The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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Dear List Members, It may interest Dirk and other List Members to learn Denis Halliday's position on the post-invasion lifting of economic sanctions. In an interview on the US radio programme Democracy Now!, broadcast on 21 April 2003 (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/05/03/0026237&mode=thread&tid =15) Halliday said 'I know [the US] has a hidden agenda but I think we've got to move forward [and] end the sanctions ... to see France, Russia and China again playing games with the people of Iraq I think is disgusting.' [At the time Russia and France were indicating that they wouldn't agree to the lifting of sanctions.] In other words, as far as the lifting of economic sanctions was concerned Halliday took the same position as CASI, Voices in the Wilderness US and Voices in the Wilderness UK. Finally, Dirk is surely aware that CASI has made no 'pro-war statements' and I think it is disgraceful of him to make such baseless allegations. Best wishes, Gabriel (writing in a personal capacity) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dirk Adriaensens" <dirk.adriaensens@skynet.be> To: "discussion list Discussion CASI" <casi-discuss@lists.casi.org.uk> Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2003 3:42 PM Subject: [casi] Don't lift sanctions, and SOS Iraq's plans for the future. [ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] Dear all, In the discussion about lifting the sanctions or not, proceeding with CASI or not, there seems to be a part that is missing. - On may 9 Rahul Mahajan publishes an excellent article:" The Post-War Iraq Paradox - Don't Lift the Sanctions Yet!" http://www.counterpunch.org/mahajan05092003.html - On may 10 I have posted an article by Sarah Flounders of the International Action Center: "Behind Washington's demand to lift sanctions on Iraq" http://www.workers.org/ww/2003/sanctions0508.php There have been few replies to this articles by a.o. Bob Steel, athough this discussion is very crucial to the anti-sanctions movement. - On May 14 Andreas posts an article by Justin Raimundo, a fierce and personal attack against the article of Rahul: http://www.antiwar.com/justin/justincol.html - THE ANTI-AMERICANS, Why the left-turnabout on sanctions? Hypocrisy, thy name is Rahul Mahajan!" Am I blind, have I missed something or did nobody write to this list to defend Rahul, apart from Chris Williams and Bob Steel and of course Felicity (whose postings are always very much worth reading) Yes, we could read Mr Yasser's defend of Mr Antiwar.com. But this discussion should include the different points of view of all the CASI-list members relating to the lifting of sanctions. CASI didn't wait for this discussion, didn't even organise such a discussion, and announced on may 25 that it was happy that sanctions have been lifted. In their dissappointing statement they wrote: "CASI, the Campaign against Sanctions on Iraq, is a humanitarian NGO which has been campaigning on humanitarian grounds for the lifting of sanctions on Iraq since 1997." "CASI has never supported or had ties to Saddam Hussein or the Ba'ath party, and took no position for or against the invasion of Iraq." "CASI takes no position on those portions of the new resolution which do not relate to sanctions." "CASI will disband in the near future and its funds will be donated to charities working in Iraq." Any of those 4 sentences could be the start of a discussion among the users of the discussion-list, but CASI chose not to start this discussion. CASI has grown thanks to the work of the members of this discussion-list, and also with the help of a.o. Denis Halliday, a very courageous and honest man. When I met Denis Halliday on january 23 in Baghdad, I asked him what his message was for the world-community. He answered me: "Put the mad dog Bush back into his cage, lock it and give me the key". That was a courageous and very clear statement. No half-hearted and pro-war declarations like "CASI (...) took no position for or against the invasion of Iraq". I see that Hans von Sponeck signed the petition for the release of Iraqi illegally detained prisones of war. Hans is a very courageous and honest man to stick his neck out. SOS Iraq, StopUSA International, Medical Aid For the Third World etc... continue their work against the illegal invasion, occupation, war crimes and robbery of oil-ressources. We have been very busy the last few weeks. That's why I didn't post much to this list. We have been in Evian. Our doctors have been throughout Europe to give interviews (f.i. Channel 4 last week, Spain, Germany, Holland), we organised meetings etc.. Our plans for the near future are: - write 2 books (1 about US -imperialism, with Michel Collon, Mohammed Hassan a.o., and 1 diary about the mission of our doctors in Baghdad) - Dr Geert Van Moorter came home with 16 hrs of film, so we want to use this material to produce a documentary that can be used by other organisations worldwide that want to lodge a complaint against the US/UK. - the court-appeal against war crimes committed by the invasion-army. The Belgian government wanted to send the complaint to the US, but we appealed. In order to put pressure on our government, we need much more signatures, also from well-known artists, intellectuals, scientists etc.. (many members of the CASI-list signed already, but we invite you to send the complaint to famous (and less-famous) people you know. It can be found at: http://www.irak.be/ned/missies/medicalMissionColetteGeert/CourtCaseFranks.ht m or http://www.petitiononline.com/sosIraq/petition.html. It is absolutely necessary to find as many signatures for this petition, coming from famous people as possible, because that's the only way we can put pressure on our government in order to keep the courtcase in Belgium. - Around the world, in many countries, action-groups are doing efforts to start cases against the US/UK. At this moment we're in the process of gathering all the information in order to bundle and join the efforts. The court-cases can be grouped in 3 main issues: a) against the concept of "global war" that Bush has announced b) against the illegal invasion of Iraq by US/UK cohorts c) against the war-crimes committed by US/UK armies. In other countries, like Turkey, they want to organise peoples tribunals. We have a lot of work to do in order to get in contact with everybody, like the organisations who already wanted to cooperate, like CESR, the International Action Center, and the Spanish, the Greek, the Turks, The Philippines... - We want to give conferences worldwide with the material we have and we're still producing. - We want to organise an International inquiry mission to Iraq by the end of this year (details later for those who are interested) if the US let us enter the country. - There is the Russel-Tribunal in Brussels in october 2003 about the war in Iraq. - On the 20th of march 2004 we'll organise an international conference, that should bundle the results of all the international efforts against this war. - We're also planning a fundraising, because the war-crimes charge has costed us already 40.000 euros so far. - We have opened a forum on the war-crimes case (and other topics). On this forum we also want to discuss the efforts to stop the occupation and Iraq in general. I invite all CASI-listmembers to join this forum. It can be found at: http://www.steun.be/baghdad/phpBB2-04/index.php And this is a note for Nermin: I know that petitions alone can not undo the catastrophe that has hit your country. But it is one of the many things that can be done to try to stop US world-domination. We have no other choice than exploring and trying all the different possibilities to help the Iraqi people to be able to govern themselves and that they can be the benificiary of their own ressources. We won't let you down. In case you don't believe us: you may judge us by our efforts, and every idea or suggestion you can give us are welcome. And petitions are useful because it can make people aware of this colonial war. You see, here in the West, corporate media report us that the war is over, and that Iraqi people are happy now. It is only a small number of press-channels where you can find good information. Any ideas or suggestions? We'd be very happy if you mail them to me or to the list. And we won't collapse under pressure. We are fighting the illegal embargo ever since august 1990. We didn't collapse in 1990, 1991, 1998 or 2003. Yours in struggle for peace. Dirk Adriaensens. www.irak.be _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk