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CND IN THE NEWS
CND in the News: 19-25 February
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1 Llew Smith to share platform with expelled Scottish MP
The Western Mail, Feb 25 2004
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/newspolitics/content_objectid=13985911_method=full_siteid=50082_headline=--Llew-Smith-to-share-platform-with-expelled-Scottish-MP-name_page.html
LABOUR MP Llew Smith said last night he has "no problem" in
sharing a platform with George Galloway, the Glasgow MP who was expelled
from the party for his views on Iraq. Blaenau Gwent MP Mr Smith, Mr Galloway
and Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn will speak on Friday evening at a
public meeting in Abertillery organised by CND Cymru.
Entitled "Bombing Ahead with Weapons of Mass Destruction," the
meeting will focus on the aftermath of the war against Iraq.
In June, Mr Galloway plans to stand for the European Parliament on an
anti-war "Respect" ticket.
Mr Smith, a consistent opponent of the Government's stance over Iraq,
said, "CND isn't a party political organisation,
so I have no problems sharing a platform with George, who has been a leading
campaigner against the weapons of mass destruction owned by the United
States and Britain, against the war in Iraq and against the daily invasion
of Palestinian territory by Israel."
The meeting will be held in The Dolls House, Abertillery at 7pm on Friday.
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2 Lochinver peace rally told Iraq war was 'illegal'
http://www.northern-times.co.uk/news.asp?storyvar=2786
Leading anti-war campaigner Bruce Kent has called for a criminal investigation
into Britain's role in the war in Iraq and a restructuring of the United
Nations. Speaking in Lochinver at the weekend, Mr Kent said the UN as
presently constituted was undemocratic because of dominance by the world's
five strongest nations.
"It's all to protect US interests and investments and even Pentagon
documents show that, " said Mr Kent, a high-profile figure in CND
for many years who now speaks for Abolition of War. "We need a UN
where we have some democratic input, where we don't have the thing run
by the five most militarist powers in the world, " he told an audience
of about 100 peace campaigners in Lochinver Village Hall on Saturday.
Mr Kent is critical of Britain's involvement in the recent war in Iraq.
"What happened was a criminal act, " he claimed. "Allegations
of criminality have been made and they should be followed up. I'm pursuing
Mr Blair as best I can."
The Assynt event was organised by the Scottish Coalition For Justice
Not War and was chaired by Councillor Jean Urquhart (Lochbroom). Scores
of people signed the "Lochinver Declaration for Peace", pledging
to work towards the abolition of war as a means of solving conflict.
Mr Kent called on the anti-war movement to unite under the slogan "Another
World Is Possible". At the moment it was divided, he said, with one
section preoccupied with Third World poverty, another with green issues
and yet another - "the peace lot" - dealing with anti-militarism.
He said they would be lobbying the Westminster parliament on March 16
and pressing the case for more democratic input to the UN. "Whatever
one thinks of the UN, it's the only game in town, " said Mr Kent.
"War is not compulsory, we don't need to have war. My view of world
politicians is that they follow, not lead. "We need a UN where smaller
countries have a say, where the courts of the UN are obligatory and not
optional. You can't have an international system where the law only applies
to some countries. Reform of the UN, and democratisation of the UN, are
absolutely essential."
Referring to the war in Iraq, he said: "I'm pursuing that with the
international criminal court and the new prosecutor, because Britain has
signed and ratified the convention for the court that was set up. "Both
war crimes and acts against humanity are governed by the jurisdiction
of the court. In my judgement, and in that of many better informed people,
depleted uranium and cluster bombs are both within the umbrella of war
crimes.
"So we're asking the prosecutor to investigate the behaviour of
the government of this country. It doesn't affect the US, because they
refuse to sign and ratify it. Whether it's criminal, or whether it's political
resignation, something ought to happen to Mr Blair."
There are now 20,000 nuclear weapons in the world, said Mr Kent, most
of which are bigger than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. "They're
possessed by nine countries, some of them very volatile countries, "
he added. "Heaven knows when fissile material will get into the hands
of terrorists and we're now beginning to learn how many accidents there
were with nuclear weapons, and how many miscalculations. So we've been
very lucky, perhaps providential, in the last fifty years."
Mr Kent was accompanied by Gulf Wa r veteran Tony Flint, from London,
who says his precarious state of health is due to the effects of depleted
uranium and the cocktail of vaccines and tablets he had to take before
going into battle. "I'm an average sick Gulf vet, " said Mr
Flint, who claimed more service personnel had died from the effects of
depleted uranium and vaccines than in the war itself. "We know we're
dying. We also want to know the true casualty figures. Because of the
half-life of depleted uranium, people will be dying from its effects for
the next four and a half billion years."
The other speaker on Saturday was Scottish Green Party MSP for the Highlands
and Islands, Dr Eleanor Scott, co-convener of Holyrood's crossparty CND
group. She urged: "Do something positive for peace, rather than being
anti-war." Dr Scott later responded angrily to the news that the
Highland Council are proposing to charge the Highland Coalition for Justice
not War and its parent body, the Scottish Coalition, £400 for demonstrating
in Inverness on February 28 at the Scottish Labour Party Conference, which
prime minister Tony Blair is due to visit.
"I find it incredible that Highland Council could even contemplate
levying this punitive charge on freedom of expression, " she said.
There have been demonstrations in Inverness in the recent past, anti-war
and anti-GM, and all have passed off peacefully without the need for road
closures and certainly without the organisers being faced with this ridiculous
charge. "I call on Highland Council to reconsider urgently, or the
Highlands will find itself with the reputation of being a place where
free speech is something you have to pay for."
Demonstrators, including a busload from Assynt, are planning to assemble
in the Bught Park, Inverness, at 1pm on Saturday February 28 for a march
around Inverness, passing the conference centre at Eden Court Theatre,
and returning to the Bught for a rally
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