International Alliance Assists Iraq

Date: 21 March 2003

The overseas aid agency of the ACTU, Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA has formed an alliance with the trade union linked Norwegian Peoples Aid and Swiss Workers Aid to deliver assistance to the innocent Iraqi and Kurdish victims of the invasion.

Norwegian People's Aid has had projects and staff in Iraq for a number of years. The two European aid agencies are preparing to support camps north of Baghdad for people displaced by conflict and donations to Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA will assist this work.

The UN estimates that over 500,000 will be killed or seriously injured in the first few weeks of fighting. Without either medicines or electricity, hospitals will be unable to function. Without electricity, neither the water or sewerage systems will operate - the impact on the civilian population, especially children, of the subsequent diarrhoea, typhoid, cholera and hepatitis will cause even more deaths.

Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA condemns in the strongest terms the joint military offensive against Iraq. "The Howard government, acting without the support of the Australian public, has joined an assault on Iraq, even though options for peaceful negotiations were not exhausted. Under international law and the UN Charter, no country has the right to attack another unless in self-defense" said Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA's Executive Officer, Peter Jennings.

"We call on the United Nations and the international community to ensure that this conflict ends immediately to minimize civilian casualties".

"We recognise that Saddam Hussein's regime is a brutal dictatorship, but this war is unlikely to bring real freedom to the Iraqi and Kurdish peoples. Union Aid Abroad urges the Australian government to confront the real and complex causes of terrorism: the dramatic gap between rich and poor; the ongoing conflict in Palestine; and US unilateral intervention. Instead of defending US interests, the Australian government should be advancing the goals of peace, equity, justice and greater economic equality throughout the world."

Union Aid Abroad has launched an emergency appeal for assistance to workers and their families, the elderly, women and children in Iraq who will suffer due to this attack.
To make a tax-deductible donation, please ring:-

1800 888 674 (free-call - business hours)

(02) 9264 9343

Or mail to Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA Level 3, 377 Sussex St Sydney 2000

For further information

Contact:	Peter Jennings - Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA
Union:	APHEDA Union Aid Abroad
Phone:	02 9264 9343
Contact Mobile:	0409 047 353
Fax:	02 9261 1118
Email:	apheda@labor.net.au
WWW:	http://www.apheda.org.au

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