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Year 2002 No. 153, August 12, 2002 ARCHIVE HOME SEARCH SUBSCRIBE

Tyneside Stop the War Coalition Demands "Hands Off Iraq!"

Workers' Daily Internet Edition : Article Index :

Tyneside Stop the War Coalition Demands "Hands Off Iraq!"

Hands Off Iraq! There Is an Alternative! Another World Is Possible!

Iraqi Leader Tells George Galloway He Hopes Britain Will Not Join Strike

Letter of Ramsey Clark

Iraq: War Crimes Exposed as US Threatens to Repeat Error

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Tyneside Stop the War Coalition Demands "Hands Off Iraq!"

On Saturday, August 10, the Tyneside Stop the War Coalition organised a street stall and leaflet distribution at the Monument, Newcastle, to call a Stop to Bush and Blair's war. Hundreds of leaflets entitled "Hands of Iraq" were warmly received by passers by and many people approached the stall, signed a petition, signed postcards to their MPs and received details of the National Demonstration on September 28 in London's Hyde Park.

The organisers have said that the street stall will be at the Monument from 1.00pm every Saturday from now until the bank holiday weekend and that all are welcome. The future programme will be discussed at a meeting of the Coalition on September 5 at 7.00pm venue to be announced to which all are welcome also.

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Hands Off Iraq! There Is an Alternative! Another World Is Possible!

The Northern Regional Committee of RCPB(ML) issued a statement with the above title on August 10. The statement said: "These are days when the war preparations of Bush and Blair towards Iraq are increasingly being spoken about in the monopoly-controlled media. When the unjustifiable is being increasingly justified in more and more strident tones, the Northern Region of RCPB(ML) calls on the people of the region to join with all progressive and peace-loving people to oppose Britain's participation in these criminal plans of Bush and to end Britain's military adventures against all other peoples. The best representatives of the working class must rise to the occasion. They must organise workers and all democratic people to stay the hands of these warmongers, who have already killed thousands of the people of Afghanistan in the name of fighting terrorism, from launching yet another bloody phase in their plans to dominate the globe and impose their ‘New World Order’."

The statement went on to detail the plan for invasion of Iraq which had been leaked last month. The Northern Regional Committee points out that Britain and the US are further raising pressure on Iraq by continuing air strikes and sanctions. As part of its efforts to overthrow Saddam Hussein, the US is trying to raise the pressure on the Iraqi regime and limit its access to Iraq's oil revenues, which would also undermine Iraq's ability to prepare for possible war. It has also been using the provocation of demanding that Iraq allow "inspectors" into the country to search for alleged "weapons of mass destruction" as a pretext for an invasion. In these despicable manoeuvres, it has had throughout the backing of the British government.

The statement continues: "At the same time, Britain is further being put on a war footing with increased budget provision for the armed forces and further militarisation of the economy with the government directly representing the interests of the armaments industry at home and abroad. These war preparations are being inevitably accompanied with further attacks on the people’s rights at home. New laws which have been challenged as illegal for suspending human rights in Britain have been put in place by the government."

The statement of the Northern Regional Committee concludes: "Under international law and UN conventions it is illegal to attack another sovereign country in order to bring about a regime change. Such facts show where in fact the threat to world peace is coming from. We call on the working class and progressive people to continue to build the people’s movement against the state terrorism, aggression and violation of rights of US imperialism and the British government. There is an alternative and a different world is possible."

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Iraqi Leader Tells George Galloway He Hopes Britain Will Not Join Strike

The Iraqi TV Satellite Channel carried a report on August 8 of the meeting between President Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Labour MP George Galloway which was also reported in the British press.

The text of the report, which was in Arabic, said that during the meeting Mr Galloway reviewed with the president the activities that he, along with several British political and trade union figures, are undertaking, as well as their calls for non-participation by Britain in the aggression against Iraq that the US administration is threatening to launch.

These moves, Galloway added, are meant to safeguard good ties between Britain and Iraq and also between Britain and the Arab nations. They are also designed to safeguard peace in the Middle East.

Mr Galloway affirmed that a solution to the Iraq issue must be pursued through peaceful and diplomatic means. He also commended Iraqi overtures, including the letter the foreign minister addressed to the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in which he proposed the holding of a technical dialogue with the chairman and members of Unmovic [United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Committee], and the letter the National Assembly speaker sent to the US Senate president and the speaker of the US House of Representatives, in which he invited them to visit Iraq, along with experts from various specialities, to obtain a first-hand knowledge about the US administration's claims and unfounded reports regarding weapons of mass destruction.

