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MSP WELCOMES VISIT OF IRAQ OIL UNION LEADER TO UK |
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Tuesday, 10 July 2007 |
Dr Bill Wilson, MSP for the West of Scotland, today welcomed the announcement that the leader of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU) had been granted a visa to visit the UK and would be in the country from Tuesday July 10th until Thursday July 19th.
Dr Wilson’s comments followed his press release of 23 June and his Parliamentary motions of 18 June in which attacked the proposed Oil Law in Iraq and accused multinational corporations and the US and UK governments of effectively usurping control of Iraq’s oil resources [see bottom of this document for full details].
Dr Wilson said, “I was disturbed to learn earlier that Hassan Jumaa Awad al Assadi, President of the 26,000-strong IFOU, was unable to visit the UK and present the objections of union members to the Oil Law to the authorities and public in the UK, as he could not get a visa. I wrote to both David Miliband, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, and to Dominic Asquith, the British Ambassador to Iraq, to urge them to ensure that Hassan Jumaa be issued with a visa as soon as possible.
“I am delighted that the leader of the Iraq oil union will now be allowed to make his argument within the UK. To deny the Iraq people the right to put their argument to the people of the UK would have been nothing less than dishonest. There is strong opposition in Iraq to passing a law which takes control of Iraqi oil from the people of Iraq and hands it to the multi-nationals — it is right that the voice of that opposition should be heard in the UK.
“Both Blair and Bush assured us that this war was not about oil but about democracy. If this assurance is to be even vaguely believable then both the UK and US governments must end all pressure on the Iraqi government to pass this law. Admiral Fallon must withdraw his deadline (for the Oil Law to be adopted by the end of this month), and the UK, the USA and the IMF must accept that Iraq’s oil belongs to the Iraqi people.”
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