december 21, 2004

There has been increasing numbers of Iraqi organisations boycotting
the forthcoming elections. Recently, a meeting of political, religious
and community groups together with intellectuals, joined in their
opposition to the occupation, met on 17 November in Um El Qura Mosque,
Baghdad. Following the meeting there was a unanimous agreement and an
announcement to boycott the planned elections in January 2005 promoted
by the occupation.

The reasons given for the boycott are:- (translated from Arabic by the
translation team - Iraqi Diaspora).

1. The elections will not express the true will of the people;
neither result in their desire for true independence and democracy as
long as it is based on the Transitional Administrative Law, imposed by
the occupier. The majority of political, religious and independent
authorities therefore rejected the proposed elections on the basis that
it harbours considerable risks on the future, unity and dominion of
Iraq.

2. The attacks on Iraq's cities including Najaf, Karbala, Samara,
Mosul, Baghdad, Sadr City, Adhamiya, and more recently the vicious
assault on Falluja, constitute a major obstacle facing the political
process that is taking place under the domination of the occupation.

The meeting stated that:

'We have considered the impact on Iraq of the American occupation; of
what the Iraqi people continue to face and the far-reaching effects of
the mayhem and crisis on their livelihood. We consider that the
occupation targets Iraq's very existence and that of future generations
and seeks to dismantle its national, religious, and moral bonds and ties
whilst trying to paralyse both its standing and decision-making process
by removing its ability to think, to rationalise and to act effectively.
This requires a true understanding of the dangerous realities of the
occupation and the activation of a national and genuine will to resist
it. We believe that these elections will not be free and fair and with
our knowledge of the high possibility of them being rigged or fraudulent
because of the absence of satisfactory baseline statistics for the
election process and the deficiencies of the security forces to protect
its citizens together with the failure of the state organisations in
running its affairs.

We also know that the plan has been formulated to trap the
honest nationalistic forces opposing the occupation by encouraging them
to participate in the election and then prevent them from winning in
order to impart legitimacy to the occupier and whoever will represent
the occupier after the elections. This is with our absolute knowledge
that the results have already been pre-determined in the interests of
the collaborators whom the occupiers wish to win.

We therefore announce, based on the above, our boycott of the
elections and call upon all our people to do the same and inform you
that other parties and groups who have not been able to attend the
meeting will later join the patriotic forces who are making this
declaration.
Long live Iraq free and independent.'

Baghdad, 17 November 2004 (4th Shawal 1425 Hijri).
Signatories
¶ 10:54 AM