MEDIA RELEASE

DATE: June 5, 2003
CONTACT: Mr Minh Nguyen
peace@acmica.org

Catholic intellectual group calls for independent inquiry into war decision

Minh Nguyen, President of the Australian Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs, says that a public inquiry into Australia’s Iraq war decision is needed to determine what the Government knew or ought to have known about the true status of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

The existence of such weapons was the crucial argument for Australia in joining the “coalition of the willing” to invade Iraq. So far no evidence of their existence have been uncovered.

“The Government has asked us to be patient but whether they eventually find something is not the issue. Even if weapons of mass destruction are to be found, we know they are certainly not the result of intelligence gathered before the war.” Minh Nguyen said.

“Any decisions to commit a nation to war should not be based on mere speculation or deliberate ignorance. If this was the case, we need to find out.

“The decision to invade Iraq cost thousands of lives and brought a fragile society into almost anarchy. Moreover, it has placed Australia in further danger of terrorist threats.

“The Howard Government must be accountable for the decisions that it took in our name. It can no longer hide behind the mask of good intentions. Nor can it act as if it exists in a single-party state accountable only to itself.

“We need to know what the Government knew about Iraq’s weapons, and what advice they were given from the intelligence community.

“Both the US and Britain have announced an inquiry one way or another into their war decision. This Government has followed the US and Britain in virtually everything else, let it now follow them with an inquiry.”
[ENDS]