Whatever happened to the peace protesters who were on the streets of Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill just a few short weeks ago? Actually we are still there, and in recent weeks we have been handing out leaflets which put a few critical points about the war we said should never happen.

This week we will have a stall in the centre of Burgess Hill and on Tuesday 13th May we will be presenting a talk on the Palestinian Crisis. The speaker is a Christian Palestinian who was born in Nazareth and who has lived in Mid Sussex for many years, Naim Khoury. The talk will take place at the United Reformed Church, Keymer Road Hassocks. Time 7.30 for 8pm We hope to see a lot of people there to hear about this important issue and ask questions.

Our complaints about the Iraq war are very serious. We note that the war was illegal under international law. We note that it was sold to us on the basis that there were active factories producing chemical and biological weapons "across Iraq," that these weapons "could be activated within 45 minutes," and constituted a threat to "the whole world including this country." These points were made by Tony Blair in a speech to Parliament on 24 September last year. Far from being a threat to the world the Iraqi regime proved to be totally unable to defend itself. And the war was supposed to be "not about oil."

It is of great concern that a prime minister of this country should take this country to war on the basis of ill-informed or dishonest claims. Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi people have been killed, injured, traumatised, or disabled for life. It is quite possible that more suffering has been caused than if Saddam Hussein who is 66 years old had remained in power.

Now we are told that Iraq is liberated and will become a democracy. These are also phoney claims. The country is being privatised and put into the hands of American companies. The port, rebuilding the infrastructure, security, agriculture and the oil industry are already in the hands of American companies or American appointees. No democracy in this. And at the talks organised by the Americans to form a new Iraqi government the Americans have excluded Saddam’s two main opposition parties and ruled out an Islamic state which the 60 per cent Shia majority wish to see set up. The new Iraqi government will be a government hand in hand with American big business.

So much for a legal, just, honest and humanitarian war of liberation! And we are to have more of this with Iraq, Syria, and North Korea.

David Roberts, Mid Sussex Global Peace Campaign.

Letter to the Editor, the Mid Sussex Times