That this open and public meeting of citizens in Burnie condemn and reject the following policies enacted and maintained by the Australian Government:
? The unconscionable blockade of Iraq - which according to Ramsay Clark the former United States Attorney General has directly led to the deaths of more than 1,500,000 people. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimate since August 1990 567,000 children in Iraq have died as a consequence of the sanctions. The British Medical Journal Lancet calculated that there are currently 4,500 children under the age of 5 dying each month from hunger and disease. This futile blockade has this week been reinforced by the attachment of HMAS Sydney - an unenviable task for our servicemen and women. ? The withholding of humanitarian support and sanctuary from refugees fleeing the results of the blockade and other consequences of the United States meddling in Middle Eastern affairs i.e. the financing, arming, training and creation of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. ? The abdication of Australian sovereignty by granting the United States a blank cheque by our uncritical participation in this illegal, immoral, undeclared war which has no defined goals, limits or end, that has achieved nothing so far, other than the taking of lives of many innocent civilians including children. ? Australia's bypassing of International law, the United Nations and Treaty obligations.
We further urge that after the forthcoming election, the incoming Government repeal these aggressive, negative and inhuman policies, to join with those decent Nations and Organisations of good will, who seek to oppose those forces that perpetuate injustice, economic exploitation and the denial of basic human freedoms and dignity to third world people. These are the very conditions that have driven desperate people to desperate measures, in order to have their wrongs acknowledged and redressed. In this way, by working through the United Nations and by the rule of law we may strike at the source of terrorism, rather than attacking the symptoms and indulging in terrorist activities ourselves. To those ends we also urge that Australia:
? immediately deliver meaningful increased humanitarian aid to Iraqi and Afghani civilians to redress some of the damage we have already done, and for which we are responsible and accountable, and: ? give full weight and support to the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), to be based in The Hague, Netherlands.