Vijay Mehta

E-mail: vijay@anglo-sphere.com

 150 delegates from 30 countries from Europe, America, Egypt and Yemen attended the European Network for Peace Conference at Brussels.

The topic for the opening plenary was "The War after the War Serial Regime Change: Is Iran Next"?

Most of the speakers spoke about the illegality of war on Iraq and unilateralism of America and its intentions of targeting new wars on Iran, Syria, Korea and other countries. Proposals and alternatives were discussed to act as counter weight to the expansion of American Empire. Ideas of European Union acting as a counter balance, using Euros against the Dollar to weaken US economy, role of education to challenge the military might of US were explored. Speaker after speaker spoke about the impasse of getting nations to comply with the NPT (Non Proliferation Treaty), which they signed and are obliged to do so. Many ideas were floated for getting ready for the NPT Prepcom (Preparatory Meeting) 2004 and review conference for 2005 in New York.

The main speakers at the plenary were: Ken Coates, Colin Archer, Dave Knight, Rae Street, Regan Scott, Pedro Marsat, MEP, Caroline Lucas, MEP, Tony Sampson and Lindsay German.

During the plenary 3 workshops were introduced by Joseph Gerson, Dave Knight and Tony Bunyan.

1. Europe versus the United States: Full Spectrum Dominance and its Limits.
2. The Fate of the institutions of the International Community: The United Nations, the European Union and NATO?
3. The Crisis in Civil Liberties in Europe and the Middle East

It was pointed out that the war on Iraq was not a isolated adventure of America but part of axis of evil and Korea and Iran are the next targets to be attacked. It was mention that although America had a power military but it only attacked poor countries with hardly any military hardware. At the moment Iran is been singled out to be possessing weapons of mass destruction and is been targeted for attack.

European Union with a population of 450 million and 25 countries should become a force for peace and a counter weight for US.

The strength of the Euro and harnessing the economic strength of Europe should pave the way for decline of American economy.

The continuing militarisation of space and the additional billions sanctioned by the Congress to develop mini nukes and new generation nuclear weapons are part of America’s policy of full spectrum dominance. It was suggested that a moratorium should be agreed among nations so that serious business of demilitarisation and a start to nuclear disarmament can be made.

It was suggested that while we are discussing EU, UN and NATO it would be wise to include discussion of WTO (World Trade Organisation), IMF (International Monetary Fund) and World Bank as trade and capitalism are part of the global decision-making process for working together.

The UN during its 50 years has been a force for good and bad. Its positive agenda has been carried out by WHO, UNICEF, UNHCR. Its work in eradication of diseases, keeping peace in many conflict zones around the world and protection of human rights and formation of international criminal court are some of its successes. In the same way it was said that the world body delayed the war on Iraq but could not stop it. It was stated that UN is in need of urgent reforms for its survival as it was started in 1945 after Second World War and some of its remit is out dated. The Security Council is not fairly representative and has incredible geographical imbalance. It was pointed out that America has followed a policy of votes for sale in UN as they pressure countries to vote for them by giving them aid. Also the permanent members had a policy of double standards while dealing with nuclear weapons related issues. It is their hypocritical attitude, which dictates that while it is ok to keep and produce nuclear weapons for them but not all right for India, Pakistan and Iran to have them.

NATO has lost its role and should be scrapped. It was stated that it has lost all its reason for existence after the Cold War and is a vehicle for US Empire.

EU (European Union) can be civilian and peaceful alternative to American super power. EU foreign security policy green paper has been produced which will update European Military capability making a super power heading for Cold War scenario with US. We need to give our input to the green paper by suggesting peaceful alternatives to war and also EU adhering to the principles of UN charter. EU should work towards preserving democracy, poverty reduction and promoting culture of peace and changing the mindset of people away from militarism. The use of Euros by most countries of the world against the US Dollar will affect US economy and make Europe independent and a force to reckon with.

WTO, IMF and World Bank were criticised for following the agenda of bigger nations and multinational corporations against the interests of the local industry and poor countries. It was stated that owing to their economic agenda many millions of people in poor countries were killed without an army. They also need to be reformed to become accountable and transparent.

It was said that OSCE (Organisations for Security and Cooperation in Europe) can be an alternative for peace security but is under funded and is not used to its full potential.

After the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers in New York civil liberties have been in constant threat and curtailed all over the world using threat of terrorism as pretext. It was said that stereotypes of Muslims and other communities and attacks on racism should be challenged as all model citizens have a right to live, enjoying human rights and civil liberties – cultural, economic, political and social. Racism and xenophobia specially directed to Muslims should be tackled. It was stated that victim is a victim, is a victim. It was recommended that pre-emptive education about different cultures and nationalities on on going bases can be a response to the needs to create a culture of peace and human rights.

There were other workshops, which dealt with education and peace activism, which provided information for resistance and breaking the might of the US as an alternative to their power.

Another workshop dealt with war crimes tribunal against the war in Iraq, which has been started by a Turkish organisation and proceedings will start taking place in Istanbul later this year. It was interesting to know that similar initiatives are taking place in UK, Belgium and other parts of the world to nail the leaders of the world for wrong and unlawful conduct of war.

It is expected that the next European Network Conference might take place in America as delegate (Joseph Gerson) has promised to look in to it. It cannot take place in Brussels as European Elections are taking place next year.

There were great speeches by notable delegates on wide ranging issues on peace and security including Stanislav Patejdi from Prague who represented peace movements from Eastern Europe, Shash Ambassador from Egypt and Amal Basha from Yemen. The other members from UK who made valuable contribution were Peter Nichols, George Farebrother, Frank Jackson, David Partridge, Lindsay German, Caroline Gilbert, Rae Street, Dave Knight, Monica Bradley, Vijay and Shanti Mehta.

The following recommendations for action came out of the conference:

1. Campaign for a demilitarised Europe, having one political voice, which should highlight the defects in the common foreign, security and defence policy. It should build Europe in to a peaceful alternative to US.
2. Create a unified peace movement linking it with world Social Forums and Human Rights Organisations around the globe.
3. Link all war crimes tribunal initiatives through out the world for taking governments and leaders to task for conducting an illegal war and pursuing crimes against humanity.
4. To work for changing the mindset of military and ordinary people from the culture of killing to culture of peace by pursuing an agenda for education.
5. Campaign for a bigger, well funded OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) for building and maintaining peace and security.
6. Campaign for governments to comply with international treaties and multilateral trade agreements. Work for a moratorium for developing space and nuclear weapons. Find a way to break the deadlock facing the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty). Also prepare for Prepcom 2004 and review conference 2005.
7. Campaign for more information about the positive role of UN and ask for all its information centres to remain open all over Europe as they are facing closure.
8. Campaign for reforms of all world institutions UN, EU, WTO, IMF and World Bank to be more transparent, democratic and accountable. They should work under the rule of law and be legitimate.
9. Campaign for a united world opinion of all citizens for democracy and justice, which can become the second super power and counterweight to US hegemony.
10. Work for the protection of people from violations of human rights and civil liberties. Women should be represented in all decision making bodies of all organisation to ensure their added value of peace building to all peace processes.

 The above are some of the action points coming of the conference paving for the way forward. It was a great opportunity for networking with fellow peace and human rights activists from different parts of the world.