AN OPEN LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER JEAN CHRÉTIEN REGARDING THE EXPANSION OF THE "WAR AGAINST TERRORISM" TO IRAQ
Prime Minister Jean Chretien House of Commons Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6February 19, 2002
Dear Mr Chrétien:
I am writing to express my organization’s support for your Government’s refusal to expand the "campaign against terrorism" to Iraq in the absence of any evidence that that country’s regime has been involved in terrorist actions.
I know that your government must be under enormous pressure to fall in with the plans of the Bush Administration. But there are many people and groups in Canada that applaud and support your resolve not to participate in such actions in the absence of evidence and a United Nations mandate to proceed. Such groups include the Canadian Peace Alliance, which is Canada’s largest umbrella peace organization with more than 100 member groups.
We were pleased to see that to date, you have insisted on seeing evidence before accepting the assertion by the Government of the United States that the Government of Iraq must now be targeted to prevent further acts of terrorism against the West. To date no evidence has linked Iraq to the September 11 attacks.
We urge your Government, however, to shift its policies away from responding to terrorist threats with armed force, which the Canadian Peace Alliance believes will be counter-productive in the longer term.
The US-led bombing of Afghanistan in retaliation for the terrorist attacks on the United States compounded the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, and engendered a political crisis that is a long way from resolution. Air strikes against Iraq also would compound an already serious human rights situation caused by eleven years of highly punitive sanctions.
We fervently hope that the United States administration will be swayed by the concerns raised by your government and allies in Europe and not make Iraq the target of a new bombing campaign.
In peace,
Carolyn Bassett Coordinator
Background materials:
Bombing campaign against Iraq would be criminal, say Canadian Peace Alliance and Canadian Network to End Sanctions on Iraq (press release, November 29 2001).
End Sanctions against Iraq. Brief to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade prepared in 2000.