New Iraqi opposition coalition rejects "foreign interference".

Text of report by London-based newspaper Al-Hayat on 27 June
Source: Al-Hayat, London, in Arabic 27 Jun 02, p 2.

(28Jun2002 IRAQ) -- The "Coalition of Iraqi National Forces-Britain" yesterday issued
a statement at the conclusion of its meetings in London. The
statement includes the reasons for establishing the coalition
and its goals, as well as the "National Action Charter".

The coalition stressed that its most important goals include
overthrowing the regime of President Saddam Husayn at the
hands of Iraqis themselves, without foreign interference; working
to lift the economic blockade and "providing support for the
Palestinian intifadah in the face of the brutal Zionist occupation".

The coalition, which is the outcome of efforts over several
months, comprises the "General Council". The General Council
includes Islamic, national and democratic parties, organizations
and currents, representatives of some tribes and independent
figures. The coalition also comprises the "Political Assembly",
which is considered an executive authority for the coalition. The
main members of the coalition are the Iraqi Communist Party,
the Islamic Al-Da'wah Party and the Arab Socialist Ba'th Party-
Iraq Command.

The coalition's General Council held its first meeting on Sunday
[23 June].  At the conclusion of its meetings yesterday, the
coalition's Political Assembly issued a statement, in which it
explained the reasons for establishing the coalition. The most
important reasons of these are: "The domination of the
dictatorial regime in Iraq prevents the opposition inside [Iraq]
from carrying out any public action; the absence of the voice of
the people and the blackout imposed on the people's tragedy
due to the regime, the blockade and international collusion with
the regime; and asserting the national role and independent
decision-making of opposition forces and the need to unify their
action."

The coalition said its goals are "pooling energies to achieve the
key objective, represented in toppling the Saddam regime and
removing its effects; setting up free Iraq, which guarantees
exercising democracy; working to lift the economic blockade,
abolish international sanctions and remove their effects; abiding
by the key national principles; unifying the opposition's political
rhetoric; and rallying Arab and Islamic sympathy with our
people's cause".

The [National Action] Charter includes the principles and
constants, which were agreed upon, most notably:

- Asserting that the key objective of the opposition; that is,
overthrowing the regime, should be achieved by Iraqis
themselves, based on an independent will.

- Maintaining the sovereignty and unity of Iraq - land and people.

- Rejecting foreign interference, which targets our people and
their vital interests, such as military aggression and the
international blockade.

- Working to lift the economic blockade, abolish international
sanctions and remove their effects.

- Asserting the Iraqi people's responsibility for determining the
form of the future political system; working to set up free Iraq,
which guarantees exercising democracy; the separation of the
executive, legislative and judicial authorities; and the peaceful
rotation of power through free elections.

- Prohibiting sectarian, racial, ethnic and political discrimination;
respecting the right to citizenship; and guaranteeing human
rights and basic freedoms.

- Respecting and caring for the ethnic, religious, sectarian,
political and ideological diversity of the Iraqi people.

- Finding a peaceful, just solution to the problem of ethnic
groups in Iraq to guarantee the legitimate rights of the Kurdish
people, Turkmens, Assyrians and others in the context of
national unity.

- Ensuring that Iraq will play a positive role on the domestic and
international levels in a manner that guarantees achieving
stability and cooperation among countries and peoples of the
region and removing all effects of tensions, wars and mistrust
created by the Saddam regime.

Ibrahim al-Ja'fari, spokesman of Al-Da'wah Party told Al-Hayat:
"The coalition's formula is flexible so as to keep the door open
for [other] opposition forces to join the coalition, provided that
they abide by the constant principles." He pointed to attempts to
"distort the just cause of our people and threaten to use the US
alternative as the only solution".

On his part, Subhi al-Jamili, representative of the Iraqi
Communist Party, said he hopes the coalition will contribute to
"creating a positive climate, which is conducive to making further
efforts to expedite the establishment of the desired
comprehensive national coalition" of Iraqi opposition forces.

Source: Al-Hayat, London, in Arabic 27 Jun 02, p 2.

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Iraq Rebels Oppose U.S Strike to Topple Govt -Paper

Sat Jun 29,11:18 AM ET
Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020629/ts_nm/mideast_iraq_opposition_dc_1

CAIRO (Reuters) - A major Iraqi opposition organization said in remarks
published on Saturday that Washington should seek to oust President
Saddam Hussein through U.N. resolutions and not by military force.

Speculation has been mounting that Washington might be preparing an
invasion of Iraq to oust President Saddam Hussein, whom it accuses of
developing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

In an interview with al-Hayat pan-Arab newspaper, Mohammad Baqer
al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in
Iraq, (SCIRI), said he was concerned a possible U.S. attack on Iraq
might result in the occupation of the Arab country.

SCIRI is Iraq's largest Shi'ite Muslim dissident organization and claims
to have up to 8,000 fighters operating inside Iraq. It has vowed to
topple Saddam's Sunni Muslim-dominated government.

"We are living a state of great worry...from the probability of an
attack that would reach many of our people's sons and Iraq's basic
infrastructure, as it would also lead to an invasion operation and
occupation of Iraq," Hakim said.

Hakim, a senior Shi'ite cleric, has lived in Iran with many of his
fighters since the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. He also has followers among
the 500,000 Iraqi refugees living in the Islamic republic.

"We think the United States could only assist the Iraqi people by
protecting them from operations of oppression practiced by the regime.
When it (United States) puts pressure on it (the Iraqi authorities) to
stop oppressive operations, then the Iraqi people could undertake an
operation of change," Hakim added.

His comments in al-Hayat seemed to indicate a shift in position from
earlier remarks, which welcomed a U.S. military offensive to topple
Saddam's rule.

Hakim told al-Hayat that the best alternative to Saddam Hussein would be
a parliamentary government that represented all Iraqi factions equally.

In December, Hakim told Reuters in an interview that SCIRI and other
opponents of the Baghdad regime, including Iraqi Kurds, had agreed on
forming a broad-based transitional government for one year. After that a
government should be formed through a national referendum.

Hakim also stated in the December interview that his organization would
welcome attacks to topple Saddam as part of Washington's declared war on
terrorism, as long as it did not threaten Iraqi independence.

Many Arabs, already critical of Washington over its support for Israel
in the Middle East crisis, have voiced opposition to any U.S. strikes on
Iraq.

The State Department said in early June that it planned to have a
conference of Iraqi opposition groups during the summer and was
organizing preparatory meetings. U.S. officials say the aim would be to
talk about what Iraq should look like after the departure of Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein.

President Bush, who accuses Iraq of being a part of an "axis of evil"
together with North Korea and Iran, has openly declared his desire
to remove Saddam by military force if necessary, but has offered
few details of how he plans to accomplish that.