of the situation in Iraq: deteriorating political conditions, daily massacres, scarcely any access to food and medical treatment, rationing of electricity and the failure of the US strategy. “In the media, the impression is given that it is a war between the Shiite and Sunni communities. But Iraq has no tradition of this type of confrontation. It should not continue to be described in such terms. It is said that the Iraqis are savages, using blind violence. This is not a true reflection” of the country, Mr Brie said. Mr Casaca felt the situation was not “due to tribal hatred, but is organised to destroy Iraq through the use of militias who torture and murder”. He added, “Most Iraqis say that Al-Qaida is working alongside the militias. Al-Qaida is the tool being used by Iraq's enemies to destroy it. An hour and a half after Saddam Hussein was handed over to the Iraqi Prime Minister, he was killed by militias. It is easy to see who the Iraqi Prime Minister is working for”. On Tuesday 16 January, Brie and Casaca submitted their report to the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and it will soon be sent to Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. (mb)