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APC-SA NEWSLETTER JUNE 2003
Children of the Gulf War Exhibition
Children of the Gulf War
Australian Tour Project
a photographic exhibition by Takashi Morizumi, respected photojournalist and
advocate of a nuclear free world, documenting the effects of the 1991 Gulf War
on the children of Iraq
8 - 28 June 2003
at The Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide.
Exhibition is open Monday-Thursday 8am-10pm,
Friday 8am-6pm, Saturday and Sunday 1pm-5pm
Free entry (donation appreciated)
Brought to Adelaide by Women's International League for Peace & Freedom with
the support of The Barr Smith Library, Graham F Smith Peace Trust, Quakers in
South Australia, Australian Peace Committee, Amnesty International, NOWAR SA,
United Nations Status of Women Committee, The Body Shop, Temple Bruer Wines,
Brenden Wood Media Management
Further information at., http//:www.wilpf.org.au
Children of the Gulf War is a photographic exhibition that
Australia needs to see, for it conveys the vital information and messages absent
from sanitized and censored mainstream media. The pain of Iraqi mothers watching
their children die from untreated leukemia. A grandparent trying to protect a
grandchild from the agony of a failing kidney. Families farming through
necessity in a toxic, radioactive environment.
Since 1998, respected anti-nuclear photojournalist Takashi Morizumi has been
documenting Iraq's unfurling tragedy - and particularly the impact on children -
through these black and white images that make it clear: the previous war has
never ended for most Iraqis.
WILPF Australia has purchased the full set of 58 black and white, deeply moving
photographs from the artist, and is now coordinating a national tour with the
support of concerned peace and anti-war groups and individuals across the
country. The immediate purpose of the project: to provide Australians with
information about the real impact of war and the lasting effect of the 300
tonnes of Depleted Uranium weapons that were used. And the longer goal: to
eradicate military violence, permanently ban the use of depleted uranium
munitions and lobby governments to act upon the interests of equality, peace and
social justice for all peoples at home and abroad.
The Children of the Gulf War Australian Tour was launched at the Brisbane City
Hall in February. The response from the public was profound, with visitors'
books filled with calls for war talk to end and for the exhibition to be viewed
by all politicians in Australia and the US.
NB: Assistance is needed to provide stewarding of the exhibition. A roster is
being drawn up to try to have someone at the exhibition at all times. If you can
help at any stage please phone 8364 2291 to arrange a time.
ALTERNATIVE NEWS, 3CR, Melbourne
presented weekly by Pauline Mitchell of CICD 18/5/2003
IRAQ - Legality no longer an issue … Now that the conflict phase of the Iraqi
invasion is over - the legality of the war should no longer be an issue. Says
Prime Minister Howard. When addressing the UN recently the Prime Minister said
there was no value in continuing the argument on whether the US, Britain and
Australia had the legal right to launch the invasion and we should now move on.
In other words the Prime Minister was saying that Might is Right and the law of
the jungle prevails.
This is a frightening prospect of a future without any rules and where
pre-emptive invasions are accepted as the norm. The people of the world will not
accept this advice, and the invasion of Iraq underlines the need and importance
of the UN. Iraq, under strict sanctions since the 1991 Gulf War had UN Weapons
Inspectors looking for weapons of mass destruction, the weapons inspectors
presided over the destruction of chemicals and other suspected stores for a
number of years. Hans Blix and his team repeatedly reported to the Security
Council that no weapons had been found - except the rockets that were over the
distance limit and these were destroyed, but still the US insisted that there
were even more sinister weapons of mass destruction and they were being hidden
from the UN Inspectors, they said, but the US knew exactly where they were.. And
they invaded, together with some British and Australian help.
Now that Iraq has been substantially bombed - its government destroyed and
Saddam Hussein gone and the grim days of the actual invasion are over, the
country is still in danger as order has not been restored, hospitals are not
working to capacity because nursing staff are frightened to venture out from
their homes, disease is taking hold because of the sewage running in the streets
and the inadequate state of the water supply, inadequate state of the power
supplies etc.
Now, on the 12th May, it was announced that the team searching for weapons of
mass destruction was pulling out because they had found no proof of the alleged
stocks of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons! They had investigated
numerous sites identified by US intelligence but now have accepted that it is
unlikely to find any weapons. Operations have now scaled down and a unit called
the Iraq Survey Group will take over.
Weapons of mass destruction was the reason that the US gave for invading Iraq
against the wishes and advice of the UN and the majority of the worlds people.
