Action Alerts
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Campaign ______________________________________________________ Dear Friends, Placed below is
the revised version of the statement on Iraq. I request you to
kindly let us know whether we can include your name as a signatory.
We propose to release it to the media by April 10. An early response
will be appreciated. With best regards Please your
response to _______________________________________ STATEMENT
ON IRAQ The invasion of
Iraq has brought the world to the brink of great uncertainty and
instability. The American led invasion, undertaken with the
intention of regime change in Bagdad against the wishes of the
United Nations and the majority of the people of the world sets a
dangerous precedent. We call upon the US and British governments and
allies to immediately stop their invasion of Iraq, withdraw all
their troops from the Gulf region, and work with the United Nations
on a negotiated settlement to the original issue of weapons of mass
destruction. Behind the
rhetoric of liberating the people of Iraq from Saddam Hussein’s no
doubt authoritarian regime lie economic as well as global political
interests that the Republican establishment in the US has made
little attempt to hide. The new American doctrine of preemptive
unilateralism is a clear statement of the ruling party’s agenda to
impose post-Cold War American domination on the world. In putting
the agenda of global domination into action, the Bush Administration
and its allies have disregarded the question of the elementary
legality of their act of invasion of a sovereign country. Herein
lies a great danger to peoples and nations throughout the world:
political relations and inter-state relations are increasingly
driven by the principle that ‘might is right’ and international
norms, rules and due process is rendered irrelevant. The failure of
the United Nations to halt the Bush Administration’s reckless
militarism against Iraq has rendered the world body’s primary
mandate of ensuring world peace irrelevant. The Secretary
General’s insistence that the UN would provide humanitarian and
post-conflict assistance in Iraq appears to be an admission that the
UN has lost sight of its primary mandate to maintain world peace and
has thus been willfully ignored by the US government. In the run up
to the planned invasion the UN Secretary General, instead of
continuing the Weapons Inspections process and insisting that the
diplomatic process should continue, as the French, German, Russian
and Chinese governments did, withdrew the inspectors from Iraq along
with other UN personnel monitoring the food for oil program. The spread of war
beyond Iraq will have serious consequences and implications for
global order and economic and social development. The poor nations
of the world grappling with uneven development and economic
globalization, face increased hardships in an event of protracted
and widened conflict in the Gulf region. Another dangerous precedent
is that increasingly the production of weapons of destruction and
post-conflict reconstruction has become growth sectors in the global
economy with serious implications for human security and world
development. Against this
backdrop, we appeal to the people of the world and the leaders of
States to rally against the war on Iraq, and for peace. We demand
that the US and its allies desist from further aggression against
the people of Iraq and let the Iraqi people decide the fate of their
government in an atmosphere free of war, external aggression and
intimidation. We also appeal to the UN to regain its original
mandate and moral authority so that it can once again become the
world body that it was meant to be. In order to facilitate that
process, the Secretary General should resume the United Nations’
diplomatic efforts to politically manage and eventually resolve the
crisis of Iraq. Dr. Kumari
Jayawardene Social Scientist’s Association Dr. Jayadeva
Uyangoda – University of Peradeniya Dr. Darini
Rajasingham-Senanayake – International Centre for Ethnic Studies Mr. Ranjith
Perera – Social Scientist’s Association Dr. Ranabir
Samadar – South Asia forum for Human Rights (SAFHR), Kathmandu Ms. Mangalika de
Silva – Social Scientist’s Association Dr. Lal
Jayawardene Rita Manchand -SAFHR,
Kathmandu Tapan K. Bose –
SAFHR, Kathmandu Fara Haniffa –
Columbia University Dr. Alan Keenan -
ICES Sonali
Moonesinghe - ICES Nimanthi
Rajasingham – ICES Teesta Setalvad
Communalism Combat/KHOJ Javed Anand
Communalism Combat |
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