The Iraqi president commended the good efforts being made by Mr Galloway and hoped that Britain would not participate in the anti-Iraq aggression and would shun the foolish US policy.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and Foreign Minister Naji Sabri Ahmad also attended the meeting.

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Letter of Ramsey Clark

The following letter, dated July 29, 2002, by former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark has been sent to all members of the UN Security Council, with copies to the UN General Assembly and Senator Biden of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Dear Ambassador,

Any remaining hope the peoples of the United Nations have to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war through the United Nations would be crushed by another United States attack on Iraq. Threats to attack, invade and overthrow the government of Iraq by President George Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld, various cabinet officers and Pentagon officials have been routine for a year. The psychological warfare is itself a crime against peace and violates the UN Charter. Today's front-page headline story in the New York Times, "US Exploring Baghdad Strike As Iraq Option", is typical of the in terrorem intention of the threats. The danger to civilian life in Baghdad from such a strike would be enormous.

The United Nations Must Act to Prevent an Attack by the United States against Iraq

If the United Nations is unable to restrain the United States, a permanent member of the Security Council, from committing crimes against peace and humanity as well as war crimes against a nation that has already been violated by the US beyond endurance, then what is the United Nations worth? At the very least, opposition to any attack or attempt to overthrow the government of Iraq by force must be publicly expressed by the United Nations.

The United States Bombed Defenceless Iraq Mercilessly For Forty-Two Days in 1991

The US led and glorified the massive assault on Iraq in January and February 1991. The Pentagon announced it conducted 110,000 aerial sorties against the defenceless "cradle of civilisation", dropping 88,500 tons of bombs. The widespread bombing destroyed the economic viability of the civilian society throughout the nation. It killed tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens and others. A major part of the bombing was directed at civilians and civilian facilities. It was less accurate than the recent indiscriminate attacks in Afghanistan. US bombs destroyed Iraqi water systems, electric power transmission, communications, transportation, manufacturing, commerce, agriculture, poultry and livestock, food storage facilities, markets, fertiliser and insecticide production, business centres, archaeological and historical treasures, apartment houses, residential areas, schools, hospitals, mosques, churches and synagogues.

The Pentagon stated its casualties were 156. One third were from "friendly fire"; the rest were accidental. The US had no combat casualties.

The United States Forced the Imposition of Genocidal Sanctions on Iraq in 1990

The US crafted economic sanctions against Iraq which the Security Council approved on August 6, 1990, the 45th anniversary of the US atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. Those sanctions are the direct cause of the very cruel deaths of more than a million people. This is the greatest crime against humanity, in the last decade of the most violent century in history. Each painful death of an individual wasting away – from malnutrition; Kwashiorkor; the rush of dehydration from contaminated water and from diseases – was preventable. The sanctions continue to this time to cause hundreds of deaths each day. Every United Nations agency dealing with food, health and children – including FAO, WFP, WHO, UNICEF – has proclaimed the horror, magnitude and responsibility for this human catastrophe.

The great majority of the deaths caused by the sanctions are infants, children, the elderly, the chronically ill and emergency medical cases. These are the people most vulnerable to polluted water, malnutrition, and the lack of medicines and medical equipment and supplies.

US claims that it is the Iraqi government that is responsible for deaths from shortages of food and medicine are false. The US blocked oil sales by Iraq for six years before appearing to yield to humanitarian pleas to permit oil sales to purchase food and medicine. Since 1997, when sales began, it has effectively frustrated and delayed the Oil for Food programme, which does not provide sufficient income at the levels approved to stop the daily deterioration of health and growing death rates in Iraq.

Before sanctions there was virtually no malnutrition in Iraq and free hospital, health services and medicines were a model for the region. Its present system of government distribution of available food staples is a model of fairness and efficiency, lacking only in quantity and variety of food.

United States Military Aircraft Have Attacked Iraq At Will For Eleven Years

The US has engaged in air strikes against Iraq at will since March 1991, when the massive attacks averaging one aerial sortie every 30 seconds ended. Without losing a single plane, US attacks have killed: cleaning personnel at the Al Rashid Hotel in Baghdad in a failed attempt to assassinate Saddam Hussein; scores of people each year in attacks on radar stations in or near the US-imposed no-fly zones; all the persons aboard a UN helicopter shot down by US aircraft; and civilians from all walks of life, including the internationally famous artist and Director of Iraqis' National Centre for Arts, Leila al Attar.

Iraq Is Not a Threat to the US, Countries in the Region or Others

The US has falsely claimed that Iraq is working to develop weapons of mass destruction to attack the US, Israel, its neighbours and others. The US claimed its 1991 attacks destroyed 80% of Iraq's military capacity. The UN inspection efforts claimed to discover and dismantle 90% of Iraq's post-1991 capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction. Iraq, its peoples and resources are exhausted. It has a "stunted" generation of children under age 10 and a debilitated population at all ages. It is the victim of the worst crime against humanity in recent decades.