This should never be forgotten and legality of such actions should always be an
issue. After weeks of searching though - President George Bush Jnr. still says
that they will be found - but who will believe them now?
So many lies have been told throughout these actions - Britain's Prime Minister
Blair - two dossiers - all fabrication and plagiarism, US Secretary of State
Powell - presentation to the UN - all fabrication - papers purporting to prove
that Saddam Hussein bought uranium from Nigeria were found to be outright
forgeries, then the stage photo propaganda of pulling down statues and people
dancing in the streets - the staged photo opportunity of the dramatic landing by
President Bush Jnr. on the aircraft carrier; then there was the lies and
fabrications surrounding Private Jessica Lynch and probably more that we haven't
yet heard of.
We will forget all these things to our peril … as the US is flexing its
muscles towards other countries.
Hunger In Iraq… Each night we see on television the chaos that is reigning in
Iraq… now there is another crisis looming. The UN says that Iraq is now in
danger of starvation. Its agriculture is on the brink of collapse. Government
warehouses have been looted or destroyed, warehouses that used to supply seeds,
fertiliser and pesticide sprays. The farmers should be planting tomatoes and
onions, and other crops but without seeds and fertilisers that is not possible
and there is no pumping stations left to power the irrigation schemes on which
the crops depend. There is difficulty in harvesting the winter crops too - the
wheat, barley, rice and maize.
Harvesting normally starts this month with a fleet of ageing combined
harvesters, but lack of spare parts had long put a strain on the harvesters
because of the restrictions under the sanctions … but now its worse and now no
mechanism exists for purchasing the yield. In previous years the Ministry of
Trade bought the crop, stored it, and arranged for banks to pay farmers. The
thriving poultry industry has also been destroyed and there are predictions of
disease among the plants and animals that are left.
The poultry industry was the source of half of the animal protein eaten by the
population. All the soybean and protein concentrate feed stored in government
warehouses was stolen along with vaccines, drugs and medicines required to keep
the stock healthy. Both the major poultry projects that once supplied Iraqi
chicken farmers with layers and hatching eggs have collapsed and thousands of
birds have starved to death. Animal health is another major concern - most of
the veterinary hospitals were looted or destroyed and vehicles, drugs, medicines
and food ingredients disappeared. The impact could be severe in a country where
animal disease is now rife and where some diseases are capable of being
transferred to humans.
There seems to be no end to the misery that is now Iraq… The continuing
disorder in a country accustomed to the repressive rule of Saddam Hussein but
which was stable and working, is fuelling deep scepticism about US intentions
and fuelling anti-Americanism.
Frightening the Population… Guarding against possible terrorists or
frightening the population? These questions are going to loom ever more
important as the world seems to be arming itself to the teeth or at least the US
has in mind more and more armaments and plans for a fortress USA. Think Tanks
are working overtime writing 'worst case' scenarios to tackle…What if a dirty
nuclear bomb was found in the capital cities… what if someone released the
plague… what if the transport systems were crippled… what if the water
sources were poisoned…what if…
The latest what if... is centred around shipping crates coming into the country
with deadly cargo… a scenario of a small boat doing a round trip between
Manhattan to Long Island Sound - dispersing anthrax along the way.. based on
only half the population being exposed and half of those developing anthrax and
only half of those dying - the final death toll would still be well over a
million, said Mr.Wilkie, an intelligence analyst who resigned from the Office of
National Assessment over Australia's involvement in Iraq. Mr.Wilkie gave the
scenario used by US authorities.
Billions of dollars have been put into the defence of US ports since September
11th, but the latest anti-terrorist measures for this scenario is to move the US
borders hundreds of kilometres offshore by setting up mobile platforms in the
middle of the ocean! A sort of 'Star Wars' at sea - as the Age put it.
A series of partially militarised, high-tech platforms, is being promoted as the
future of America's fight against terrorism. The plan is to stop ships carrying
weapons of mass destruction or terror teams long before they reach US ports,
says the Age article of 13th May. And keep in mind, that under such a scenario
more international laws would go. Then there are the practice runs in the US -
the population of different cities have had to practice what to do in the case
of a 'dirty bomb' or some such disaster. In the latest 'exercise' firefighters
rush to the scene of a massive bomb in Seattle that reduces buildings to rubble,
overturns passenger buses and injures 200 people.
Then they detect radiation and confirm that terrorists have unleashed a 'dirty
bomb'. Then a deadly biological agent creeps undetected through the air in
Chicago, 2,700 kilometres away. Over five days it will infect people across the
US and Canada with pneumonic plague.
