Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Gli Irakeni non accetteranno mai il furto del loro petrolio da parte degli USA

Ottimo articolo, di un profugo Irakeno.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1991074,00.html
Today Iraq remains under occupation, and the gulf between those who
profess to rule and those who are ruled is filled with blood. The
government is beholden to the occupation forces that are responsible
for a humanitarian catastrophe and a political impasse. While
defenceless citizens are killed at will, the government carries on with
its business of protecting itself, collecting oil revenues, dispensing
favours, justifying the occupation, and presiding over collapsing
security, economic wellbeing, essential services and public
administration. Above all, the rule of law has all but disappeared,
replaced by sectarian demarcations under a parliamentary facade.
Sectarianism promoted by the occupation is tearing apart civil society,
local communities and public institutions, and it is placing people at
the mercy of self appointed communal leaders, without any legal
protection.
The Iraqi government is failing to properly discharge its duties and
responsibilities. It therefore seems incongruous that the government,
with the help of USAid, the World Bank and the UN, is pushing through a
comprehensive oil law to be promulgated close to an IMF deadline for
the end of last year. Once again, an externally imposed timetable takes
precedence over Iraq's interests. Before embarking on controversial
measures such as this law favouring foreign oil firms, the Iraqi
parliament and government must prove that they are capable of
protecting the country's sovereignty and the people's rights and
interests. A government that is failing to protect the lives of its
citizens must not embark on controversial legislation that ties the
hands of future Iraqi leaders, and which threatens to squander the
Iraqis' precious, exhaustible resource in an orgy of waste, corruption
and theft.
Government officials, including the deputy prime minister, Barham
Salih, have announced that the draft oil law is ready to be presented
to the cabinet for approval. Salih was an enthusiast for the US-led
invasion of Iraq, and the Kurdish militia-led administration he
represents has signed illegal oil agreements that it is now seeking to
legalise. Given that parliament has not been meeting regularly, it is
likely that legislation will be rushed through after a deal brokered
under the auspices of the US occupation.
Iraq's oil industry is in a parlous state as a result of sanctions,
wars and occupation. The government, through the ministry of oil's
inspector general, has issued damning reports of large-scale corruption
and theft across the oil sector. Many competent senior technical
officials have been sacked or demoted, and the state oil-marketing
organisation has had several directors. Ministries and public
organisations are increasingly operating as party fiefdoms, and
private, sectarian and ethnic perspectives prevail over the national
outlook. This state of affairs has negative results for all except
those who are corrupt and unscrupulous, and the voracious foreign oil
corporations. The official version of the draft law has not been
published, but there is no doubt that it will be designed to hand most
of the oil resources to foreign corporations under long-term
exploration- and production-sharing agreements.
The oil law is likely to open the door to these corporations at a time
when Iraq's capacity to regulate and control their activities will be
highly circumscribed. It would therefore place the responsibility for
protecting the country's vital national interest on the shoulders of a
few vulnerable technocrats in an environment where blood and oil flow
together in abundance. Common sense, fairness and Iraq's national
interest dictate that this draft law must not be allowed to pass during
these abnormal times, and that long-term contracts of 10, 15 or 20
years must not be signed before peace and stability return, and before
Iraqis can ensure that their interests are protected.
This law has been discussed behind closed doors for much of the past
year. Secret drafts have been viewed and commented on by the US
government, but have not been released to the Iraqi public - and not
even to all members of parliament. If the law is pushed through in
these circumstances, the political process will be further discredited
even further. Talk of a moderate cross-sectarian front appears designed
to ease the passage of the law and the sellout to oil corporations.
The US, the IMF and their allies are using fear to pursue their agenda
of privatising and selling off Iraq's oil resources. The effect of this
law will be to marginalise Iraq's oil industry and undermine the
nationalisation measures undertaken between 1972 and 1975. It is
designed as a reversal of Law Number 80 of December 1961 that recovered
most of Iraq's oil from a foreign cartel. Iraq paid dearly for that
courageous move: the then prime minister, General Qasim, was murdered
13 months later in a Ba'athist-led coup that was supported by many of
those who are part of the current ruling alliance - the US included.
Nevertheless, the national oil policy was not reversed then, and its
reversal under US occupation will never be accepted by Iraqis.
· Kamil Mahdi is an Iraqi academic and senior lecturer in Middle East
economics at the University of Exeter

 Ottimo articolo, di un profugo Irakeno.
*ROTFL*
-Stefano