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Military - new material (51)

01 January 2005

Why I'll refuse to fight in this immoral war, George Solomou. Independent 21.1.05. Solomou explains why he is resigning from the Territorial Army because of the "illegal and immoral" war in Iraq. He cites the absence of weapons of mass destruction, which Blair offered as his reason d'etre for supporting Bush, and the popular opposition to the invasion as his main reasons. Solomou has since begun working with the Military Families Against the War (MFAW) campaign, which he hopes will be a rallying point for soldiers against the war. He predicts that "there will be more soldiers coming out soon". The MFAW campaign website, http//:mfaw.org.uk/

EU Crisis Response Capability Revisited, International Crisis Group. Europe Report no. 160, 17 January 2005

Who polices the peacekeepers, Amnesty International. Peace News no. 2457, December 2004-February 2005, pp.26-27. This article documents AI's frequently expressed concerns, both to NATO and the individual governments within NATO, "about instances in which peacekeeping forces in both Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina have failed to abide by international human rights law, particularly in relation to their detention polices and practice." Amnesty is calling for "central mechanisms in KFOR and SFOR, or on a higher level within NATO itself, to be instituted to investigate alleged human rights violations committed by troops in either Kosovo or Bosnia-Herzegovinia, rather than leaving the decision to prosecute to the respective sending state from which the alleged perpetrators came. The organisation is also calling for an end to unlawful detentions by both KFOR and SFOR.