This was how the biggest mock terrorist assault in US history began to unfold
last week - it's a nightmare scenario said to reflect what experts say is the
real threat facing the US. The drill, involving 8,500 people in 19 federal
agencies cost $16 million. Planners have prepared a few surprises too. At first
a few people would show up at local hospitals with mysterious flu-like symptoms
- then the trickle would turn into a flood - this would be pneumonic plague -
and there is more, victims would turn up in Vancouver, British Columbia etc.
Hospitals would be unable to cope. But scenarios like this are useful in the
budget - the 2003 budget included $1.6 billion to help to address the problems
of the health officials - another $2.4 billion is to be spent updating toolkits
for tackling biological agents.
And that was the 2003 budget … the 2004 budget has even more for such
scenarios. The 2004 budget for the US Defence is $400 billion - it gives the
Pentagon most of the weapons it wanted including $9.1 billion in funding for the
missile defence - the 'Son of Star Wars', the multi-layered defence system
against ballistic missiles. There is no doubt that a frightened population is
easier to manipulate as the basic instinct is self-preservation.
Is that what the US is doing to keep President Bush in power? These sort of
tactics have the effect of scaring people so they cannot think about other ways
of providing for their security. Then there is the extraordinary story about the
protest of the Democrats in Texas. The US State of Texas - the home of President
Bush Jnr., has been under Democrat rule for about a century - but last election
it was won by the Republicans.
So to make sure that the Republicans keep the State, they have introduced a Bill
in State parliament that would change the electoral boundaries of the 32 Texan
seats in the US Congress - putting whole sections of Democrat voters into
blue-ribbon Republican seats. Rather than vote on the issue - as the Democrats
are in the minority now - more than 50 of them have fled to neighbouring states
- thereby depriving the 150-seat state house of a quorum and shutting it down.
The authorities then issued arrest warrants for the politicians and they were
pursued by the Texas Rangers to be brought home in handcuffs if need be…..
Yes this is all true!.. But the Texas Rangers couldn't do anything because they
, the pollies, are in the next State, and the Rangers don't have jurisdiction
there!
The next news was that the Democrat State lawmakers were still in Oklahoma and
they said they would stay out of Texas long enough to thwart the congressional
plan. Then the latest news on Friday was that they, the Democrats, were
successful and the Bill died for want of a quorum and the time had elapsed. But
- during this protest the new Homeland Security Department was used to track the
fleeing Democrats.
This is alarming, for two reasons (l) the Homeland Security Dept is a Federal
office interfering in State law and (2) the Homeland Security was set up
originally to combat terrorism. This was a misuse and abuse of power so how far
will the Bush Administration go to retain power.
2 June 2003 -- SAAB THREATENS TO SUE STUDENT
ANTI-MILITARIST ACTIVISTS
Today the Students Association received a letter from the
Vice-Chancellor. This letter stated that she had written to Saab detailing the
recent actions by students and had invited corporate representatives up to
Flinders Uni to check out posters, propaganda etc. Saab is now threatening to
sue the Students' Association and the University for what it claims are
defamatory remarks on the website and on posters. Its concerns primarily
surround the claim made by the Students Association that Saab was involved in
Iraq's weapons programs. Essentially Saab is attempting to get the Students'
Assoc on a technicality - basically their parent company produced the trucks
which acted as rocket launchers rather than the scud rockets themselves. This
deal ended 4 years ago. This is yet another attempt by vested interests within
the military industrial complex - a corporation and its university partner - to
distract from the issues at hand and stifle campus democracy. By the time you
read this email the deadline provided by Saab and the Uni for SAFU to remove
Saab related material from the website, retract current issues of the student
paper, and print an apology in the next issue will have expired. We will not be
silenced in our opposition. We are urging 11th hour talks with the
administration before the shit well and truly hits the fan.
SAFU Militarism, commercialisation and campus democracy forum -- Tues 10th June
12 noon -- Rosetta's Function Room (above coopers bar) -- ALL WELCOME
Defiant settlers dig in for long fight.
The Australian, 4 June 2003. Robert Tait, West Bank.
