Erklärung der Communist Party of Finland:

The War must be stopped!

The attack on Iraq by the USA and the UK is a crime short of any justification. The war means the merciless killing of defenceless people. It will also cause environmental damage, lead to new waves of refugees and exacerbate the already explosive situation in the Middle East.

The Communist Party of Finland urges the Finnish government to condemn this illegal war and to demand the convening of an Emergency Session of the UN General Assembly to stop the war. Furthermore the CPF demands the cancellation by the government of the licence granted on the eve of the war to the State-led company Patria Hägglunds allowing it to sell mortar systems to the US army. Finland must by no means support a war policy, that blatantly violates the UN Charter and international law.

The indifference shown by the US for the results of the work accomplished by the UN arms' inspectors confirms, that the aim is not to disarm Iraq from its possible weapons of mass destruction, but to conquer Iraqi oil reserves, to dominate the world energy market and to consolidate the US domination in the Middle East. The bill for this imperialist war will be paid by the people of Iraq and working and indigent people of other countries who will face economic recession, unemployment and price increases.

The Political Bureau of the CPF calls upon all antiwar forces to continue the antiwar demonstrations all over Finland. Opposing US criminal war policy is also possible by boycotting products of US multinationals until the end of the war. It is important to draw the correct conclusions from this US war policy during the negotiations for the new government, i.e. the programme of the new government must clearly indicate that Finland does not accept war as a means of making politics, that the government commits itself to military non alignment and that Finland withdraws from US-led NATO partnership programme.

Communist Party of Finland

Political Bureau 19.3.03