Dear LeftLink,
I thought that you might like to see a copy of the following letter
which is being circulated with an invitation for endorsements from
Australian women's organisations. It is being circulated on behalf
of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF -
Australia) and ANCORW (Australian National Council for Refugee
Women). We are inviting other women's organisations to sign on to it.
After we have gathered additional signatories from women's
organisations, we intend to send this letter to the new Minister for
Foreign Affairs on Monday 12 November following the election. Could
you please circulate it - for endorsement by women's groups - among
your networks?
If women's groups are wishing to endorse the letter, they will need
to get their endorsement to us by Friday 9 November, the day before
the election.
thanks for your help,
Cathy Picone
for WILPF and ANCORW
WOMEN'S ORGANISATIONS SIGN-ON LETTER
Dated: 12 November 2001
To the as yet unknown
Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Parliament House,
Canberra ACT 2601
Dear Minister,
We write as a matter of urgency following the election/re-election of
your Government and on behalf of the combined memberships of our
organisations concerning the military strikes against Afghanistan.
In the wake of the September 11 attacks against civilian targets in
Washington and New York and while dispersal of anthrax spores
continues to be used as a weapon of fear against civilians in the US,
we wish to add the voices of hundreds of Australian women to
community calls for an adequate and constructive means of addressing
the problems of terrorism.
While we understand that the Australian Government, in choosing to
support the option of military strikes against Afghanistan, has
sought to find a means of addressing these difficulties, nevertheless
we believe that the ample lessons of history demonstrate that such a
military option, if its pursuit is continued, will prove to be not
only inadequate but even inflammatory.
We believe that the destruction and violent loss of human life in
mainland US on September 11 is presently being compounded by further
violence against the innocent people of Afghanistan. Not only are
some of the US missiles inevitably causing loss of life among
non-combatants in cities in Afghanistan, but refugee flows have
increased markedly. More that 2 million Afghani refugees have already
fled to Pakistan. According to UN spokesperson, Eric Falt, there are
a further 7 million people within Afghanistan itself who are now at
risk of starvation. As the winter approaches, these people will
become increasingly vulnerable. The "peanut butter, baked beans and
jelly" military ration packs presently being dropped from the air by
the US military are manifestly inadequate. According to Eric Falt,
the promised cash flows from the international community have not
materialised, and the UN needs to be able to mobilise adequate relief
items immediately.
As many commentators have fairly observed, even were the military
mission to succeed on its own terms in isolating any Al Qaeda
training cells which may remain in Afghanistan and/or killing or
capturing Osama bin Laden himself, nevertheless, as a means of
adequately addressing the problems posed by terrorism, such a
strategy would remain an outright failure. In such militarily charged
circumstances, the capture or death of Osama bin Laden would serve,
according to these commentators, as an inflammatory signal to the
many hundreds of thousands in the Third World who may share his view
that their present circumstances are so dire as to warrant the kinds
of strategies which have been advocated by Osama bin Laden and his
ilk. Thus, in the words of one commentator, terrorism is a
"many-headed hydra" and ironically, an apparent "success" of the
military mission may well serve the purposes of the terrorists.
In addition, military strikes and invasions of one country by another
or by a number of countries outside of the United Nations are a
breach of the UN Charter.
In short, we believe that the pursuit of military strikes as a means
of dealing with the present situation holds the potential to inflame
and therefore increase terrorist responses, rather than to contribute
to a resolution. In this context, it is hard to avoid the conclusion
that Australian Government support for the military option is ill
conceived.
We are therefore calling for a means of addressing our current
difficulties which are adequate, well-directed and capable of
success. We believe that more constructive and more thoughtful
strategies needs to be pursued.
We therefore call on the Australian Government:
1. to use your good offices to work as a matter of the utmost urgency
through all available international channels to ensure that the
United Nations has the immediate cash inputs necessary to mobilise
relief items in order to feed, shelter and provide health care for
those at risk in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries;
2. to abandon the ill-conceived option of military strikes against
Afghanistan;
3. to work through all available international forums to ensure that
the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks are brought to justice
through the available international legal machinery;
4. to pursue vigorously an adequate and well-directed means of
addressing the problems of international terrorism under the auspices
of the United Nations;
5. a) to fully support the call by Mr Kofi Annan for the UN General
Assembly to undertake the drafting of a comprehensive anti-terrorist
treaty encompassing the twelve existing UN treaties and conventions;
b) to immediately sign and ratify such a treaty;
6. a) to ratify the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court;
b) to use your good offices with the United States
Administration to persuade the US to abandon its opposition to the
establishment of the International Criminal Court; and
7. to renew the Australian Government's commitment to the letter
and the spirit of the 1951 Refugee Convention, and provide all
support for finding durable solutions to the increasing number of
refugees and asylum seekers resulting from the current military
response.
Finally, we wish to convey to you our profound concern that the
military option was supported by the Government of Australia without
any debate in our Federal Parliament. Following the election period,
we wish you to understand that there are many Australians, including
many Australian women, who are opposed to the precipitate reaction
which has resulted in the pursuit of military strikes against
Afghanistan.
We thank you for your kind attention and look forward to your
response on these points.
Yours sincerely,
Cathy Picone
International Delegate, Women's International League for Peace and
Freedom (Australian Section)
Kiri Hata
Chairperson, Australian National Council of Refugee Women (ANCORW)
--
--
Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/
Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop
Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink
Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
