Photos: Melbourne antiwar rally : Melbourne Indymedia

Reta Kaur was charged with $9,000 damage to sculptures outside the US Consulate on March 20 2003, when she painted slogans on them when the bombing and invasion of Iraq started one year ago.

See information on her court appearance:
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2004/03/64157.php

Attend the US Consulate in St Kilda Road on Monday 22 March 2004 between 10am and 3pm.

Australia's treatment of Refugees is an issue

Passing Parliament House

Thanks for the pics, Takver. You included one of Rita Kaur and alluded to her recent court case. The provided link does not provide any information on what actually happened in court. Any chance of an update?

Conleth,
I believe Reta Kaur asked for an adjournment, which was granted by the court. I don't know the date it has been adjourned to.

There is a Women for Peace vigil outside the US consulate on St Kilda Road on Monday. These vigils have occurred every Monday for the last year in protest against the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.

it was awhile since i last participated in a demostration such as the rally being displayed until yesterday which i brought a friend of mine who felt the same as i did to the occupation of iraq etc. this time, i did more observing. from my observation i found it very hard to find the contention in most of the speakers' speaches, i felt and seemed very 'staged' the whole of the rally, one could see that there were people there who were there and didn't get the 'why?' of their participation in it, alot of the rally being scapeboated by political parties for elections an publicity and especially when this was one man who started screaming arguing with one man over the palestine & israel war...of course both of them were @ the two extreames but seriously it seemed quite biast (both this situation and some of the speaches)...like goodness...FUCK PALESTINE & FUCK ISRAEL, if they cant get along FUCK THEM BOTH, y 1 and not the other?!? in addition, the media (of course) were emphasising on the 'extreamists' of this rally. what happened to when a collective of people joined for a specific goal to voice their opposition on the matter instead of all this shit that didn't seem quite right??

speaches...extreamists..biast

i felt and seemed very 'staged' the whole of the rally ******************************************

Reta is due to appear in court next at a full hearing on 7 June

So, how many do you think turned up? Maybe ten percent of a year ago?

Still, much better than in Iraq - where nobody much protested at all.

Except in the Sunni Triangle.

Unless you count the occasional sniper attack on civilians.

my hat goes off to the channel 10 execs who highlighted the whole bullshit of war very nicely. 5 0clock and 10 oclock. the whole thing left saturdays shoppers shivering in their boots, like i think i'm alive because this is real. it was a real celebration even people were driving orange jeeps in full celebration of the parade, i really love those guys, well done.

hey, jim bob

what will you do when Iraqis elect their own government, and then try Saddam as a criminal

demand an end to that, too?

Do you feel and seem very staged too, ChrisiFXzvingerpopcorn?

=====================================

U.S. Will Retain Power in "Sovereign" Iraq

Sunday March 21, 2004 8:01 PM

By JIM KRANE

Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The United States says Iraq will be sovereign, no longer under military occupation, on June 30. But most power will reside within the world's largest U.S. Embassy, backed by 110,000 U.S. troops.

The fledgling Iraqi government will be capable of tackling little more than drawing up a budget and preparing for elections, top U.S. and Iraqi officials say.

``We're still here. We'll be paying a lot of attention and we'll have a lot of influence,'' a top U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. ``We're going to have the world's largest diplomatic mission with a significant amount of political weight.''

In just over three months, the mantle of sovereignty in Iraq will be passed to an interim government. Its composition and the manner of its choosing will be decided after a United Nations team arrives this week.

But with Iraqi elections scheduled for December or January, the interim government will last a fleeting seven months at most: a butterfly's life, in legislative terms.

Since the U.S.-led occupation regime will have a hand in choosing Iraq's next government, the body will lack a mandate for anything but administrative tasks. Many envision a team of nonpartisan Iraqi technocrats who concentrate on keeping the country functioning.

``We don't expect them to enact any laws unless there is absolute need for them,'' Iraqi Governing Council member Adnan Pachachi said Sunday. ``We're not going to enter into any big contractual obligations - either diplomatically or economically - because those things should be done by an elected government.''

The short-lived government's main work includes passing the 2005 national budget and preparing for elections, the U.S. official told reporters in a dinner meeting.

The U.S. ambassador will hoard a large measure of influence on Iraq, and the fledgling government will wean itself only slowly from American money, troops and advisers, whom Pachachi said will be tutoring Iraq's rulers on governance issues across the board.

