For immediate release: 19 March 2003

Please note: This is the official press release from CND. It counters any misleading statements that have been issued from other sources. CND are supporting and urging people to participate in the demonstrations being organised on Saturday the 22nd of March at Whitehall, Fairford and Menwith Hill.

CND is calling for people to take their protests directly to Tony Blair to show what the majority of the British people feel about this illegal and immoral war. At 6pm on the day war breaks out CND calls for individuals to bring whistles and drums to make noise in Whitehall, London to protest against war on Iraq.

CND is organising a demonstration on Saturday the 22nd of March starting at 11am at Whitehall, opposite Downing Street for people to protest at Blair. People can then join the rally going on to Hyde Park jointly organised by CND, Stop the War Coalition and MAB. CND are organising actions in Fairford where the B52's are taking off and Menwith Hill. the largest electronic monitoring station in the world - the brains of any attack on Iraq.

CND is appalled the UK Government are still going to war.

- The government claims they are going to war for democracy but refuse to listen to the people of this country even after the largest ever demonstration in the county's history.
- The government claims the war is not illegal yet they know resolution 1441 would not have passed if it called for war and that is why it was omitted. That is why they sought a second resolution - which they failed to obtain.
- The government claim to be fighting terrorism yet there has been no link between Saddam and the attacks on September the 11th
- The government claim Saddam is a threat to Britain yet his missile capability barely flies past its borders. - The government claims Saddam has weapons of mass destruction – this is possibly quite true – because the UK government sold them to him.

CND are calling for people to take all non-violent action necessary to stop the war and are reminding Blair, Hoon and Straw they have been served with writs warning them that if the conduct of this war breaks International Humanitarian Law (IHL) then CND with leading professors of law and NGO's will take steps to hold them accountable before the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Ends…//

Contact Ben Miller at CND Press Office on 07968 420859 or Carol Naughton Chairperson on 07736 698702