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This is some propaganda that was passed on to me (I don't believe a word of it): Air strikes on Iraqi military installations by British and American pilots on Friday 16 February 2001 Briefing from the Labour party policy unit Labour is committed to containing the threat posed by Saddam Hussein to regional security. The recent military action conducted by British and American pilots was a limited operation with the sole purpose of defending pilots and aircrew who patrol the No-Fly Zones. It is the Government's duty to ensure that our pilots can protect themselves while protecting others, and came in response to Iraq's escalating provocation, which has seen Saddam launch more attacks on allied aircraft this January 2001 than in the whole of last year. No-Fly Zones were established in April 1991 (north Iraq) and August 1992 (south), in support of UN Security Resolution 688, which demanded an end to Saddam Hussein's repression of his own people. The no-fly zones have served a vital humanitarian purpose in limiting Saddam's ability to repress the Shia people in the south and the Iraqi Kurds in the north against whom Saddam Hussein used ehcmical weapons killing 5,000 people in Halabja in 1988. Without the no-fly zones Saddam would be free to use aircraft and helicopter gunships to carry out further human rights abuses against his own people. The patrols are justified in international law as a legitimate response to prevent a grave humanitarian crisis. Sanctions: Iraq's people are suffering because Saddam Hussein will not co-operative with the United Nations. The UN arms control body UNSCOM has stated that serious questions remain about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction arsenal. These weapons have potentially horrific capabilities which threaten the security of the entire region. To lift sanctions without Iraqi compliance would undermine the UN's authority, the implications of which would be a profound blow to the United Nations. Nor would it offer any assurance that Saddam Hussein's regime would improve the condition of the Iraqi people. Instead it would leave the Iraqi regime free to replenish its stock of chemical and biological weapons and redevelop its nuclear capability. It would leave Iraq's neighbours, and the Kurds and the Shia, open to renewed attack. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full details of CASI's various lists can be found on the CASI website: http://www.casi.org.uk