President Rashid Mourns Passing of Ann Clwyd

Iraqi Presidency

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Iraqi President Abdullatif Jamal Rashid mourned the death of former British MP Ann Clwyd describing her as a representative for all those without a voice around the world.

President Rashid's tribute said:

It is with great sadness to hear that my dear friend Ann Clwyd has passed away. Ann was not only a representative for Cynon Valley, but she was a representative for all those without a voice around the world.

I first met Ann in Wales when she was working as a reporter for the Guardian newspaper, and quickly realised that not only did she care about the stories she would publish, but she wanted to right the wrongs for many. She was a campaigner in the true sense of the word, gentle and formidable.

As Ann started her political career through Brussels, then Westminster, she would always have the Iraqi and Kurdish people in her heart. She was not one to simply talk, she was a doer. We formed INDICT to document the brutality of Baathist regime, and she even accompanied my wife Shanaz on her first return to Iraq after the downfall of Saddam.

She was affectionately referred to as the Queen of Iraq and Kurdistan by Mam Jalal, and then would joke that the only problem was that Iraq is a Republic. It is safe to say that if Ann was listened to during the rebuilding of Iraq, Iraq would be in a much better position today. The victims of the Anfal campaign, the victims of the Marshland eradication, the people of Iraq as a whole, no matter what background or faith needed to be included in the New Iraq for the nation to succeed.

But it was not just international causes that would keep Ann preoccupied. Her constituency meant the world to her, and she championed injustices that affected people on a daily basis.

Both Ann and her late husband Owen, will always be remembered fondly by Shanaz and I, as friends, and allies.

Abdul Latif Rashid
President of Iraq
22/07/2023



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