A night-long protest under tarpaulin in Parliament Square

Voices in the Wilderness UK

INTRODUCTION
According to figures compiled by the International Organisation on Migration (IOM) more than 200,000 refugees from Fallujah have yet to return and ‘many are in desperate need of aid, with temperatures in Iraq heading towards freezing’ (Reuters, 2 Dec). If and when they do return to their devastated city they will have their finger prints taken, their retinas scanned, be forced to wear special ID badges, and possibly be dragooned into ‘work battalions’ to clear the rubble created by the US assault.

We in the anti-war movement must try to highlight the plight of the Fallujah refugees: protesting against the Orwellian plans to turn Fallujah into a “model city” and demanding housing and compensation for the homeless and bereaved and war crimes prosecutions for Bush and Blair.

The press has reported that the first refugees are likely to be returned to Fallujah on Christmas Eve (24 Dec).