Memory of Irak

About Memory of Irak

From the beginning of the 90s till the dawn of the country occupation in April 2003, that is to say for more than a decade, many of us were travelling to Iraq in different supportive delegations organized by the State Campaign for the Lifting to the Iraq Sanctions (CELSI). Those annual delegations, comprised of hundreds of members channeled through collectives and organizations from all around the State of Spain, constituted the most prolonged and powerful of all the international initiatives against the genocide that was taking place against Iraq. That initiative, that allowed us to break the wall of silence around the drama lived in this country, would see its continuity in the "Brigades to Iraq against the War", from February to April 2003.

Today, the day we celebrate 6 years since the start of the occupation in Iraq, the country that welcomed us seems not to have ever existed. The picture of Iraq we all have been shown is that of a dismembered and regressive country, sunk into sectarian violence and obscurantism. However, in our shared memories, the pictures from then, are those of a well-articulated and secularized country, varied and respectful, integrated by educated, kind and discrete people, with a deep feeling towards public service and solidarity, in an era when the country was living a besiege more characteristic of the middle ages, full of fire, sickness and hunger.

To recover those memories and the memory of Iraq itself and its inhabitants, the memories the invasion and the occupation have tried to destroy, we would like to invite you to share the pictures we took during our travels. Pictures of the cities and villages we visited and its people. We have called this initiative "Memory of Iraq, our own memory" and it consists on the publication, in that common space that provides us the internet, of those pictures and images every one of us took during that long decade of war and sanctions.

If you have travelled to Iraq before the occupation, or you know anyone that has, we encourage you to participate in this initiative, sending your pictures or spreading this project out.