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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
Tapan Bose

Please your response to 
[email protected]

_______________________________________

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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