[matilda] "What I heard about Iraq" street theatre workshop

[Lesley]

day of action on the 3rd anniversay of invasion of Iraq

Does anyone want to do anything in Sheffield related/connected to the below. although the workshop is in London we could still participate in the worldwide day of action.

Lesley



"WHAT I HEARD ABOUT IRAQ" STREET THEATRE WORKSHOP
A practical workshop to prepare for the day of international
readings of Eliot Weinberger's celebrated anti-war work "What I heard about
Iraq."

WHERE:: The Front Studio, Diorama 1, 34 Osnaburgh St, London NW1 3ND
(nearest
tube Great Portland Street)
WHEN: 11am - 5pm, Saturday 4 March

Organised by JNV, Surrey Code Pink and Voices UK.

The 20th March has been called as an worldwide day of readings of US poet
Eliot Weinberger's amazing anti-war work "What I heard about Iraq", which
uses a
carefully selected sequence of quotes from US and British Government
officials, soldiers and Iraqis to paint a devastating portrait of the lies
that led to the 2003 invasion and the horrors of the subsequent war and
occupation (see extract below).

Readings and performances will be taking place from Calcutta to Luxembourg,
Greece to Australia, and throughout the U.S.

If you are interested in taking part in a reading on or around the 3rd
anniversary of the invasion - perhaps joining one of the small mobile street
theatre groups that will be performing around London - join us on 4 March
for a (free!) day-long street theatre workshop, looking at practical ways to
make your event as effective as possible. No prior experience is necessary
and the workshop is also open to anyone who is interested in incorporating
elements of street theatre in their anti-war activism.

You can find the complete text of "What I heard about Iraq" (and it's
sequel, "What I heard about Iraq in 2005") on-line at www.voicesuk.org and
sample adaptations for use by small mobile street theatre groups will also
be available shortly.

For more info. contact Voices on 0845 458 2564 or e-mail voices at voicesuk.org

************************************
WHAT I HEARD ABOUT IRAQ (EXTRACT)

I heard Colonel Gary Brandl say: ‘The enemy has got a face. He’s called
Satan. He’s in Fallujah and we’re going to destroy him.’

I heard a marine commander tell his men: ‘You will be held accountable for
the facts not as they are in hindsight but as they appeared to you at the
time. If, in your mind, you fire to protect yourself or your men, you are
doing the right thing. It doesn’t matter if later on we find out you wiped
out a family of unarmed civilians.’

I heard Lieutenant-Colonel Mark Smith say: ‘We’re going out where the bad
guys live, and we’re going to slay them in their zip code.’

I heard that 15,000 US troops invaded Fallujah while planes dropped
500-pound bombs on ‘insurgent targets’. I heard they destroyed the Nazzal
Emergency Hospital in the centre of the city, killing 20 doctors. I heard
they occupied Fallujah General Hospital, which the military had called a
‘centre of propaganda’ for reporting civilian casualties. I heard that they
confiscated all mobile phones and refused to allow doctors and ambulances to
go out and help the wounded. I heard they bombed the power plant to black
out the city, and that the water was shut off. I heard that every house and
shop had a large red X spray-painted on the door to indicate that it had
been searched.

I heard Donald Rumsfeld say: ‘Innocent civilians in that city have all the
guidance they need as to how they can avoid getting into trouble. There aren
’t going to be large numbers of civilians killed and certainly not by US
forces.’

I heard that, in a city of 150 mosques, there were no longer any calls to
prayer.

I heard Muhammad Abboud tell how, unable to leave his house to go to a
hospital, he had watched his nine-year-old son bleed to death, and how,
unable to leave his house to go to a cemetery, he had buried his son in the
garden.

I heard Sami al-Jumaili, a doctor, say: ‘There is not a single surgeon in
Fallujah. A 13-year-old child just died in my hands.’

I heard an American soldier say: ‘We will win the hearts and minds of
Fallujah by ridding the city of insurgents. We’re doing that by patrolling
the streets and killing the enemy.’

I heard an American soldier, a Bradley gunner, say: ‘I was basically looking
for any clean walls, you know, without any holes in them. And then we were
putting holes in them.’

I heard Farhan Salih say: ‘My kids are hysterical with fear. They are
traumatised by the sound but there is nowhere to take them.’

I heard that the US troops allowed women and children to leave the city, but
that all ‘military age males’, men from 15 to 60, were required to stay. I
heard that no food or medicine was allowed into the city.

I heard the Red Cross say that at least 800 civilians had died. I heard Iyad
Allawi say there were no civilian casualties in Fallujah.

I heard a man named Abu Sabah say: ‘They used these weird bombs that put up
smoke like a mushroom cloud. Then small pieces fall from the air with long
tails of smoke behind them.’ I heard him say that pieces of these bombs
exploded into large fires that burned the skin even when water was thrown on
it.

I heard Kassem Muhammad Ahmed say: ‘I watched them roll over wounded people
in the streets with tanks.’

I heard a man named Khalil say: ‘They shot women and old men in the streets.
Then they shot anyone who tried to get their bodies.’

I heard Nihida Kadhim, a housewife, say that when she was finally allowed to
return to her home, she found a message written with lipstick on her
living-room mirror: FUCK IRAQ AND EVERY IRAQI IN IT.

I heard General John Sattler say that the destruction of Fallujah had
‘broken the back of the insurgency’.

I heard that three-quarters of Fallujah had been shelled into rubble. I
heard an American soldier say: ‘It’s kind of bad we destroyed everything,
but at least we gave them a chance for a new start.’

I heard that only five roads into Fallujah would remain open. The rest would
be sealed with ‘sand berms’, mountains of earth. At the entry points,
everyone would be photographed, fingerprinted and have iris scans taken
before being issued identification cards. All citizens would be required to
wear identification cards in plain sight at all times. No private
automobiles would be allowed in the city. All males would be organised into
‘work brigades’ rebuilding the city. They would be paid, but participation
would be compulsory.

I heard Muhammad Kubaissy, a shopkeeper, say: ‘I am still searching for what
they have been calling democracy.’

I heard a soldier say that he had talked to his priest about killing Iraqis,
and that his priest had told him it was all right to kill for his government
as long as he did not enjoy it. After he had killed at least four men, I
heard the soldier say that he had begun to have doubts: ‘Where the fuck did
Jesus say it’s OK to kill people for your government?’



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/matilda/attachments/20060215/221d2f56/attachment.html