The United States Is the Greatest Purveyor of Violence on Earth

Two of the highest UN officials responsible for UN weapons inspection within Iraq and a principled US citizen participating in the inspections have resigned, denounced the sanctions and denied that there is a threat that Iraq will develop weapons of mass destruction.

The US has more nuclear weapons than all other nations combined as well as the most sophisticated and numerous systems for the delivery of nuclear weapons, including the Trident II submarine fleet. It possesses the greatest stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and the most advanced and extensive research in mass destruction weaponry in the world. Military spending by the US exceeds that of the nine next largest budgets for war combined. President Bush has repeatedly declared the right to strike first. The US attacked Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs and continues to justify those acts.

The US has renounced treaties controlling nuclear weapons and their proliferation; voted against the protocol enabling enforcement of the Biological Weapons Conventions; and rejected the treaty banning land mines, the International Criminal Court and virtually every other international effort to control and limit war. The US War against Terrorism is a declaration of right by the US to attack first – anyone, anywhere, on mere suspicion, or without excuse, unilaterally.

The US wants to overthrow the government of Iraq and many others in violation of law. Unless restrained the chance for peace and global equality of economic, social, cultural and political opportunity among nations will be lost. Which government presents the greater threat to peace globally or for Mesopotamia and its neighbours – the US or Iraq?

An Attack by the United States on Iraq to Overthrow its Government Would Be a Flagrant Violation of the UN Charter, the Nuremberg Charter and International Law

If, as promised so many times, the US does attack Iraq to overthrow its government, it will be the most notorious, arrogant and contemptuous violation of the Charter of the United Nations, the Nuremberg Charter and international law yet experienced, or likely hereafter. Only absolute power unrestrained by any rule of law or standard of human decency openly taunts an intended victim as President Bush has taunted Iraq. Because the US has committed historic injustices against Iraq, most during his father's presidency, and still seeks dominion in the region, President Bush, his Vice President and others in his administration hate Iraq and want finally to destroy it.

I am writing this letter to you; to each UN Representative of a Security Council Member; the President of the General Assembly; and President Bush. This is one of a series of letters describing and protesting US and UN wrongs against Iraq. The threatened wrong addressed here is the worst. If twelve years after its devastating aerial assault and after twelve years of genocidal sanctions, the omnipresent risk and frequent fact of random attack with the ever present stalking by US aircraft and endless threats against its helpless victim, the US commits its coup de grace on the people of Iraq to the silence of the UN and wealthy nations of the world, human shame and impotence will doom us to ever greater violence.

A US Assault on Iraq Will Cause More and Greater Violence; Urgent Action by the United Nations to Prevent a US Assault of Iraq Is Required

I urge you to immediately activate the United Nations, the General Assembly, the Security Council and all its agencies to denounce the continuing threats by the United States against Iraq, to demand immediate cessation of the threats and to warn the United States that an attack by it on Iraq will violate the Charter of the United Nations, international law and the friendship of all who seek peace and respect the dignity of humanity.

An Attack by the US on Iraq Would Violate the Constitution and Laws of the United States Requiring Impeachment, Trial before the US Senate and Criminal Charges in Federal Courts against President Bush and All Officials Responsible

An attack on Iraq by the United States would also violate the Constitution and laws of the United States and expose President Bush to impeachment by the House of Representatives under the Constitution of the United States for the highest of crimes, those against peace and humanity, to judgment by the United States Senate and trial in federal court for crimes charged.

Unfortunately in recent years our Constitution has been more honoured in the breach than in faithful observance of the rights it is intended to protect for all. But the effort to hold accountable any US authority who participates in an assault against Iraq will be made here by those who love their country and for that reason insist that its acts be just.

Sincerely, Ramsey Clark

International Action Centre 39 W. 14th St., Suite 206 New York, NY 10011 212-633-6646 fax: 212-633-2889 http://www.iacenter.org mailto:iacenter@iacenter.org

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Iraq: War Crimes Exposed as US Threatens to Repeat Error

The following, which appeared on the Pravda.Ru site on August 6, 2002, was written by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey.

The constant denials that DU [depleted uranium] weapon deployment posed health problems and claims that Gulf War syndrome and Balkans syndrome are nothing other than hypochondria are part of a callous cover-up by nations who deployed these weapons, perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The deployment of DU weapons is a breach of the Geneva Convention, which stipulates that theatres of war are not left contaminated after the conflict has ceased. Such is not the case with DU weapons. As the USA unilaterally and arrogantly prepares a crusade against Iraq, the case of DU deployment is reopened, with new and fresh evidence.

