@ -4523,7 +4523,7 @@ The United Kingdom, in order to avoid the difficulties inherent in the administr
This is how several principalities were created, including that of Kuwait, in the south of Iraq.
The British mandate over the emirate was set at 99 years, but as early as 1938, the King of Iraq, Ghazi, demanded the annexation of Kuwait to his country, believing that he was being despoiled by the British.
He began a series of steps in this direction with the authority of the colonizer as well as a broad information campaign aimed at the populations in the two territories.
A radio station was set up at the royal palace in Baghdad to invite the Kowetis to revolt.
A radio station was set up at the royal palace in Baghdad to invite the Kuwaitis to revolt.
In 1938, during a trip to Switzerland, King Ghazi died as a result of an obscure accident that everything suggests was an assassination.
Since then, no Iraqi government has really abandoned this claim.
Nor even Nuri al Sa'id, who was the man of the British, but tried to convince the Americans to put pressure on England for the return of Kuwait. He too perished, murdered.
@ -4534,12 +4534,12 @@ In March, the new regime, under pressure from oil companies, immediately recogni
Britain, weakened by the Second World War, could no longer secure the positions of the major oil companies in the Middle East, and then proposed a pact linking the main countries of the region to the United States.
Apparently, this agreement was intended to protect the \enquote{free world} from Soviet threats; in reality, it was a new alliance between the countries of the region allowing the protection of Western oil companies and the exploitation of oil by the United States and England.
The agreement of Germany and the Ottoman Empire to build a railway linking Berlin to Baghdad and to carry out oil research was not to the liking of Britain, which invaded Iraq, then a Turkish province, in 1914, with the help of Indian troops\footnote{Lionard Mosley, \emph{La Guerre du pétrole} (The Oil war), Presse de la Cité, 1974.}.
The agreement of Germany and the Ottoman Empire to build a railway linking Berlin to Baghdad and to carry out oil exploration was not to the liking of Britain, which invaded Iraq, then a Turkish province, in 1914, with the help of Indian troops\footnote{Lionard Mosley, \emph{La Guerre du pétrole} (The Oil war), Presse de la Cité, 1974.}.
This was one of the causes of the First World War.
After this, the revolt of the Iraqis, particularly in the south, forced British troops to leave the country, but Britain was given a mandate over Iraq by the League of Nations in 1920.
After the First World War, Britain and France imposed their conception of law in the Middle East by drawing from Paris borders in line with their oil interests.
The question of international law never arose because this law was always adapted to preserve the interests of oil tankers.
The question of international law never arose because this law was always adapted to preserve the interests of oil barons.
We will be able to see later how the United States and the other members of the Security Council have interpreted international law.
In 1932, power returned to the Iraqis whose royal government concluded a pact with the British.
@ -4553,12 +4553,12 @@ The feudal system instituted by the British, which had given 5\% of the populati
In 1963, five years after the advent of the Republic, the new Iraqi regime brought to power by a vast popular movement had engaged in a tug-of-war with the powerful I.P.C., the Iraqi oil company, in the hands of the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands, which had a stranglehold on the country's wealth since the end of the First World War and which did not use all the oil potential in order to to maintain prices, leaving the Iraqis with only a paltry share.
The Iraqi state hoped to have a say in its oil and demanded an increase in its production in order to finance the reconstruction of the country already plundered by the Ottoman Empire and the British colonialists, but the I.P.C. did not want to give up anything.
The government demanded that the British mandate over Kuwait, which it considered an Iraqi province, be cancelled.
(the border had been demarcated in 1922 by the British protectorate, which entrusted power to the sheikh before the Kuwait Oïl Company, Anglo-American, awarded itself the concession for research and oil exploitation for 99 years).
(the border had been demarcated in 1922 by the British protectorate, which entrusted power to the sheikh before the Kuwait Oil Company, Anglo-American, awarded itself the concession for exploration and oil exploitation for 99 years).
Faced with the English refusal, the government then decided to nationalize 90\% of the land containing deposits not yet exploited by the I.P.C.
The nationalization provoked the anger of the oil companies who, in 1963, fomented a coup d'état, of which the Bath party was the prime contractor, with the help of the various Anglo-Saxon interest groups, and financed by the Kuwaitis.
The nationalization provoked the anger of the oil companies who, in 1963, fomented a coup d'état, of which the Ba'ath party was the prime contractor, with the help of the various Anglo-Saxon interest groups, and financed by the Kuwaitis.
