Leader of Moroccan socialist party urges end of US occupation in Iraq to build democratic state

First secretary of the Moroccan Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP), Abderrahmane Youssoufi, said last week in Rome "respect of human rights and civil liberties in Iraq depends on the end of occupation, giving Iraqis rule over their own destiny and building a sovereign, democratic and unified Iraq."

Youssoufi, a former Moroccan prime minister, told a conference held by the International Socialist in Rome this July 18-19 "It is up to Iraqis and to their freely and democratically chosen representatives to decide on the use of the country's national resources. He stressed that the history of Iraq, under Saddam Hussein's rule, was a long procession of executions, disappearances, deportation and systematic and generalized breaches of human rights and humanitarian law, adding, however, that this is no justification for the US-led coalition war on Iraq.

The USFP leader, who is also vice-chairman of the International socialist organization -that groups leftists parties from all over the world- deplored the worsening of human rights breaches under occupation, adding that the illegal nature of occupation resulted from an illegal war that was waged without the UN Security council mandate. He further stressed that the war is even more illegal and illegitimate as it was conducted on the basis of Iraq's alleged detention of mass destruction weapons, a pretext that could not to date be proved and it is likely that it will never be.