IAWM CONDEMNS IRISH GOVERNMENT'S COMPLICITY IN US LED TORTURE REGIME

In a statement issued today the IAWM noted its dismay on hearing that the UK is establishing a permanent military base in Mina Salman Port in Bahrain.

It is claimed by the British government that this is to 'reinforce stability' in the region but the IAWM noted that it is likely to have the opposite effect. Imperial adventures by western governments, including the British Government, have long been a major source of instability and conflict in the Middle East and especially in the Gulf. The last thing the region needs is increased military presence from Britain.

Moreover there is a specific reason to oppose military and other collaboration with Bahrain, namely the country's appalling and well documented human rights record. Bahrain was always an undemocratic state dominated by a minority and ruled by an authoritarian royal family. When the people of Bahrain rebelled during the Arab Spring they were met with brutal repression (with the aid of the Saudi Arabian army). Since then there have been innumerable human rights abuses, including the jailing and torture of doctors trained by the Irish College of Surgeons, for the 'crime' of treating injured protestors.

Only last week a woman pro-democracy activist, Zainab al-Kharwaja was sentenced to 3 years in prison for tearing up a picture of King Hamed. She is the third member of her family to be jailed for political opposition.

It is clear from this announcement that western powers are happy to use Bahrain for militaristic purposes while ignoring its appalling human rights record. Neither the UK nor any other country that claims to be a democracy should be associated with this regime.

JOHN MOLYNEUX, SECRETARY, Tel: 085 735 6424
JIM ROCHE, PRO. Tel: 087 6472737

CRISIS IN IRAQ - UNPUBLISHED LETTER SENT TO IRISH TIMES, IRISH INDEPENDENT AND IRISH EXAMINER

IAWM STATEMENT ON IRAQ CRISIS - 27 AUGUST 2014

• Hypocrisy of western powers in different responses to Iraq and Gaza

Our rulers, aided by much of the media, are softening us up to accept more US and western intervention in the Middle East with various atrocity stories creating hysteria and fear. No doubt the atrocities are real – the beheading of US journalist James Foley is obviously appalling and must be condemned, as must the slaughter and expulsion of unarmed civilians in Iraq - but these stories are selectively presented to demonise the USA’s current enemies while ignoring equally brutal atrocities from their friends.

America’s ally, Saudi Arabia, regularly beheads people. It beheaded 19 people in the first half of August 2014 and in January 2013 beheaded a seventeen year old Sri Lankan servant girl. Being beheaded or dismembered by bombs dropped from 30,000 feet, as so many Iraqis and, more recently, the people of Gaza have suffered, is no less inhumane.

The Record of Western Policy
Something else our rulers and much of the media fail to explain is the background to the sudden rise of the Islamic State Forces (ISF, formerly ISIS). We are supposed not to know that the US and its allies such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia funded and helped them in order to fight Syrian president Assad. Now, because they are threatened by the growing power of the ISF, they turn even to that ‘evil entity’ Iran for assistance, and they also look likely to side with Assad whom only last year they were threatening to bomb.

IAWM STATEMENT 10 AUGUST 2014

• NO US MILITARY INTERVENTION IN IRAQ
• INCREASE HUMANITARIAN EFFORT FOR THREATENED MINORITY GROUPS

IRISH ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT (IAWM) Press Release, 04 August 2014

MORATORIUM UNTIL TUESDAY 05 AUGUST AT 11.00AM

• Clare Daly TD, artist Robert Ballagh, Rev. Patrick Comerford and others to speak at IAWM press event on World War 1 commemorations
• IAWM statement on WW1 commemorations signed by over 75 people including Christy Moore, Sinead Cusack, Robert Ballagh and others
• The statement calls on the Irish government not to use the occasion of the commemorations to justify the slaughter of World War 1

The Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM) issued a statement today to coincide with the 100th anniversary of World War 1 noting that it will hold a press event in Buswell’s Hotel, Molesworth Street, Dublin at 11.00am on Tuesday 05 August to launch its new pamphlet "World War 1: What did they die for?", and to formally release its statement on the World War 1 commemorations. The IAWM pamphlet includes essays by Raymond Deane, John Molyneux, Jim Roche and Steve Woods.

The press event will be addressed by Clare Daly TD, artist Robert Ballagh, the Chair of CND the Revd. Patrick Comerford, former MEP Patricia Mc Kenna and writer, historian and secretary of the IAWM Steering Committee, John Molyneux.

The IAWM statement has been signed by over 75 people including Christy Moore, Sinead Cusack, Robert Ballagh, Felim Egan, Raymond Deane, Trevor Hogan, Prof. Kathleen Lynch, Richard Boyd Barrett TD, Clare Daly TD and various other people from Irish cultural, academic and political life.

The IAWM statement noted the importance of commemorating the dead, including the 49,000 Irish soldiers, of World War 1 but stressed that the supposed good cause for which they died should be exposed for the imperial slaughter that it was.