After several days of bombing the seat of the republican government and clashes with the population in the streets of Baghdad, the military junta managed, by executing Kassem, head of government and leader of the revolution, and several of his companions, to set up a regime of terror that lasted nine months during which all forms of repression, torture and exaction were inflicted on anti-imperialist patriots and republican loyalists.
More than 400,000 people were arrested and tortured, 20,000 of whom never returned from concentration camps, died under torture or summarily executed.
More than 400,000 people were arrested and tortured, 20,000 of whom never returned from concentration camps, died under torture or were summarily executed.
A large number of trade unionists, communist party leaders, intellectuals and simple anti-imperialist militants were thus eliminated in a few months. The patriotic movement was beheaded.
This coup d'état allowed the oil companies to achieve their objectives by cancelling Law No. 80 on the nationalization of oil, abolishing the new Civil Code (which had established equality between men and women) and repealing the agrarian reform by returning the land to the big landowners.
@ -4569,11 +4569,11 @@ In July 1963, the Iraqi Minister of Defense officially informed his government t
In return, the U.S. government would be willing to arm Iraq in its war against the Kurds.
Thus the war against the Kurds was indicative of the absence of the sovereignty of the Iraqi government of the time toward the United States\footnote{Lionard Mosley, \emph{La Guerre du pétrole} (The Oil war), Presse de la Cité, 1974.}.
In 1964, the Bath party removed from power, the new leaders of Baghdad showed their sympathy for Nasser and tried to establish in Iraq a socialism modeled on the Egyptian model.
In 1964, the Ba'ath party removed from power, the new leaders of Baghdad showed their sympathy for Nasser and tried to establish in Iraq a socialism modeled on the Egyptian model.
After the nationalization of the banking sector and large industries, the government decided to create a national Iraqi oil company (I.NO.C.) and began negotiations with the I.P.C. with a view to reaching an agreement to associate Iraq with the exploitation of its oil.
Separate agreements were signed with the USSR and France but the conflict with the I.P.C. resulted in the fall of the government.
In July 1968, the Bath Party returned to power. It engages in ruthless repression of the opposition and develops tactical alliances with the superpowers.
In July 1968, the Ba'ath Party returned to power. It engages in ruthless repression of the opposition and develops tactical alliances with the superpowers.
In 1975, the new government nationalized all oil. A vast programme of reconstruction of the country, industrialization, infrastructure, education (Iraq won three UNESCO medals), and a literacy campaign were undertaken.
Oil must be used to rebuild the country. Industrialization in 1991 is comparable to that of Europe. The Gulf War will take the country back fifty years.
@ -4621,14 +4621,14 @@ Saddam thought he had the green light, the Westerners owed him that.
But as soon as Kuwait was invaded, the war process began.
On 6 August 1990, the Security Council decided on military and economic sanctions against Iraq. On 25 September, he imposed the air embargo.
On 29 November he decided to use all means to punish Iraq from 15 January 1991.
On 29 November it decided to use all means to punish Iraq from 15 January 1991.
Moreover, the same Council has repeatedly tried to impose sanctions against Israel without any success because of the American vetoes.
Here are some examples: US veto against the Security Council resolution that imposed the military and economic embargo on Israel in 1982 due to the occupation of Syrian territories.
On June '82, the United States vetoed the Council's resolution to impose sanctions on Israel because of its refusal to withdraw from Lebanon.
In August '82, the US reiterated its veto against a new resolution that demanded Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon.
On August '83, the United States opposed the Security Council resolution that threatened to impose sanctions on Israel because of its expansionist policies.
In January '88, a new US veto against a resolution condemning Israel for its policy of disrespecting human rights towards the Palestinians.
In '89, the Security Council issued five resolutions condemning Israel. The US is defeating three of them thanks to its veto power.
In '89, the Security Council issued five resolutions condemning Israel. The US makes three of them fail thanks to its veto power.
In May '89, US veto against the Security Council resolution condemning the Israeli occupation in southern Lebanon.
In November '89, the US veto defeated the resolution protesting the destruction of Palestinian homes.
In November '89, the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly calling for a settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli problem on the basis of the creation of two states received 151 votes in favor against three votes (United States, Israel and the Dominican Republic) but the next day the New York Times published an article denouncing the influence of the Arab states on the UN.
