Arab and Foreign Journalists unions denounce killing journalists in Baghdad
Regional-Iraq, Politics, 4/9/2003

The International Journalists Union in Brussels has condemned the US-British military aggressions in Baghdad targeting the Arab and Foreign Journalists, in which US forces killed Journalists, and described these acts as war crimes.

Secretary General of the union, Aidan White, on Tuesday underlined that these aggressions are a clear and dangerous violation of the international law.

In Cairo, Arab Journalists Secretariat General also condemned strongly the US-British bombardment on TVs, Arab and Foreign news agencies offices in Baghdad and a hotel where Arab correspondents and Journalists are staying.

In a statement, the secretariat asserted that this "brutal bombardment aimed at covering the crimes of the invader forces through terrorizing journalists in order not to achieve their work and unveil the invaders ugly crimes."

The statement stressed the solidarity and unity of all Arab Journalists in this critical and dangerous stage calling on the international community to intensify efforts for halting the US-British war and returning to the international law for reaching a peaceful solution to the Iraqi question.

For his part, expert of the international law, Dr. Fouad Abdul-Men'em Riyadh, denounced the bombardment and stressed that the US-British practices against the Iraqi civilians contradict the Geneva Conventions.

In Damascus, Syria's Journalists Union condemned the US-British targeting the Arab and Foreign Journalists and expressed solidarity with the journalists who are continuing their work in Baghdad to unveil the aggressive practices.

In Amman, the Jordanian Journalists staged a sit-in in front of the journalists union in protest against targeting the Arab informational and journalistic institutions in Iraq by the US-British forces.

The International Federation of Journalists on Tuesday called for an independent inquiry into the killing of reporters in the Iraq war and said coalition forces were discriminating between so-called "embedded" journalists and those working on their own in Iraq, dpa reported.

The IFJ - which brings together over 500,000 journalists were staying in Baghdad came under attack and US troops allegedly destroyed the offices of Al-Jazira Television and Abu Dhabi Television.

"There is no doubt at all that these attacks could be targeting journalists. If so, they are grave and serious violations of international law," said Aidan White, the IFJ chief.

"Those who are responsible must be brought to justice", White said, adding that coalition troops were being "negligent"' in their treatment of reporters who were not embedded with their forces.

"All journalists deserve and need protection", White insisted, While there were up to 3.000 reporters covering the war. Only about 600 were in a "privileged, charmed circle" with coalition troops, he said.

Previous Stories:
  Turkey, Syria, Iran to revive cooperation mechanism   (4/8/2003)
  Iraq war, a threat to world security, experts   (4/7/2003)
  Arab, foreign condemnation of the war against Iraq   (4/7/2003)

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