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http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=25333&group=webcast

Howard to meet suspected war criminal Henry Kissinger tomorrow

- by Nick Montgomery (Melb IMC) 1:30pm Mon Jan 20 '03 article#25333

American statesman and former secretary of state during the Vietnam War,
Henry Kissinger, will be visiting Sydney this week in a non-official
capacity.

Kissinger, an influential foreign policy heavyweight in the American
political scene, plans to have an audience with prominent Australian
politicians on Monday and Tuesday including the Prime Minister and 
Foreign Minister.

PM John Howard, a long-standing admirer of the 72-year-old Kissinger, 
will take time out from holidays to meet the 72-year-old policy analyst 
on Tuesday and is expected to ask advice on the Iraqi face-off.

Kissinger remains the most controversial of the former US secretary of
states and is either loved or loathed by the international community.

Various journalists, academics, and activists have accused Kissinger of
carrying out crimes against humanity after commandeering an illegal
bombing campaign in Cambodia during the Vietnam war which some have
likened to a holocaust, while others, notably rightwing politicians, 
have praised Kissinger for his endeavourers to end the Indochina 
conflict which culminated in the shared Nobel Peace Prize of 1973.

Kissinger's actions during the Cold war were of important influence on
Australia affairs.

Most recently, left wing journalist Christopher Hitchens lunched a
scathing attack on Kissinger and called for his indictment as a war
criminal in mainstream magazine 'Vanity Fair'.

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1111/1809_302/69839383/p1/article.jhtml?term=kissinger
http://www.eclipse.net/~tgardnet/kiss/hitchens.html

In "THE CASE AGAINST HENRY KISSINGER", Hitchens raised questions about 
the role of Henry Kissinger in giving a green light to the invasion that 
has left perhaps 200,000 dead in the years since and also brought 
Australia and Indonesia perilously close to all out conflict on several 
occasions.

The legacy of Kissingers Indo-china policy is still being felt 
throughout the post cold war years, culminating in a policy of military 
intervention in East Timor under the Howard Government.

The Howard government at this stage would not comment on Kissinger's
status as a war criminal nor the criticism of Prime Minister Howard's
approach to the Iraqi crisis during the holiday season.

A spokesperson for Greens leader Bob Brown who protested with activists 
in opposition to the offical visit of the chairman of the National 
People's Congress, Li Peng, (dubbed the butcher of Beijing) to Australia 
last year, said the Greens would object to Howard's meeting with any 
suspected war criminal.

Pundits are claiming if the PM can organize time to meet with a 
suspected war criminal during the holiday season then he must make time 
to debate any decision to join a war with Iraq in parliament.

As the anti-war movement grows the labor party, the 'ailing' democratic
and the 'rising' green parties have unanimously called for a "conscience
vote" in the Australian senate before any decision is made to support
either possible American unilateral military action or United Nations
sanctioned action.

However, any parliamentary debate looks unlikely, after Mr. Howard
asserted last month that a parliamentary debate would most probably
proceed the deployment of 1,500 Australia troops to fight the oil rich
Iraq state.


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