Posted by andreas from dtm2-t8-1.mcbone.net (62.104.210.78) on Saturday, December 14, 2002 at 12:03PM :
AUA Secretary General Letter to President Bush
Posted By: AUANEWSWATCH <AUANEWSWATCH@aol.com> (cache-ntc-ai03.proxy.aol.com)
Date: Friday, 13 December 2002, at 5:52 p.m.
December 12, 2002
George W. Bush
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Bush;
I am sending this letter to you out of frustration. This is Thursday and the conference being organized by the six opposition leaders in London and endorsed by the Department of State is scheduled to meet on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday (Dec. 13, 14, 15 and 16 2002). As of this afternoon invitations have not been received nor have any Assyrian representatives been notified or invited to attend the conference. The location of the conference was confirmed today.
We Assyrians had a successful Conference hosted by the Assyrian Universal Alliance in London November 1, 2 and 3, 2002 resulting in unity among 9 organizations and producing a declaration on the needs of the Assyrians. With all the uncertainty and delay on this conference it has caused a break down in our internal communication. This confusion has resulted in a loss of confidence in our word and some members of our unity team have run off and acted on their own.
I am sure that you Mr. President, all the members of the State Department, the Department of Defense and the Security Council are very concerned about the ability of the six member opposition leadership to be able to work together and be productive.
We would like to restate our position on a future government of Iraq. With all the various factions and in-fighting and unwillingness to have American participation by a number of opposition groups, it is imperative that an American military government similar to that which was successfully done in Japan by the USA be instituted. Iraqi personnel can then be integrated into the government successfully and take over within a limited time.
We are indeed grateful and appreciative of some of the positive actions taken by you Mr. President and the Department of State. I thank God and you President Bush for recognizing the Assyrian Democratic Movement as an opposition group and eligible for assistance under the Iraqi Liberation Act. We also thank the Department of State for involving some of the 62 names we submitted as participants in the working groups. We also are thankful to the State Department for insisting on Assyrian and Turkoman involvement in the opposition meetings.
Please let me restate some of our concerns that we have previously reported with no apparent change. The Assyrian representatives to the conference are being selected by the 6 leadership organizers of the conference. We are not allowed to replace any of our representatives. We have not been given any participation in the leadership either as members or observers. We respectfully request that an Assyrian be included on all committees which the upcoming conference may appoint to ensure Assyrian participation in activities following the conference.
I am including the declaration on Assyrian needs which was unanimously passed at our Assyrian November conference. Should a federal state for Iraq be established attached is a map denoting the Assyrian triangle which we submit for the indigenous Christian Assyrians.
Warm personal regards,
Sen. John J. Nimrod, Ret.
Secretary General
CC: Vice President Richard Chaney
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz
Under Secretary of State Marc Grossman
Ambassador Khalidad Zalmay, Assistant to the President
Director Benjamin Miller, for Iraq and Persian Gulf - National Security Council
Director David Pearce, Northern Gulf Affairs
Nate Jensen, Iraq Desk Northern Gulf Affairs
Hon. Henry Hyde, Chairman House Committee on International Government Relations
Hon. Anna Eshoo, Congresswoman – California
Enc: Assyrian Declaration with Map
-- andreas
-- signature .
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