The poster on the remote bus shelter states the Jewish settlers'
case with uncompromising clarity. "No to a Palestinian state. No to
negotiations with terrorists. Yes to the biblical land of Israel." It is
the rejectionist credo of the inhabitants of nearby Givat Assaf, a collection of
beige-coloured mobile homes resting on concrete stilts, felt particular reason
to articulate yesterday. Located on a rocky West Bank hillside overlooking the
road to Jerusalem, & shielded by a high-wire mesh fence, the settlement
hardly looks a setting to dominate Middle East diplomacy. With the international
peace effort gathering momentum before today's Palestinian-Israeli summit, this
outpost of religiously hardline Jews is at the centre of the storm, & has
been offered by Israeli PM Ariel Sharon as an opening bargaining chip in the
poker game of negotiations. Givat Assaf, near the biblically symbolic settlement
of Beit El, in Judiasm's spiritual heartland, is one of 10 illegal out-posts Mr
Sharon is expected to earmark for evacuation at the summit in the Jordanian port
of Aqaba. Mr Sharon who has made a political career out of championing the
Jewish settlers' cause, is suddenly oblivious to the advice emblazoned on
another poster, pasted onto an abandoned bus near the gates of Givat Assaf.
"Uprooting the settlements is tearing Israel apart," it reads.
Waiting at the bus shelter, Amichai Hadad, 22, one of the 20
settlers who calls the outpost home, expressed little surprise at the hawkish
PM's willingness to compromise on a long-cherished principle. "Sharon isn't
a traitor," Mr Hadad said. "He is just a Prime Minister, with all the
weakness that position entails. The missing element is religious faith. Ariel
Sharon doesn't have that. If he did he would have the courage to stand up to
George Bush and Tony Blair," Hadad said.
Mr Sharon has come under intense international pressure to
dismantle the growing number of settlements that have been built across the West
Bank on land the Palestinians claim for a future state. More than 60 new
settlements have been built since Mr Sharon became Prime Minister little more
than two years ago. Now, pressed to grant concessions that will lay the
groundwork for a lasting peace agreement, Mr Sharon faces the prospect of having
to destroy his hard-earnt reputation as the settlers' champion. Freezing the
growth of the settlements & dismantling their outposts are among Israel's
obligation's under the "road map", the latest Middle East peace plan.
Avigdor Lieberman, a right-wing minister in Israel's coalition government,
warned Mr Sharon at the weekend he could provoke civil war in Israel by trying
to meet such peace conditions.
Mr Hadad had a more subtle message for the PM & the group of
international statesmen seeking to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"Bush & Blair will not drive us to civil war," he said. "If
the army comes to evacuate us, we will not confront them. At no price will we
pitch Jewish brother against Jewish brother. However, the next night after we
are evacuated, we will come back. And we will keep coming back. We will come
back again and again and again. That's how the Jewish nation was established.
Givat Assaf will survive the road map. The road map is just one more piece of
paper. People think they can dismantle the outposts. But history shows leaders
come & go, but the outposts remain and grow. It is sheer chutpaz for the
British, Americans and Europeans to interfere in a place that doesn't belong to
them."
Even if the outposts are evacuated, the question of about 150
fully established settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, occupied by about
220,000 Jewish settlers, will remain unresolved. In Beit El, where Jews say God
bequeathed the land of Israel to them, people say they will fight to remain on
territory they believe is rightfully theirs.
US may help Iranian terrorist group.
The Age, June 2, 2003. Julian Coman, Washington, Damian McElroy,
Istanbul.
Senior Pentagon officials are proposing widespread covert
operations against the Iranian government, hoping that dissident groups will
mount a coup before the regime acquires a nuclear weapon. The controversial plan
involves offering financial and military backing for a terrorist organisation
that is outlawed by the US State Department, as well as intelligence
collaboration and other support for dissident student bodies and resistance
groups. Influential Pentagon figures argue that the terrorist status accorded by
the US to the armed Mujahideen e Khalq group in 1997 should be removed, allowing
the group - which has been based in Iraq - to play a similar role to the
Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. The armed group, whose ideology blends Islam
and Marxism, has regularly mounted armed incursions into Iran against the regime
and was previously funded by Saddam Hussein. Its camps within Iraq were bombed
by the US military during the recent war until a ceasefire was arranged. Last
week, The Age revealed Iran had suggested a deal via Australian officials,
involving Tehran taking tougher action against senior al-Qaeda figures, in
return for a "reciprocal" US crackdown against the group. Tehran is
worried about US support for the militant group, although officially the US says
it is disarming and disbanding its forces in northern Iraq.
The group's military expertise and discipline has impressed the
Pentagon, which has suggested it could be renamed and operate with clandestine
American help. "We want a regime that reflects the will of the Iranian
people," a senior Administration official said.
