JCP condemns the lawless U.S. attack on Iraq
-- Stop the U.S.-British military actions now

The Japanese Communist Party Central Committee published a statement condemning the U.S. for starting war against Iraq. The text of the statement is as follows:

On March 20, the U.S. Bush administration, joined by Britain, started war on Iraq.

Anti-war voices calling for "a peaceful resolution to the crisis through continued and strengthened weapons inspections" have spread all over the world on the largest scale ever. The majority of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) members and an overwhelming majority of countries have opposed armed attacks and earnestly pursued a peaceful resolution.

The present military attack by the United States and Britain constitutes the worst act of defiance toward international opinion and efforts leading to a peaceful resolution; such an act must not be condoned under any circumstances in light of international law and justice.

The Japanese Communist Party strongly condemns this savage act and demands an immediate halt to all further military attacks.

First, the present war constitutes a flagrant violation of the rules for peace established in the United Nations Charter.

The UNSC has never adopted resolutions serving as the rationale for the on-going war. This is why the United States and Britain clung to the adoption of a second UNSC resolution to pave the way for military action. But their attempt was thwarted. This proves that the present war is unjustifiable under international law.

The U.N. Charter strictly prohibits its member nations from making a preemptive attack that arbitrarily uses force when they are not under military attack. Clearly, the present war was begun with a preemptive attack in violation of the U.N. Charter.
This war is a flagrant offense against the international peace provided for by the U.N. Charter; it is also an act that undermines the efforts the world had made over the years to build an orderly system for world peace. This war simply cannot be condoned.

Secondly, this war must be condemned as an act of forcibly closing the road leading to a peaceful resolution to the question of weapons of mass destruction.

In their report to the UNSC, the U.N. weapons inspectors called for their activities to be extended for several months in order to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and they submitted a work program to accomplish this task. This shows that the inspections program to achieve that aim was moving into top gear.

The path toward a peaceful resolution was open. The U.S. government's use of force to close this path is a blatant manifestation of its real aim, which is to overthrow Iraq's Hussein government by force instead of the stated goal of fulfilling the task of eliminating weapons of mass destruction.

This is obvious from statements Bush made before the start of the war demanding that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein leave Iraq for a regime change and even envisaging that this change will serve as a new "democratic" model for the entire Middle East region. This is nothing less than a lawless act violating U.N. Charter provisions establishing the principles of respect for the sovereign rights of other countries and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, and using force to impose on Iraq and other Middle East countries regimes obedient to the United States.

Third, this war is an inhuman act that kills and injures numerous innocent citizens, and must not be condoned.

The United States has started air raids on the Iraqi capital of Baghdad where 5,000,000 people live. An internal U.N. report states that 500,000 people will fall victim to the combat, and 3,000,000 people will become refugees and internally displaced people. We cannot tolerate the hypocrisy of waging a war that will kill and injure many Iraqi citizens in the name of "freedom and peace".

The Koizumi Cabinet and the ruling Liberal Democratic, Komei, and New Conservative parties are supporting this lawless and savage war. Their responsibility for allowing this tragedy is great.
Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro and these ruling parties have been uncritically following, and accommodating themselves, to the United States in denouncing anti-war public opinion and actions demanding a peaceful resolution as well as criticizing France, Russia, Germany, and China in the UNSC for calling for continued weapons inspections and a peaceful resolution to the crisis. They have described these valiant efforts as "benefiting the enemy".

The Koizumi Cabinet and the three ruling parties, which together trample on the Constitution's Article 9 providing for the "renunciation of war" and the ban on the use of military force, are showing clear hostility toward peace in the world. They are not qualified to talk of peace and human dignity.

As a champion of peace that has always opposed wars of aggression during the last 80 years since its founding, the JCP will do all it can, in Japan and internationally, to increase cooperation with all peace-loving people to "oppose the war on Iraq and defend the rules of peace". (end)