By IRNA,
London: Britain’s trade union leader has written to the Iraqi Charge D’Affaires in London, Abdulmuhaimen Al-Oraibi, expressing alarm at the recent violent crackdown against protest demonstrators in his country.
“I urge your government to end the repression, immediately release those detained, and to bring to justice those responsible for the violence,” said the general secretary of the Trades Unions Congress, Brendan Barber.
“I am deeply worried by the increasingly repressive actions of the Iraqi government against its own people. These actions are seriously damaging Iraq’s international reputation and only risk causing deeper conflict,” Barber said in his letter.
He said he was “particularly shocked” about the disappearance of four young media workers, Maan Thamer Ismail, Ali Saihood, Ali Abd-Al Zahra, and Mohammed Khadim Finjan, after they left Baghdad’s Tahrir square on March 7 and have not been heard of since, according to a copy of the letter obtained by IRNA.
On behalf of the TUC, its 55 affiliated trade unions and the 6.1 million workers, he said he was calling on the Iraqi authorities to immediately release the media workers.
“It has been eight years since the fall of Saddam’s regime, yet its repressive labour laws are still in place. I call on the Iraqi government to respect the call of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers and immediately implement a fair, just and ILO-compliant labour law,” Barber also said.