A team of Greenpeace volunteers today (30/1/03 8.00am) boarded and set up a peace camp on a military supply ship bound for the Gulf with a cargo of military hardware. The five volunteers climbed on to the vessel the MV Lyra as it was leaving its anchorage in the Solent. The millions of pounds worth of miltary cargo came from Southampton's Marchwood port which Greenpeace's flagship the Rainbow Warrior successfully blockaded on Monday.
The five volunteers equipped with food supplies and protective gear set up camp on the Lyra's stern ramp.The Rainbow Warrior is nearby.
The Greenpeace peace camp is part of the global campaign to prevent a military attack on Iraq that could kill thousands of civilians and increase the chances of weapons of mass destruction being used. An attack on Iraq is clearly a barely disguised desire to take control of Iraq's huge oil reserves. Greenpeace campaigner John Sauven said,
- Greenpeace will stay on this ship as far as the Gulf if necessary. War is the wrong way to stop the spread of nuclear and chemical weapons. The only safe way to get rid of these weapons of mass destruction is for all the countries to get behind the global agreements to eliminate them. This means not just singling out Iraq but all states including the US and Britain.
- If we attack Iraq thousands of people could die for nothing more than fuelling the US's gas guzzling culture. There is a real danger that this war will mean not only more Iraqi suffering but more terrorism, more conflict and more global warming.
Greenpeace is opposed to war in Iraq, whether or not an attack is sanctioned by the United Nations, because it would have devastating human and environmental consequences. According to military and health experts a conventional war could kill many thousands of people mainly civilians and many more could die from famine and disease.
Bush and Blair have cited Saddam Hussein's desire to acquire weapons of mass destruction as justification for an invasion. However, pre-emptive military strikes against states possessing or suspected of possessing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons do not provide a stable basis for controlling them. It would require repeated armed interventions against numerous countries. The five nuclear powers are Britain, the US, China, France and Russia. Other states known to have nuclear weapons include India, Pakistan and Israel. The Bush administration has stated that at least 13 countries are pursuing biological weapons research.
Greenpeace believes the solution to weapons of mass destruction is collective international arms control and disarmament. The framework already exists, in the form of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention. But rather than being strengthened, these global treaties are being undermined, especially by the USA.
The war is also clearly motivated by oil. The same forces that are backing the war are also supporting the US's refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol, which would begin to combat climate change. The same US companies that maintain America's oil addiction and oppose the Kyoto Protocol are also backing the war against Iraq. The British Government has recently announced that one of the top five priorities for foreign policy is securing access to energy supplies. Yet Blair still denies that an attack on Iraq has anything to do with oil.
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Contact:
Greenpeace press office 020 7865 8255
