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CND in the News
CND in the News: 7-12 February 2006
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1 Black balloons mark war deaths
Newsshopper, 7 February 2006
http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/lewgreennews/display.var.684235.0.black_balloons_mark_war_deaths.php
ANTI-WAR protesters took to the streets to voice anger about the continuing
presence of British troops in Iraq.
More than 30 members of the Greenwich and Lewisham Campaign for
Nuclear Disarmament (CND) marched in Lewisham town centre on
Saturday.
They released 100 black balloons to remember the 100 British servicemen
killed during the Iraqi conflict. The CND members were joined by campaigners
from the Lewisham Stop the War coalition. Lewisham and Greenwich
CND member David Leal said: "The killing will go on until
our troops come home. "The Iraqis do not want them there. The occupation
is not preventing conflict but causing it."
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2 West tactics on Iran 'counter-productive,' says peace campaigner
Islamic Republic News Agency, Feb 7
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-236/0602071866190140.htm
Veteran peace campaigner Bruce Kent says that the nuclear power states
should first put their own houses in order regarding their obligations
under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) rather than driving Iran 'into
a corner'.
"If we are really anxious not to have nuclear weapons in Iran, the
first thing is to call an international conference on abolishing all nuclear
weapons, including Israeli nuclear weapons," said Kent, the vice
president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).
He said that the importance of focusing on Israel's illegal arsenal was
'because it is a factor in the Middle East that is not talked about but
is very important one'.
In an interview with IRNA, the 75-year-old peace campaigner warned against
the US-led strategy of singling out Iran's nuclear program and the dangers
that it was undermining the landmark Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT).
"I think the behavior of the IAEA and the Western powers really in
pushing Iran into a corner is actually counterproductive. If you push
anyone into a corner they will resist and fight back. I think the tactics
are quite the wrong tactics," he said.
Kent said, "Iran is entitled by the treaty to go full 100 percent
for nuclear energy including enrichment" and that trying to take
the case to the United nations was wrongly directed. "The treaty
is not being violated by Iran," he said. If there was any possible
case about provisional agreement, the matter should go 'to International
Court of Justice for arbitration', he insisted. " You don't have
to go to the Security Council."
The former priest and president of the International Peace Bureau suggested
that it would be the fault of Western powers and be a 'very great mistake'
if the campaign against Iran led to the collapse of the NPT. The main
culpability of losing NPT in my opinion is the behavior of the five existing
traditional nuclear powers because they have ignored article six of that
treaty that calls for negotiations for the abolition of nuclear weapons,"
he warned.
"They have done negotiations but never with abolition in mind in
fact we are making more nuclear weapons here, the Americans, the Russians,
the French, the Chinese are probably the same," Kent said. "I
think the biggest sin is with the great powers. I don't understand how
Britain can tell Iranians not to have nuclear weapons when we are determined
to have them," he said.
CND, one of Europe's oldest and largest peace movements,
has issued repeated warnings for more than a year against the folly of
threatening military action against Iran.
Kent, who was born in London in 1929, served as an officer in the Royal
Tank Regiment before studying Law at Oxford University. His involvement
with CND began after he was ordained as a Catholic priest,
serving as general secretary and chair from 1980 and 1990.
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3 Peace tour carries a message to the universities
http://www.leedstoday.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=39&ArticleID=1341904
PEACE campaigners have launched a tour of Yorkshire's universities and
colleges to promote their anti-arms message. The Yorkshire Campaign
for Nuclear Disarmament and the charity Oxfam have joined forces
for the tour. Yorkshire CND, who are campaigning against
the proposed replacement of the British nuclear weapons system Trident,
have organised a display and ballot boxes to encourage students across
the region to vote in the 'No Trident Replacement' ballot.
Oxfam is running a "Control Arms" campaign which asks Governments
to strengthen controls on the arms trade across the world. They have launched
a 'Million Faces' petition to demand an International Arms Trade treaty.