Douglas Feith, the under-secretary for policy at the US Defence
Department, said that since the group had not aimed at Americans or American
interests since the 1970's, it need not stay on the State Department's list of
terrorist organisations. But the State Department feels it would appear
hypocritical for the US to remove the group from the terrorist list on the
ground that it could be useful to America's aims in the Middle East. The
proposals will be discussed by US President George Bush and his cabinet.
Hardliners in the US have long believed that, unlike Saddam in Iraq, Iran's
unpopular religious rulers are vulnerable to an internal revolt that would
effect "regime change" from within.
Revelations that the recent al-Qaeda bombings in Saudi Arabia
may have been planned by cells operating in Iran have strengthened the
Pentagon's resolve to exert greater pressure on Iran. Last week an Iranian
opposition group suggested Iran had built a uranium-enrichment plant.
The Liberals have sold out South
Australia
EDITORIAL OPINION - The Advertiser, 4 June 2003
Hands up those who think it unreasonable to argue the case against a national
nuclear waste depository being situated in South Australia. That would be 25 per
cent. More than 70 cent of South Australians hold the opposite view. No matter,
for the Federal Government continues to make it abundantly clear the opinion of
South Australians does not matter. The latest vessel of federal arrogance is
Science Minister Peter McGauran. Like the ministers before him who have peddled
the Government line, Mr McGauran refuses to take into account the point of view
of the people who live in this state. Just to make it easy for him, let's spell
it out. We do not want a national radioactive waste dump within our borders.
State Parliament has even passed legislation making it very, very clear that not
one gram of the radioactive waste stored around Australia should be trucked
across our borders.
Yet Mr McGauran persists with the Federal Government's totally unsustainable
stand, that we must have the dump here. This despite not even considering any
other sites in other states - especially New South Wales which just happens to
be the site of this country's only nuclear reactor. So to appease the people of
Sydney, Melbourne and other capitals in a bid to resolve this problem, South
Australia will have to bear the national burden.
To underline the Government's determination, Mr McGauran yesterday resorted to
economic threats. He claimed South Australians will bear the costs of any legal
action over the State Government's attempts to stop the dump - out of this
state's federal science budget.
The Federal Government must come up with another, far less outrageous, method
and site for disposing of radioactive waste.
Not an easy target The sop that Mr McGauran handed out on May 9 when announcing
we would be the site for the low-level dump, that South Australia would not get
the intermediate to high-level dump, is not good enough, and never was going to
be good enough. Mr McGauran's handling of this whole affair has gone from bad to
worse. He is virtually saying the people of SA do not matter.
As for the state Liberals, their role in this whole fiasco should not pass
without some strong comment.
Yes, the Rann Government is playing politics on this issue, but it is standing
up for South Australians on an issue of crucial importance, something which, if
allowed to proceed, is in clear contravention of the express wishes of the vast
majority of this state's population. The Liberals have failed their constituents
and unless they join the Government in standing up to the Commonwealth, will be
seen as nothing more than lapdogs for their federal colleagues.
We cannot afford to be seen as an easy target and that means the Rann Government
must be given total, and unequivocal, support in its anti-dump fight.
Tour by Dr Douglas Rokke
Dr Douglas Rokke will be in Adelaide from Wed. July 9 to Sunday
July 13.
Douglas Rokke is the number one whistler blower on depleted uranium (DU) use by
the US Defence Dept. He was involved in the clean-up of vehicles and tanks from
the first Gulf War, when soldiers were told there are no adverse health affects
from DU. Subsequently Douglas has done studies on Gulf War veterans who now in
their many thousands have cancer related illnesses. He has also done work on
health effects of people from Southern Iraq and Kuwait from first Gulf War and
more recently on Afghanistan. There was 3 or 4 times more depleted uranium used
in the recent Iraqi War, much of it in civilian areas. Douglas will be in
Australia for a four weeks' national tour. A group in Brisbane are organising
his visit. They are concerned also because a company in Brisbane has been
producing and selling a bullet-making machine world-wide which is now being used
to tip bullets with DU, which is again a development of the Iraqi War.
Adelaide visit: APC(SA) and NOWAR are co-hosting the event and with MedACT, are
also raising funds to pay for his visit to Adelaide. Douglas will present at a
public Forum on Wednesday July 9th so as not to clash with the Festival of
Ideas. We are hopeful he will do significant media while in Adelaide and speak
at the Students for Sustainability National conference during the same week. The
Forum will be held in the Cynthia Poulton hall next to St. Peter's Cathedral,
North Adelaide. Time to be announced.
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16 July 2004
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