BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE

HOBART — On May 16, 350 people attended a forum organised by the Peace Coalition in the Stanley Burbury Theatre at Tasmania University on the topic “Casualties of War”. Speakers on the forum's panel were left-wing writer Tim Thorne, Greens Senator Bob Brown, federal Labor MP Carmen Lawrence and ABC journalist Eric Campbell.

The forum was the first major initiative of the Peace Coalition since the collapse of the Baghdad regime.

Several of the questions in the discussion period were aimed at working out what do we do next, and it was in answer to these that some of the most revealing comments of the panelists were made.

Brown said that questions about ending the US occupation of Iraq necessarily brought up the question of the United Nations and that he had “gotten over [his] reticence about calling on the UN” to “intervene” — despite the fact that this could only occur with the agreement of the occupying powers (the US and Britain, both of which have a veto on the UN Security Council).

Lawrence called on the Australian government to take up its “moral responsibility” to help reconstruct Iraq. However, she supported Australian troops remaining in Iraq in order to help with this, even though the Iraqi people are calling for the immediate withdraw of the occupation forces.

From Green Left Weekly, May 21, 2003.
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