CPTnet
April 30, 2003
IRAQ: Questions from CPT Iraq for the current U.S. authorities occupying
the country

1) Regarding the responsibilities of the U.S. interim
government:

a) Is the interim government being set up by the
United States planning to undertake the provision of
essential services provided by the previous regime?

b) If not, to whom should Iraqis look to provide and
administer essential services? (please provide names
and locations of organizations)

c) How long must Iraqis be prepared to wait before the
provision of essential services is resumed?

2) Regarding the Saddam government's food distribution
program: About seventy percent of the population of
Iraq relies heavily on a food distribution program
which was, up until last month, administered by the
previous regime. (UNICEF has described this program as
both the largest and most efficient food distribution
program in the world!) This month's supplies were due
to be distributed on April 12, but were not. Because
people's reserve supplies are running low, and because
of the spoiling of frozen foods due to
on-going interruptions in electrical services, a food
crisis is emerging.

a) Given that this food distribution was a
governmental program, and an essential service on
which the majority of Iraqis continue to rely, does
the U.S. interim government accept responsibility for
the resumption of this food distribution program?

b) In the face of an emerging food crises, when can
Iraqis expect the resumption of this food distribution
program?

c) If there are no immediate plans to resume the food
distribution program, where and to whom can Iraqis
turn now to avoid increasing incidents of malnutrition
and diarrhea? (Please provide names of agencies,
locations, and hours of operation of current emergency
food distribution centers.)

3) Economic crisis: The interruption of electricity
and telecommunications, the lack of security and
public safety, the loss of salaries for both private
and public sector employees, the looting and burning
of banks, the freezing of investment capital held in
overseas accounts, and the destruction of businesses
have all contributed to an almost total stop of all
economic activity. In the face of the resulting
economic crisis:

a) Who will provide destitute and increasingly
desperate Iraqi families with a subsistence income?
When and where can they receive such an income?

b) Who will pay the salaries of Iraqi civil servants,
private sector employees and provide income to small
businessmen who cannot return to work and provide
their families with the basic necessities of life?

c) Now that the corrupt and repressive Saddam regime
has been ousted, can public and private sector
employees expect to receive a greater share of their
country's vast national wealth in return for their
labor?

d) When will Iraqi public money that is being held in
trust, and monies that have been frozen in overseas
foreign bank accounts be made available as investment
capital in Iraq?

e) Who is now, and will be controlling Iraqi oil and
allocating the profits from Iraqi oil until an Iraqi
government is set up?

4) Medical: Public Health is in crisis because of
shortages of material and human resources, security
issues, shortages of medicines and supplies, damage to
and looting of facilities, a high number of
war-related injuries and illnesses, lack of salaries,
access to potable water and inadequate diets.

a) As the interim government of Iraq, what steps has
the U.S. taken to address this crisis?

b) When can Iraqis expect their health care system to
return to pre-war levels of services?

c) To whom can Iraqis address their healthcare needs
and concerns?

5) Education: All elementary, secondary and
post-secondary schools remain closed. Some have been
severely damaged, and others are currently occupied by
U.S. military personnel.

a) What steps have already been taken towards
reopening the schools?

b) Can Iraqis expect classes in their schools and
universities to resume in order to get credit this
term? If not, when?

c) Who will pay the teachers' and professors'
salaries?

d) Will there be changes in the curriculum at Iraqi
schools? Will it be Iraqis that determine the
curriculum of Iraqi children?

6) Freedom of speech and democracy: The vast majority
of Iraqis agree that the previous regime was
undemocratic, and used extreme measures to
suppress freedom of speech. Iraqis are paying a very
high price for regaining their freedom of speech and
the overthrow of a brutal regime. Iraqis paid dearly
in terms of high numbers of civilian casualties, the
destruction of property, the loss of social and
financial security, and in terms of the indefinite
suspension of other basic human rights: the right to
reasonable healthcare, education, food, shelter, work,
income, etc.

a) Taking into account the above, what mechanisms have
been put into place to ensure that Iraqis' newly
acquired freedom of speech is accompanied by real
democracy and real input into the present and on-going
decision-making (i.e., U.S. government
decision-making)?

b) How does the current U.S. interim government
identify and incorporate the emerging leadership of
popular religious, social and political organizations?

c) Given that many Iraqis (and Arabs in general) have
come to see Arabic secular governments as autocracies
--their own previous government for example, or that
of Egypt, and Iran under the Shah-- will
the U.S. government be prepared to accept a religious
theocracy in Iraq in the event that is what the
majority of Iraqis wish to govern them?

d) For those Iraqis who need assurance that the
current (U.S.) regime is more democratic and more
willing to give a real voice to the Iraqi people than
the previous regime, what examples would you cite?

e) Insofar as it is Iraqi national wealth and Iraqi
oil revenues that will pay for the reconstruction of
Iraq, can Iraqis safely assume that it will be Iraqis,
and not someone else, who determines which firms get
the lucrative reconstruction contracts?

f) What is the maximum length of time that Iraqis will
have to wait before they are permitted
self-determination and self-governance?