ists use the word “resistance” (in French, “la resistance”) to underscore the association with the struggle against the Nazi occupation of France during WWII.
The resurrection of the Ba’th Party on French soil was further strengthened by France’s proposal that representatives of “la resistance” should participate in any future conference that will be convened to discuss the future of Iraq. This position was clearly stated by Michel Barnier, the French Foreign Minister, in an interview with the French TV station ” France Inter.” In the interview, Mr. Barnier called for a political process in Iraq that would include “a number of groups and people who have today opted for the path of resistance through the use of weapons.”
Its aims include the defence of Saddam Hussein:
A group calling itself “Amitiés Francaises-Irakiennes” (French-Iraqi Friendship) issued an international appeal condemning “the unworthy treatment reserved to President Saddam Hussein [which] violates the principles of the international law.” A form was attached to the newsletter under the heading: “Signers recall solemnly that President Saddam Hussein is a prisoner of war [entitled] to fully benefit of the 1949 Conventions of Geneva.”
In a July 7, 2004 newsletter titled: ‘The Political Defense of the President Saddam Hussein is Also Organized!’, the group said, “The International Committee to defend the President Saddam Hussein” was launched. It further stated: “The Committee want[s] to answer to the campaign of hate and lies orchestrated by the media, which is controlled by the American-Zionists, and to re-establish the truth about Iraq of Saddam Hussein and the Ba’th Party.”
and the coordination of a campaign of resistance against the American-Zionist imperialists:
In a newsletter (dated simply 2003) lacking the State of Iraq’s Cote of Arms (state symbol), which appears on subsequent releases, the authors declared in an exhortative language:
“We are numerous everywhere in the world, and particularly in the French-speaking space, to wish not only the end of the Yankee’s occupation in Iraq, but more the victory of the Ba’thist resistance, which claims itself of Saddam Hussein and which is organized in the Movement Resistance and Liberation [poor translation from the original in French, meaning the Resistance and Liberation Movement] of Iraq.”
The newsletter extends the purpose of the “resistance” not only to defeat “the American-Zionist imperialism in Iraq,” but to other fronts, “particularly in occupied Palestine and Europe, where the Yankee domination is shaken today.” It goes on to affirm its agreement with Che Guevara that, “imperialism has a head, the United States, and that it should be cut off!”
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