Sarah Cartin, Development Worker at Yorkshire CND said:
"We hope the tour will bring support to both these vital campaigns
whilst illustrating the devastating impact caused by weapons, large and
small across the world.
From guns being sold illegally on the streets in the USA to replacing
Britain's nuclear weapons system at a cost of at least £25 billion
and in direct contradiction to international treaties, we want to show
students in Yorkshire the hypocrisy and devastation caused by weapons
the world over."
Ben Margolis, Yorkshire and North East campaigner for Oxfam, said: "This
is a key year for both campaigns. The UN has launched its first major
review of small arms in five years. Hopefully through this tour, students
will become more involved in these crucial campaigns."
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4 End BBC bias on Iran, says veteran UK peace group
IRNA Feb 10
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-236/0602106843163343.htm
The veteran Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) peace
group held a protest demonstration outside the BBC's headquarters Thursday,
calling on Britain's state-funded broadcasters to end their media bias
in reporting on the Iran nuclear issue.
"Regular BBC News items raise Iran's possible violations of the Non-Proliferation
Treaty without any mention of the major breach by all the declared nuclear
weapon states," CND said. The peace group referred
to the five permanent members of the Security Council still deploying
over 13,000 nuclear weapons between them in breach of the NPT obliging
them to disarm.
"Iran may or may not be in breach of the nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty but the UK is," CND said in a statement obtained
by IRNA. "The UK is making no efforts to disarm as obliged under
the treaty and a recent legal opinion even stated that the UK may in fact
be in breach of the NPT if it replaces the UK's nuclear weapons system,"
it said.
The peace group, one of Europe's oldest and largest, said it was handing
in another letter to the Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors, requesting
a meeting to discuss the corporation's plans for fairly covering nuclear
issues in the future. It follows CND writing to the BBC
on January 31 complaining about its failure to mention the major breach
of the NPT by the declared nuclear weapons state in a news item on its
radio flagship current affairs programme Today.
"If Iran is culpable, so to a much more serious degree is this country.
We would like to know as soon as possible if you are willing to run an
item making these points," said the letter signed by CND
chair Kate Hudson and vice-president Bruce Kent.
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5 Muslims denounce violence
Feb 12, 2006
http://www.hindu.com/2006/02/12/stories/2006021205281400.htm
No to incitement in the name of religion, say moderate leaders
LONDON: Finally, moderate voices rose above the din of extremist rhetoric
to have themselves heard as thousands of ordinary Muslims — angry
and embarrassed by the controversy over Prophet Muhammed's cartoons —
held a massive rally in Trafalgar Square, central London, on Saturday
against "incitement'' in the name of religion.
Protesters, waving placards in support of free speech, denounced the extremists
who had raised inflammatory slogans during a march here last week against
the controversial cartoons.
"We do not fear debate or criticism,'' said one banner echoing the
mood at the rally, organised by a broad coalition of Muslim groups and
supported by many non-Muslim organisations such as the Campaign
for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and Stop the War coalition.
Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and several Christians backed the event
which the organisers hailed as an "unprecedented'' show of strength
by the "silent majority'' in the Muslim community. Participants,
who came from all over Britain, stressed that the rally was aimed at distancing
the mainstream Muslim community from a "minority of extremists''
while at the same time expressing the "hurt'' caused to Muslims by
the cartoons.
"The reasons for the rally are two-fold: We want to allow peaceful
expression of the hurt caused by the publication of the cartoons [in several
European newspapers], but we also want to allow people to publicly distance
themselves from the extremists because for most of Britain this is the
only impression they have of Muslims in this country,'' said Inayat Bunglawala
of the Muslim Council for Britain.
"The main purpose of the rally today is to object to what has been
going on in a civilised manner. We have the right to be angry, but we
have to do it within the remits of the law, and we have to respect the
rights of others," said Azam Tamimi, director of the Institute of
Islamic Political Thought.
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