ZAGREB, Feb 13 (Hina) - War is not a means to solve the problem of Iraq, especially if it is to be conducted by a single world power, and the problem should be solved through diplomacy within the United Nations, with possible
deployment of peace forces, several Croatian NGOs stated at a press conference in Zagreb on Thursday.
ZAGREB, Feb 13 (Hina) - War is not a means to solve the problem of
Iraq, especially if it is to be conducted by a single world power,
and the problem should be solved through diplomacy within the
United Nations, with possible deployment of peace forces, several
Croatian NGOs stated at a press conference in Zagreb on Thursday.
#L#
"War against Iraq is not a military issue but an issue of morality,"
Vlatko Silobrcic of the European Movement Croatia said. He added
that a war against Iraq could trigger "a spiral of hatred and
fundamentalism".
Speaking on behalf of the Alliance for a Third Croatia, academician
Ivan Supek warned that a military operation which was "conducted
under the pretext of the fight against terrorism would only
generate more terrorists", and pointed to the case of Palestine and
Palestinian terrorists. He advocated that any further activities
be launched under the auspices of the U.N. and warned against the
military domination of the United States as the only superpower
which was assuming the role of world policeman.
Supek stressed that peacemakers believed that the entire world
should be disarmed and only U.N. peace troops allowed to stay. The
fact that Saddam Hussein is indisputably a dictator should not be
the reason to launch a military operation against Iraq, Supek
believes.
The head of the Centre for Peace Studies, Vesna Terselic, announced
on behalf of the civil initiative "Enough of Wars" anti-war
protests would be held in Zagreb, Pula, Split, Osijek, Zadar,
Vukovar, Sibenik and Knin.
"We want to state very clearly that we do not want a war or that it be
waged in our name," Terselic said calling on the government to
reconsider its decision to sign the statement of the Vilnius
Group.
Terselic warned that there was no proof that Iraq possessed nuclear
weapons and that the price of war would be huge in terms of money and
victims, setting into motion rivers of refugees. She added that
opinion polls conducted in Croatia showed that citizens were
against a war against Iraq.
Slavko Kulic of the Movement for Democracy and Social Justice
claimed that the war in Iraq would be "neither preventive, nor
defensive nor just" and that nobody had the right to force Croatia
and its citizens to endorse "institutions of violence" without
having the support of the people and parliament.
The initiative "Enough of Wars" organised today's round table
discussion "War Against Iraq - What Does Iraq Means To Us", which
was attended by Slovene sociologist Rastko Mocnik, Croatian MP
Pavle Kalinic, US peace activist Maple Rasza and others.
(hina) rml sb