Perdana Global Peace Forum: US arms programme rapped 

Malay Mail – December 16, 2005

The invasion of Iraq by the United States and other war atrocities took centre stage at the plenary session of the Perdana Global Peace Forum 2005 at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) here yesterday.

The four-day forum, themed ‘Peace Dividends, War Profits’, is organised by the Perdana Leadership Foundation, with distinguished speakers from around the world.

In his keynote address, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the forum should be the beginning of a global effort to criminalise war and banish it as an option to settle disputes and conflicts between nations.

“We had fought wars to end all wars — the First and Second World Wars were billed as such. After killing more than 70 million people, maiming millions more, razing innumerable towns and cities to the ground, we still have wars and yet, no peace,” he said. Helen Caldicott, founder and president of the US Nuclear Policy Research Institute (NPRI), provided sobering statistics on nuclear weaponry. She said there are 30,000 nuclear weapons in the world, 97 per cent of which belong to the US and Russia.

“Nothing has changed since the end of the Cold War. All weapons are still on hair-trigger alert. At this rate, we have a maximum of 20 years left before life on earth is annihilated.” She said. Caldicott also applauded Mahathir’s speech criticising the US weapons development programme.

“The US spends US$600 billion a year on ‘death’, coming up with weapons such as daisy-cutters, bunker-busters, cluster bombs and other tools of killing,” she said. She added that the use of depleted uranium ammunition by US troops in Iraq is tantamount to using nuclear weapons. As a result, cases of cancer in children below five has increased by 700 per cent.

“The women are afraid to conceive for fear that their offspring will be deformed,” she said. Former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke said the US should take the lead for the establishment of an economically viable Palestinian State. “With the support of Europe, moderate Arab States and Israel, the US should make a commitment that will give hope to the Palestinian people,” he said.

Hawke said Palestinians, particularly the younger generation, existed in a dysfunctional economic environment with virtually no hope of employment or improving their living standards.

“This is a breeding ground for despair and worse. While there is no hope among the young for jobs and the constructive development of their talents, there will no shortage for the martyrdom of the suicide bomber,” he said
Source: The Malay Mail | www.mmail.com.my