LFIQ's further response to Alice Mahon

Labour MP Alice Mahon today criticises LFIQ in the Independent. We have sent the following response. Alice's letter is also here. We have to defend ourselves, of course, but we stress that the most urgent issue is providing moral and material solidarity to Grassroots Iraq.

Alice Mahon (Letters, 31 January) says that Labour Friends of Iraq (LFIQ) would be more convincing if we had commented on the bombing of Falluja and abuse of prisoners. A quick glance at our web site (www.labourfriendsofiraq.org.uk) shows that we carry a regular feature called “Bush doesn’t get it,” where we propose an absolute ban on torture. We also issued a model motion on Falluja before the attack, which condemned its aerial bombardment, demanded political and humanitarian means to prevent civilian casualties and added that a flourishing democracy in Iraq would powerfully undermine terrorism. It is preposterous to say that LFIQ is an apologist for the war, most of us opposed it, but post-war solidarity is the priority. More importantly, Iraqis have moved on by giving the purple finger to the fascist gunmen and bombers and voting in huge numbers. So let all those who took different positions on the war unite to provide huge moral and material solidarity to Iraqi unions and civil society.

Gary Kent
Director, Labour Friends of Iraq
PO Box 2421, Reading, RG1 8WY

Sir: Gary Kent, director of Labour Friends of Iraq, Harry Barnes MP and Ann Clwyd MP, Tony Blair's special envoy on human rights in Iraq, are right to condemn the torture and killing of Hadi Saleh, the international officer of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions ("Anti-war movement divided over trade unionist's murder", 22 January).

Their call for the opponents of the war to "move on", however, would sound more convincing if they themselves did more:

To mourn the death of up to 100,000 Iraqi civilians. What about a minute's silence or a few tears on the floor of the House of Commons for them and their grieving families?

To condemn the bombing of Iraqi cities, including Fallujah, which was authorised by the interim Iraqi government and carried out by the Americans.
To raise questions in public about the human rights of Iraqis who have been tortured by the Iraqi security forces. If the American Human Rights Watch group is capable of exposing the abuses why are Britain's so-called human rights experts ignorant of what is happening?

Of course I accept that it is difficult for the apologists of the biggest foreign policy blunder for 200 years to accept their responsibility for the Pandora's box which they have opened.

ALICE MAHON MP
(Halifax, Lab)
House of Commons