No War on Iraq

Legal Challenge

CADU is adding its voice to the growing number of NGO's who have joined forces to issue an ultimatum to the British Government. Following CND's legal challenge to the Government over the proposed war on Iraq (see www.cnduk.org), which despite initial success was declared unjusticiable by the courts, there are plans to pursue this further.

Interested NGO's were meeting on 15th January (as CADU News went out) to discuss the serving of notice on the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, of their intention to pursue the government to the International Criminal Court (ICC), should international human rights and international law be breached in any attack on Iraq.

The letter declares the intention to collect evidence as to whether the use of force against Iraq breaches requirements of IHL. This will be presented to an inquiry organised by the Permanent People's Tribunal based in Italy. Its panel will consist of eminent international lawyers and others experienced in this field. The judgement of this panel, and supporting evidence of NGO's will be presented to the Prosecutor of the ICC, who will be urged to analyse the evidence and proceed to investigate the UK government.

CADU has had input into this process, and depleted uranium is now specifically mentioned in the letter.

This action has the support of Mark Thomas of Ch 4, and is being organised by CND and Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers. More info from www.cnduk.org, or 0207 700 2393

Anti-War Movement Mushrooms

There is not enough space here to report on the enormous amounts of actions, rallies, demonstrations, petitions etc which have happened across the globe against the impending war on Iraq.

From a peace protest at the South Pole on midnight on New Year's Eve to the United States, where over 100 naked people formed their bodies into one word 'PEACE' visible from the air, people are saying NO! to war.

In Cairo last month, an initiative called the International Campaign Against US Aggression on Iraq was launched at a conference attended by over 400 delegates from the Arab world as well as the international peace movement. The coordinating committee of this group includes the former President of Algeria, Ahmed Ben Bella.

Protesters in Turkey burned US flags on New Year's Eve in a demo against a possible war on neighbouring Iraq.

A peace camp has been set up just metres outside the Irish airport in Shannon which provides stopover (overnight) and refueling services to US military flights as Ireland's part in the so-called "war on terrorism". Contact [email protected]

Here in the UK, there have been actions at almost all US military bases in the country, with people being arrested for trespassing, intent to cause criminal damage, and at Menwith Hill US Spy base, tens of thousands of pounds of damage was caused by peace activists trying to stop war.

Global Demonstration Against War - Feb 15th

February 15th is a big day of action, with demos happening across Europe and the globe. Here in the UK, we have to make it count, as our government is the major ally with the US in their war-mongering. Contact Stop the War Coalition for contacts in your area, details of transport to London for the demo. If you make your own way there, it is meeting at noon at Embankment, and marching to Hyde Park. Last time, on September 28th, there was over 300,000 people - we must make it half a million this time. www.stopwar.org.uk,

Human Shields in Iraq

A convoy of anti-war activists from across Europe are travelling to Iraq this month to act as human shields. The convoy to Baghdad is organised by former US Marine Ken Nichols, who served in the first Gulf war but is now a vociferous opponent of another Gulf conflict. They will leave from London across Europe, holding rallies in various cities and gathering other human shields along the way. Once in Iraq, members of the convoy will identify infrastructure targets for bombing, such as power stations, key bridges and roads, and deploy themselves as human shields in the glare of the international media. More info from www.uksociety.org/ or www.iraqpeaceteam.org/

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