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THOUSANDS DIE AS NZ GOVT ENFORCES IRAQ BLOCKADEWhile some members of our armed forces ore busy keeping the peace in Timor, others are busy in the Persian Gulf engaged in more traditional military activities: killing innocent civilians. The government is certainly cashing in on the army's involvement in the Australian led peacekeeping mission in East Timor. Forget the fact that we've been training and educating some of those responsible for the carnage there over the lost 25 years. Television footage of "our boys" doing the haka in Dili and shaking hands with East Timorese kids is much better PR - and on army recruitment officer's dream. Less well publicised is the fact that the New Zealand Navy frigate Te Kaha is participating in the US-led blockade of Iraq, a blockade which is preventing medical and food supplies entering the country. According to UNICEF, between 5000 and 6000 children under the age of five die each month as a direct result of the blockade and other sanctions imposed on Iraq after the Gulf War. The sanctions were imposed by the UN Security Council in 1991 as punishment for the Iraqi military's invasion of Kuwait. The US has blocked moves to end the sanctions, citing Iraqi interference in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction by UN weapons inspectors. As well as the sanctions, US and British warplanes have been bombing Iraqi targets in response to challenges to the "no-fly zones" which were unilaterally imposed by the US and Britain. The hypocrisy of governments like that of the US would be laughable if it weren't for the misery they cause. The US is the world's biggest user and stockpiler of weapons of mass destruction, yet it refuses to allow international inspection of these sites on the grounds of "national security". Allied bombing of Iraq during the Gulf War resulted in the deaths of up to 150,000 civilians. Over 100,000 Iraqi military personnel were killed. All in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait which resulted in between 300 and 500 casualties. The US consistently opposed sanctions against Indonesia for its 1975 invasion of East Timor. Instead they provided military and economic aid to the corrupt Suharto regime. |
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In 1989 US armed forces invaded Panama, killing up to 4,000 Panamanians. This act clearly violated the same international law under which sanctions were imposed on Iraq! In light of this evidence it is obvious that the blockade of Iraq has nothing to do with our any principles of international justice. The US is using the sanctions to pursue it's own goal of destabilising the Iraqi regime. And by sending Te Kaha our government is simply following the only foreign relations policy it knows - toeing the line to keep Uncle Sam happy. If you'd like more information on the sanctions and how to stop them, write to CEC, P0 Box 9263, Te Aro, Wellington.
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