Pacific Concerns
Resource Centre/The Nuclear Free & Independent Pacific Movement
Appeal for Peace
September 2001
Dear friends,
We urge you to sign the following petition that
will be forwarded the world leaders listed below, urging them
to avoid war as a response to the terrorist attacks in the US
last week. Please add your name, preferably as an organisation
or group, and send it back to pcrc@is.com.fj as soon as possible.
The petition will be sent to US President George
W. Bush, US Secretary of State General Colin Powell, US Secretary
for Defence Donald Rumsfeld, NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson,
European President Romano Prodi, British PM Tony Blair, French
President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder,
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Australian PM John Howard and
New Zealand PM Helen Clark and Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi.
Pacific appeal for peace
It was with great shock and sadness that we, the
undersigned, learnt of the terrorist attacks on the United States
on 11 September, 2001. In a letter dated 13 September to the US
Embassy in Suva, Fiji, the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre, on
behalf of the people in the Pacific, conveyed our sincere condolences
to the people and government of the US, and especially to the
families of the innocent victims.
We strongly condemn the act of indiscriminate violence
employed in this tragedy and join the call by peace movements
worldwide for a peaceful resolution to this crisis. We in the
Pacific feel particularly vulnerable by calls for retaliation
and war because, with numerous US military bases located in our
region, we are prime targets for any US enemy.
We believe more deeply than ever that peace through
dialogue is the way forward in a democratic process. Military
retaliation will only add to the carnage, continue to fuel the
cycle of violence that struck American on 11 September, and further
endanger lives the world over.
We ask that the US stand by the principles it holds
close - democracy, tolerance and its belief in upholding the rule
of law. We urge the Bush Administration not to act hastily through
military retaliation, but to conduct a thorough investigation
and seek a lawful resolution through the international court system.
Those behind the attacks must be found and brought
to justice - such a path should not be cut short by the emotions
of the moment. Strengthening, not breaking, the international
legal order will provide better protection for everyone in the
long term.
Furthermore, we assert that the government of a
nation, and particularly its people, not be condemned or held
accountable for the actions of any terrorist group that may operate
within its borders without compelling evidence of complicity.
In turn, innocent civilians living within any nation found responsible,
in part or in full, for the crimes perpetrated against the United
States, must be guaranteed safety and immunity from any military
or judicial action taken against the state in which they reside.
We also call for the US to take this opportunity,
as tragic and horrific as it may be, to look within its own borders
and consider why it has become the target of such hatred as we
must find ways to heal and end the cycles of violence and retribution.
In peace,
The Pacific Concerns Resource Centre/The Nuclear
Free & Independent Pacific Movement, Suva, Fiji Islands
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