witch-—hunt continues in Iraq. Reports reaching here from various sources put the number of arrested at about 5,000, the number of dead 2,500. Among those now held in the overflowing prisons or concentration | camps are well-known political figures, including Abdel Kader Ismail Bl Boustani, editor of the main Communist party newspaper.
In working-class districts many people were killed in their homes or in the streets by gangs of youths wearing green armbands and armed by the new regime in the first days of the coup.
Pad Laternational Gomrunist moverent) u9s protested the repression. in Lonton, tray. sataidents, who at first hh “ overtixow of Kagsem,. organised @ protest demonestretvion agaicat the witeb-hunt. Some 500 marched on the Iraqi embassy, and entered 315 ky force.
In various parts of the country, resistance is reported ta be stiff. especially near the Iran dorder. Underground radio svations. broadcasting in Arahic and Kurdish, are declaring: "Resist everywhere. Your life igs at stake."
Besides members of the Communist party, it is reported that yarts of the army, still holding allegiance to Kassem have joined the resistance under the leadership of generals Chaoui and Hadgid
In today’s Le Figaro, in which he reports thet the new regime is "without any real popular support,” special correspondent Jean- “raneois Chauvel writes vividly of the situation:
"The announcer on the government radio has asked all citizens who know any Communists. to write their names on slips of papex and seni them to military headquarters. One can imagine the effect this official encouragement of cenunciatitons is producing in a country as divided as Iraq."
in Bab-Dl Cheikh, the Kurdish sector of Beghdad, tae Aref forces used tanks, essaulting the area house by house. Practivslly avery youth was arrested. As a consequence, the Kurds who sad been an revolt against Kassem, added some new demands to their o13 ones according to Chavuvel. These include a formal demard for "the cilitery evacuation of Kurdisten and the return of all apmed Porves of Kurdish nationality dispersed in field areas in Iraq. ‘We uve na confidence whatsoever and have decided to insist on guarantecs. a Kurdish personality said a few days ago in Baghdad.”
Chauvel describes popular feeling in Baghdad as being aqitite different from the wild enthusiasm that swept the city when the monarchy Was overthrown in 1958:
“This time there is no crowd; and the leaders, who have not yet directiy sdéressed the population, remain for the most part unnown.
"To the single radio appeal asking the citizens to go out ints the streets to demonstrate their joy after the death of Kassen Saturdey, eight days ago, no one responded. Very much to the won trary. The next day, Sunday, February 11. three days after the insurrection was launched, a big popular demonstration formed i the poverty-stricken districts of the east bank of the Tigris. denonstrators, brandishing immense portraits of Kassem. shouted, 2eecoraing te a foreign diplomat who was present, ‘We want no orner chief than Abd el Karim (the first name of Kassem). Return Abd ol Karim to us dead ov alive.' Tanks intervened again and with esanon and macuine-eun fire dispersed the crowé. Since then no one nes
ea
ole
ae *
ae
5a
asked the population to demonstate and the regime is taking care not to run the risk," .
Tanks remain in the streets throughout the city. The city, under curfew law, seems "sick," says Chauvel, "It is particularly evident in the workers world where the trade unions were filled with Communists. At Basorah, it was the trade unionists who first opened fire. . . three days after the putsch, against the militia of the National Guard. ., " ;
++ +
The fundamental orientation of the new regime still remains unclear. Not even the names of the members of "National Council of the Revolutionary Command," which claims to lead the movement are known. Guarantees have been given to the foreign oil interests who own the Iraq Petroleum Company; and the “anti-Communist” witch-hunt has pleased American imperialism. "Good Omens in Iraq," is the title of the lead editorial in February 13 edition of the European Edition of the New York Herald Tribune. ,
As yet no political party in Iraq has come out openly in favor of the new regime, not even the Baath (Socialist party of the Arab Renaissance, a left petty-bourgeois party with branches in several countries of the Middle East) although the new government includes many members of the pro-Nasser wing of this party (inspired by Michel Aflek in Syria).
. If the new regime expects to hold on, its first problem is to win popular support or at least offer an answer to some of the pre~« occupations of the Iraqi masses. These are the key issues:
. Agrarian reform: The Kassem regime initiated moderate reforms, (iwaetoe land holdings to 625 acres of irrigated land and 1,250 acres of unirrigated land. Compensation was promised the big landowners and the land was to be distributed to poor and landless peasants within five years. On the eve of the February 8 coup; that is, four and a half years after the agrarian reform was announced, only one-fourth of the land had actually been distributed. The poor peasants who got the land were given neither tools nor credit and rapidly became indebted. When discontent mounted in the countryside, Kassem repressed the peasant leaders. The new regime has promised to extend the land reform and has reportedly jailed some big land~ owners. . Arab unity: Strong feeling in favor of Arab unity exists among the Iraqi masses. The Communist party lost a big part of its mass basis because of opposition to this popular and progressive sentiment, While giving lip service to the cause of Arab unity, it is improbable. that the Aref regime will share oil royalties with Nasser by permitting Iraq to join the United Arab Republic. #3
Anti-imperialism: The fact that the world imperialist press
eae fee has hailed the downfall of Kassem, is no credit to the new regime in the eyes of the masses. It remains to be seen what steps Aref and his partners will take to carry out their promises of "neutralism" in foreign policy and adherence to the so-called principles of the Bandung conference.
Kurds: For eighteen months, the Kassem regime sought to put down an insurrection of the Kurdish people in North Iraq who demand national autonomy within the Iraq Republic. As reported above, the Kurdish leaders appeared to have stiffened their demands in view of the savage witch-hunt with which the Aref regime launched its rule.
AFRICAN