The official position of NATO and the US and British military authorities was peremptory: the claims that DU caused illness were unfounded. However, an independent study in Britain has shown that Gulf War veterans had almost twice the incidence of bone marrow and lymphatic cancers as a similarly-aged control group of the same size (19 cases to 11). The study was carried out by a team from three London hospitals (Guy’s, St Thomas’ and King’s College).

Of the 53,200 British troops involved in the Gulf War, 213 died through cancer-related diseases, 100 committed suicide, 329 died through accidents. Six were murdered and a staggering 5,000 reported unfit to work through illness. One in six (17%) claims to have some of the Gulf War syndrome symptoms, namely headaches, lack of concentration, aching limbs and fatigue.

It is true that Gulf War combatants were inoculated with multiple vaccinations against biological agents, raising the point that many cases of Gulf War syndrome are in fact not reactions to DU, but reactions against inoculation programmes. That there is a case to be investigated, there is no doubt. There have been abnormal levels of cancer reported in Gulf War veterans in the USA, UK, Portugal, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Belgium.

It is in the vaccination programme that NATO and Defence officials found their let-out and the confusion between the two has allowed the perpetrators of this crime hide behind misinformation and blocking actions for the best part of a decade. Not any more.

Pravda.Ru can reveal that a warning was issued by the German Army to its troops in Kosovo (1999) about the long-term hazards of DU, instructing them not to approach locations where DU ammunition had been deployed, "except for life-saving purposes and/or measures indispensable to the mission accomplishment". The warning continued, "It must be assumed that not only the interior but also the surrounding area of an armoured vehicle destroyed by DU ammunition is contaminated".

This being the case, deployment of this ammunition constitutes a violation of the Geneva Convention. Children playing on burnt-out vehicles would by now be developing life-threatening diseases, the same ones that are claiming the lives of so many soldiers who unwittingly came into contact with this substance. There is no doubt that the German regulations are incriminatory. They add that "long-term hazards may also result from drinking water and soil contamination".

United Nations investigations into the issue were claimed to have revealed nothing new and scientists scoffed at reports that DU had contaminated large swathes of Iraq and the Balkans in separate conflicts. However, the United Nations Environment Programme interim report on Kosovo stated that radioactivity levels were higher than expected in areas where DU had been deployed and made an urgent call to UNEP personnel to seal off 112 such sites in Kosovo after considerable levels of uranium dust had been found in bomb craters.

It was not only the UNO that had raised the alarm. Homes of British Gulf War veterans suspected of leaking the story to the press were raided. Pravda.Ru personnel, who had started to write about the subject, suffered destructive hacking attacks on their PCs.

For some reason, the Royal Navy is phasing out deployment of DU ammunition and for some reason, US manufacturers are phasing out DU and are turning to tungsten-tipped rounds.

It is not only among troops that disease has been reported in areas where DU was deployed. In Iraq, the incidence of cancers in such areas is twenty times higher than normal. Children are suffering from cancers of the brain and the eye which did not exist before 1991 and girls as young as eight are starting to suffer from cervical cancer. Military experts in the US and UK claim that the deployment of mustard gas against the Iranians in 1986 was responsible for these diseases, yet this is a gas which affects the respiratory channels, not the cervix.

Indeed, the US and British military authorities were also wise to the risks, despite having deployed some 339 tonnes of toxic metals in the Gulf in 1991. British troops fired some 100 DU tank rounds while the US troops deployed around 860,000 rounds, fired from tanks and aircraft. In the Balkans, the US forces used some 10,800 rounds in Bosnia and 31,000 in Kosovo.

A document from the US Army Office of the Surgeon General in August 1993 claims that "when soldiers inhale or ingest DU dust they incur a potential increase in cancer risk". A British Ministry of Defence alert issued to the Headquarters of the British Forces in Riyadh on February 25, 1991, states: "Two potential health risks from DU oxide dusts exist. First. Irradiation from alpha particles, levels are extremely low but ingestion and inhalation should be avoided. Second. Heavy metal oxide, treat as for exposure to lead oxides."

In areas where DU was deployed, the document urged British troops to use nuclear, chemical and biological protection suits.

How interesting that the US armed forces are considering another attack against Iraq when the bombshell resulting from the previous illegal activities arising from the last conflict is about to explode. There is a case here to be brought against NATO forces for the deployment of illegal substances during the Gulf War and Balkans conflicts. Knowingly and callously, this organisation committed war crimes and crimes against humanity and breached the Geneva Convention.

How the USA could be considering further military action in the same theatre of war is utterly astonishing.

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