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