The American face in Iraq will undergo only a symbolic change, with the ambassador installed in a new chancery building but U.S. affairs still handled in Saddam Hussein's former Republican Palace.

The ambassador will also have a say in the spending of $8 billion of the massive $18.4 billion U.S. aid package approved by Congress in November, a huge tool with which to influence Iraq's affairs.

Americans ``will be heavily involved, so there will be continuous contacts with them,'' Pachachi said in an interview in a rented Baghdad mansion that serves as his headquarters.

Much of the day-to-day governance will be handled by a president or prime minister and the country's 25 ministers, some of whom Pachachi predicted will be holdovers selected by U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer.

Pachachi listed three options being considered for the country's interim government, a charged issue after the complex U.S. plan for a system of caucuses was mooted earlier this year.

A committee selected by the U.S.-picked Governing Council and occupation authorities could select one or a variation of the following options:

-The existing 25-member Governing Council gains legislative power, but the monthly rotation of the presidency is jettisoned in favor of a president and deputies chosen from among the members.

- The Governing Council is expanded to around 100 members and takes either a parliamentary role or an advisory role, electing a prime minister and president from within its ranks.

-A general national conference is convened under U.N. auspices, and conference members choose a president and ministers and then disband. A second variation has the conference retaining legislative or advisory power.

The United Nations team that arrives at the end of the week will attend to technical aspects of selecting the interim government, Pachachi said. A second team that arrives in early April will include top U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, and will handle final negotiations, Pachachi said.

As Iraq marches toward independence, many U.S. moves will shape governance and society here long after the occupation's end.

A week ago, U.S. officials announced new restrictions on border crossing that won't be fully implemented for a year - long after sovereignty is in the hands of Iraqis.

Bremer is also in the midst of appointing inspectors general for Iraq's ministries that, under current rules, can't be replaced by an incoming Iraqi government.

The U.S.-led authority is also establishing a corruption-fighting Committee on Public Integrity whose commissioner is being appointed to a five-year terms, and an Iraqi broadcasting authority - akin to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3887544,00.html

Dear Popcorn

In fact there was a protest in Baghdad held on Friday 19th March, against the US occupation of Iraq.
Check out the photos here:
http://indybay.org/news/2004/03/1674128.php

Thank you, thank you so much for your support. We in the U.S. appreciate it very much!

"...In fact there was a protest in Baghdad held on Friday 19th March..."

That's great to know.

No thanks to the left which OPPOSED the liberation of Iraq.

It won't be long, though, before you start to take credit for it. In fact, you seem to have started already.

alas!...Poopcorn, so cynical!...the tone of your last message implied that you believe Iraq has now been liberated. Perhaps I'm uninformed but a quick read of a few Arab and international newspapers online tells me that currently in Iraq there are problems obtaining regular basic ammenities ie electricity and fresh water, greater chance of random death whilst doing some shopping at the local Souk and/ or humiliation by a gun-toting 20 year old from another country on the way there. That's a kind of liberation we can all be happy with hey Poopie!

Hunter says;

"....the tone of your last message implied that you believe Iraq has now been liberated. Perhaps I'm uninformed but a quick read of a few Arab and international newspapers online tells me that currently in Iraq there are problems ....."

No fooling.

"..A Cambridge University opinion poll suggests most Iraqis feel their lives have improved since the war in Iraq began about a year ago.
The survey, carried out for the BBC and other broadcasters, also suggests many are optimistic about the next 12 months and opposed to violence. ..."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3514504.stm

- and I can at least show WHICH 'Arab newspapers online' I read;

"Terrorists in Iraq Are More Barbarous Than Saddam "

"Just when we seem to have moved a step forward, something happens to make us take ten steps back. Sacrificial blood in Karbala and Baghdad is nothing new but the latest atrocity on the most sacred day for the Shia was a criminal act of monstrous proportions....'

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP68104

And just think Hunter, come the transfer of sovreignty and the elections, you will be able to hold your head up high and say;

" I OPPOSED the overthrow of Saddam Hussein..."

Or, more likely being a pinko, you'll just drop the topic and move on......

"A Cambridge University opinion poll suggests most Iraqis feel their lives have improved since the war in Iraq began about a year ago."

Did they interview dead Iraqis as well.Which Iraqis did these pretentious twats actually interview and how much did they pay them to spin this BS.What a gullible moron you are dude.Get a reality check.