@ -4661,7 +4661,7 @@ In 1920, the Sèvres, Lausanne and Versailles agreements did not grant independe
In 1922, when a Kurdish king was proclaimed after the First World War, the populations were bombed and gassed by the British.
As early as 1991, the Kurds were subject to the embargo. Turkey is killing in Kurdistan tens of thousands, but Turkey is on the \enquote{right side}, therefore unassailable.
Divide and rule is the motto, we encourage ethnic, confessional rebellions: Shi'ites, Sunnis, Arabs, Christians. Lebanon is the most tragic example.
The goal of the conflict was to have cheap oil. For this it was necessary the tutelage of a nation, the massacre of a population and the destruction of the productive apparatus of a country.
The goal of the conflict was to have cheap oil. For this it was necessary to put the nation under tutelage, to massacre its population and to destroy the productive apparatus of the country.
The United States reaped the first industrial benefits of the war against Iraq by winning most of the arms markets in the region.
The profits of the arms industry come from external markets rather than from the domestic market.
@ -4682,13 +4682,13 @@ Eight years later, only 2 billion a year in oil sales are authorized and most of
The embargo is nothing but a process designed to bring Iraq back to pre-industrial age and to remove any possibility of economic independence in oil matters.
The Western powers do not want to let an independent state, with military power, develop and play a role in the region.
It intends to control all oil wealth. Iraqi soil still contains for a century or two of oil. It was inevitable that he would be hit.
It intends to control all oil wealth. Iraqi soil still contains for a century or two of oil. It was inevitable that it would be hit.
Arms control is a comedy that no longer deceives anyone.
We will not be led to believe that in eight years the UN experts, and particularly the Americans, with all the ultra-sophisticated means of detection at their disposal, telecommunications, radars, satellites, etc. have not been able to verify their existence or absence.
Before the embargo in 1990, Iraq met the criteria of the World Health Organization.
It spent \$30 a month per individual, whereas today he spends only \$2, a drop of 93\%.
It spent \$30 a month per individual, whereas today it spends only \$2, a drop of 93\%.
The most tragic consequences of the embargo particularly affect the vulnerable segments of the population, especially children.
@ -4710,7 +4710,7 @@ You cannot equip yourself with computers or have access to the Internet, to the
It is estimated that the delay will be 30 to 40 years by reducing the chances of communicating with the new culture of the world.
All sectors are affected. It is a deliberate desire to reduce Iraq to the rank of a Third World country.
The oil-for-food deal solved nothing. It is mainly used to pay the war debt. The country receives only 20\%. As far as health expenditure is concerned, the same is true.
And import agreements are not even respected. As for the Frozen Iraqi contributions abroad, it is obvious theft.
And import agreements are not even respected. As for the frozen Iraqi contributions abroad, it is obvious theft.
It is indeed the will of the powerful that dominates the Security Council to impose an unprecedented blockade to prevent a country from developing, to ruin its future, a country that had the economic means to help the Third World.
After the filthy war, the embargo is still a colonial war of an economic nature, whatever the pretext, even if it is international law.
@ -4788,7 +4788,7 @@ The military and traders are sometimes divided, when, for example, the political
But, on the whole, the territorial stranglehold serves the interests of European trade, which eliminates competition from African traders and establishes, from coast to inland, its network of factories where local products are exchanged for imported goods.
The resistance of the African heads of state, Lat Dior in Senegal, Ahmadou in Sudan (now Mali), Samory in Upper Guinea, Béhanzin in Dahomey (present-day Benin), etc., will be broken because of the superiority of the conquerors in armament (rapid-fire rifles, artillery);
the resistance of the \enquote{stateless} populations, living in autonomous tribal or village communities, will take longer to overcome, and will continue very much before in the twentieth century (\enquote{pacification} of the Ivory Coast forest from 1908 to 1916; insurgency of the Gbayas in Equatorial Africa, from 1928 to 1931).
the resistance of the \enquote{stateless} populations, living in autonomous tribal or village communities, will take longer to overcome, and will continue very much before in the twentieth century (\enquote{pacification} of the forest Ivory Coast from 1908 to 1916; insurgency of the Gbayas in Equatorial Africa, from 1928 to 1931).
The Saharan borders of Mauritania and Morocco were not submitted until 1936.
