The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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This is a useful update on what postition some well-known UK campaign groups are taking on the Iraq issue (see 'signatories' at end). --------- Joint Statement on the Gulf Crisis February 6, 1998 "We categorically oppose a military attack on Iraq as currently threatened by Britain and the USA. We oppose this on both ethical and practical grounds. The ordinary people of Iraq have already suffered enough from the Iraqi regime and from seven years of harsh economic sanctions, which according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation have cost the lives of more than half a million Iraqi children. They are the inevitable victims of any further attacks and could suffer catastrophically if chemical or biological weapons sites were bombed. Military action has been ineffective in seriously influencing the Iraqi regime in the past and there is no reason to suppose it will be any more effective now. Indeed the most likely result of such action will be to put an abrupt end the UN inspection process which has so far succeeded in dismantling at least part of Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological warfare capability. We therefore support the broad international consensus for negotiation as the appropriate method for resolving the present inspection crisis.We believe there is still ample room for give and take on both sides, and would propose as a first step that the UN inspection teams should be more broadly based and not dominated by states hostile to Iraq. We strongly urge the British government to align itself with this broader view, withdraw its support of the current US position and use its good relations with the US to persuade it to seek more creative solutions to the present crisis. We are united in our aim to rid the world of all weapons of mass destruction, including those held by Britain and the US, and were particularly alarmed by the statement made last week by US Assistant Secretary of Defence Kenneth Bacon, refusing to rule out the use of B61 deep penetration nuclear weapons as a means of achieving their military objectives in Iraq. The current inspection crisis is part of a larger problem involving a massive level of arms exports to the region, especially by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and an increasing militarisation currently fuelled by lack of progress in the Middle East peace process. We therefore call on the British government to work towards a de-militarised and de-nuclearised Middle East through negotiations which encompass all the security concerns of the region." Campaign Against Arms Trade Pax Christi Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) Peace News Quaker Peace & Service Peace Pledge Union Fellowship of Reconciliation England United Nations Association Medical Action for Global Security World Disarmament Campaign Jan Melichar PeaceWorks Peace Pledge Union 41B Brecknock Road London N7 0BT tel 0171 424 9444 fax 0171 482 6390 http://www.gn.apc.org/peacepledge/ There is no way to peace. Peace is the way. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html