IFTU statement on renewed attacks on Iraqi trade unionists

The Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) denounced yesterday further
attacks on its members on the railway line between Basra and al-Nasiriyyah
and on union premises in Baghdad. These criminal acts designed to intimidate workers and trade unionists follow a well-established pattern of targeted campaigns of assassination and terror which have been waged by those loyal to the former fascist-type, dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein against
individual IFTU activists and ordinary workers in recent months. In
particular, as a recent report from a joint delegation of the IFTU and the
British Fire Brigades Union (FBU) highlighted, there have been two attempts
on the life of Mr. Nuzad Ismaiel, President of the IFTU in the Kirkuk
Region.

In the first incident on 25 December 2004, a freight train travelling from
Basra to Al-Nasiriyyah was subjected to a terrorist attack, which led to the
kidnapping of two train drivers (Salah Mehdi Taher and Salih Chiyehchan
Harbi); the other five workers on the train were severely beaten and left in
a life-threatening condition. The IFTU Executive has demanded that the Iraqi
Interim Government; the immediate release of the two kidnapped railway
workers and proper compensation for all workers who are victims of cowardly
terrorist attacks in the course of their working duties. [See full text of
IFTU Executive Committee statement dated 29 December 2004, attached.]

In a separate incident the IFTU reported: "On the night of the 26/27
December 2004 the headquarters of the Transport & Communication Workers'
Union was subjected to a cowardly and violent attack by terrorists when they
shelled the building with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars which caused
a large whole in the wall of the building and a crater in the ground.
Luckily there were no fatal casualties."

In December 2003, the same union building was attacked by US occupation
military forces and 8 leading members of the IFTU's Transport &
Communication Workers' Union (including its President, Mr. Turki al-Lehaby)
were arrested and subsequently released unharmed following a worldwide
appeal from labour movement bodies. The union offices were sealed for 7
months by the US forces who told the IFTU: "You have no right to organise
workers while under military occupation."

The building was subsequently re-opened by a decision of the first Congress
of the Transport & Communication Workers' Union after the fall of the
dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein in June 2004. The building has been
used as the temporary headquarters of the IFTU from May 2003 until December
2003 and currently acts as important organising premises for the Transport &
Communication Workers' Union and other IFTU-affiliated trade unions.

The IFTU Executive Committee condemned the attack on the trade union
offices, declaring: "Disgrace and shame on the terrorists! Glory to the
Iraqi working class!" and resolved to ensure that the offices continue to be
used to organise Iraqi workers.