The \enquote{treaties} concluded with the African sovereigns, which founded the \enquote{rights} of France against its colonial competitors, will be outrageously reduced to paper rags as soon as the colonial authorities find it in their interest:
@ -4838,7 +4838,7 @@ We will cite here only one example: on the night of January 8 to 9, 1899, reconn
\enquote{Patrols must approach the villages, seize them with knives, kill everything that resists, take the inhabitants into captivity, seize the herds.
On the morning of the 9th the reconnaissance returned to the camp with 250 oxen, 500 sheep, 28 horses, 80 prisoners. A few riflemen were wounded.
In order to \enquote{make an example}, Captain Voulet had twenty women mothers, with young children and udders, taken and had them killed with spears, a few hundred meters from the camp.
The bodies were later found by the commander of say's post}\footnote{P. Vigné d’Octon, \emph{op. cit.}, pp. 40-41.}.
The bodies were later found by the commander of Say's post}\footnote{P. Vigné d’Octon, \emph{op. cit.}, pp. 40-41.}.
\end{quote}
In another village, carriers having been drafted, all the able-bodied men took refuge in the bush. \enquote{The old men, the women, the children alone remained.
@ -4931,14 +4931,14 @@ The \enquote{French Congo}, which in 1910 became French Equatorial Africa, was a
The latter have a monopoly on the exploitation of local resources on their territory and, de facto, on trade.\footnote{G. Coquery-Vidrovitch, \emph{Le Congo au temps des grandes compagnies concessionaires (1898-1930)} (The Congo at the time of the big concession companies (1898-1930)), Paris-La Haye, Mouton, 1972.}
They will make almost no investment and many will quickly go bankrupt, after having plucked a few suckers on the stock market.
Those in employment exploit picking rubber, with forced labour paid only as \enquote{harvesting work}, with the companies arguing that the harvested rubber, produced from the soil, belongs to them under their concession.
Those in employment exploit picking\rfootnote{\emph{Ceuillette} in the original text. Many methods for harvesting rubber were used at the time, including picking rubbery lianas. See \cite{Canaby1932}.} rubber, with forced labour paid only as \enquote{harvesting work}, with the companies arguing that the harvested rubber, produced from the soil, belongs to them under their concession.
On what happened, we have the testimony of a missionary, Fr. Daigre, who is also a good-natured colonial:
\begin{quote}
\enquote{To the orders to harvest rubber, most of the villages responded with a refusal, and, to support the administration, flying columns of guards were sent into the country... }
Coercion is used. \enquote{Each village or group of villages was then occupied by one or more guards, assisted by a number of auxiliaries, and the exploitation of rubber began...
At the end of the month the harvest was brought to the capital where the sale took place at the rate of fifteen pennies the kilogramm.
At the end of the month the harvest was brought to the capital where the sale took place at the rate of fifteen pennies per kilogram.
The administration carried out the weighing and the buyer taking delivery of the goods paid cash, not to the harvesters, but to the official who paid the sum to the village tax.
The mass thus worked nine consecutive months without receiving any remuneration.}
\end{quote}
@ -4946,7 +4946,7 @@ The mass thus worked nine consecutive months without receiving any remuneration.
The missionary explains that, in the first two years, the populations were able to subsist on their old cassava plantations.
But, little by little, resources are running out. The \enquote{harvesters} have to work further and further away from their villages, as rubber vines become scarce near the villages.
\enquote{Towards the end of the month, they were given two or three days to go to the village to refuel, but most of the time, they came back empty-handed, the plantations were no longer renewed...
The sick and small children (who remained in the village) died of starvation. I visited several times a region where the least sick finished the most affected to eat them; I saw open graves where the corpses had been removed for food.
The sick and small children (who remained in the village) died of starvation. I visited several times a region where the least sick finished off the most affected and ate them; I saw open graves where the corpses had been removed for food.
Skeletal children searched piles of rubbish for ants and other insects they ate raw. Skulls, shins, dragged around the villages.}\footnote{R. P. Daigre, \emph{Oubangui-Chari, témoignage sur son évolution (1900-1940)} (Oubangui-Chari, testimony on its evolution (1900-1940), Issoudun, Dillen et Cie, 1947, pp. 113-116.}
\section{The exercise of \enquote{French authority}}
@ -5106,4 +5106,10 @@ and \emph{Afrique noire — L'ère coloniale (1900-1945)} (Black Africa- The col
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