The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
PRESS RELEASE

Cairo, 17 December 1998

A joint appeal from Palestinian and Egyptian Human Rights Organizations

The below-signing human rights organizations express their strong
condemnation of the strike launched on Badgad by the United States and
Britain in the evening of Wednesday, 16 December 1998. The strike brought
as a result around thirty-five civilian casualties. 

The American Administration had previously announced, after a diplomatic
solution was reached between Iraq and the Security Council, that it would
strike Iraq without prior warning and without consultation with the
Security Council. This is in fact what happened. The American-British
attack against Iraq is an unjust attack from one state against another.

The signing organizations express their strong astonishment at American
justifications that the attack was aimed at the Iraqi military arsenal. It
is clear, however, that its objective was mainly to strike the capabilities
of the Iraqi people and  their right to life. It is even more disturbing to
stop a possible 'crime', according to the American perspective, by
committing crimes against humanity through the use of military force
against the peoples. The below-signing organizations denounce the unjust
American attack on Iraq and call on Arab governments to announce their open
and firm refusal of the attack on the Iraqi people, and to take serious
steps, with the cooperation of Arab civil society institutions, to reach a
comprehensive Arab formula for averting the threats which are now looming
over the whole region. The organizations also urge the Iraqi authorities to
take the initiative to bring about a national reconciliation based on the
rule of law in order to save the Iraqi people, who are enduring huge
sacrifices. They also call on members of the Security Council, whose role
is being marginalized by the US, to support the example of China, Russia
and other countries who condemned the American attack on Iraq, and to issue
a collective condemnation. Finally, the signing organizations call upon
Arab and international human rights organizations and the international
peace movement which announced their condemnation of the American practices
to hold an international conference to end the plight of the Iraqi people
and to put and end to the sanctions imposed on them since eight years ago. 


Signing organizations:

Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies	
Egyptian Organization for Human Rights 
Center for Human Rights Legal Aid	
Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession
Group for Democratic Development
Human Rights Center for the Assistance of Prisoners
Palestinian Center for Human Rights (Gaza)
Palestinian Association for the Protection of Human Rights and the
Environment (Jerusalem)