DOCUMENT
from issue no. 05 - 2004
|
|
|
On the war against Iraq
The text of the speech given in the Senate on 20 May by Senator Giulio Andreotti, during the debate in the chamber on the situation in the Middle East. The “Pro-autonomies” group, to which life-senators Andreotti and Francesco Cossiga belong, along with life-senators Emilio Colombo and Rita Levi Montalcini, presented the motion, which was approved by a large majority
by Giulio Andreotti
Mister President, Honorable President of the Council,
fellow senators, the document that our small “Pro-autonomies” group, along with
two authoritative fellow senators, Rita Levi Montalcini and Emilio Colombo, has
presented for the conclusion of the debate aims to contribute to the quest for
guidelines, in a frighteningly anxious and confused phase of international
politics, that both in Iraq and Palestine features tragic conditions of crisis.
Certainly no one is nostalgic about the Berlin Wall, but the dissolution of the
Soviet empire and the disappearance of the group of non-aligned countries has
been replaced by a dangerous international imbalance; with the anomalous
American temptation to award or cancel the rank of friend or that of rogue
state. Let us be careful. The authoritative Mrs. Condoleezza Rice has
complained of forgetfulness about the Americans’ decisive contribution to the
victory against the European dictatorships. It is not so. Nor have we forgotten
their decisive part in the First World War. But that is not sufficient to justify the
war against Iraq when, at least in the present state of the evidence, the
reasons adopted have proved baseless, and that is the existence of an arsenal
of weapons of mass destruction.
The
sovereignty of states cannot be infringed and it was precisely to defend that
of Kuwait when Saddam invaded, that, under the aegis of the UN, there was the
mobilization of the ’nineties.
The daily deaths caused at this current moment, which is hard to consider “post-war”, weigh in massive fashion on everyone indiscriminately. We are profoundly distressed for the Italian soldiers killed in Iraq; but with equal suffering we mourn, together with their families, the 787 American soldiers and the enormous number of Iraqis killed in this “futile slaughter”.
Recognition cannot be postponed of the right of the Iraqis – a people of ancient civilization - to decide their own arrangements and to govern themselves without protectorates and without confusion between civil liberty and religious affiliation: a risk present here in Italy very much more than in other parts of the world. It is necessary that the UN – as you, Prime Minister Berlusconi, have been assured in recent days – take on direct responsibility through legitimate modes for the transition from “after Saddam” to a genuinely representative system. Outside of that precise and radical project the legitimacy and certainly the political and human purpose of the presence of Italian soldiers would be inconceivable. To be part of regimes of occupation is not in our vocation nor our constitutional arrangements.
The other focal point of crisis is painfully dramatic. We must firmly ask the European Union to strengthen its commitment and to take peace initiatives through dialogue so as to achieve the true co-existence of the Israelis with neighbor countries, including the Palestinian State recognized also in the Oslo Agreement. The fundamentalists on both sides must finally be induced to see that they will not, by sowing death, block negotiations for agreement, as has so far happened.
But it is necessary to aim high and give young people everywhere new prospects in life.
Something to raise the spirit must be found precisely in these bleak crises. I am thinking – and I submit the idea to the consideration of the government that it may promote it – of a great campaign in education to peace that would take up among other things the guidelines for arms reduction that, under the Reagan and Bush senior administrations, and with the firm commitment of NATO, led to the halving of the nuclear arsenals.
We of the so-called First Republic are proud to have worked for that policy.
Honorable President of the Council, the government and you personally, come more often to the Senate (and to the Chamber of Deputies also) to inform and to listen to the majority and non-majority. The time of the terrible German bombing, when it truly seemed that all was lost, remains memorable in the history of the British democracy. The House of Commons sat each day and Winston Churchill went each day to give and be given courage.
Let no one forget that Italy is a parliamentary Republic.
Peace through dialogue
The text of the motion
The Senate, ever more concerned about the grave situation in the Middle East and in peculiar about the unresolved Palestinian question and the dramatic crisis in Iraq;
mindful of the need to set going further enquiry and proposals from the European Union in the framework of the common foreign policy, enacted at Maastricht and reconfirmed in the draft Constitution, but unfortunately still not implemented;
having reconfirmed that the sphere of respect for the human rights and for the representation of the wishes of the people must be defended without ever infringing sovereignty, retains that
1) the way to peace through dialogue must be reconfirmed so as to achieve true co-existence of the State of Israel with neighbor States, including the Palestinian State recognized also in the Oslo Agreement;
2) recognition must be given to the right of the Iraqis – a people of ancient civilization - to decide their own arrangements and to govern themselves without protectorates and without confusion between civil liberty and religious affiliation;
3) the efforts of the UN – including those of the Secretary General in person – must be reconsidered and the indispensable consequence drawn to adopt precise and objective responsibility by the UN itself through modes that exclude harm to any interests. Only in the international framework can an Italian military presence be considered;
4) a great worldwide campaign of education to peace must be promoted that takes up the guidelines of arms reduction that under the Reagan-Bush administration launched new prospects – unfortunately not then fostered – for war on war.
VOTING
Votes for 165
Votes against 9
Abstentions 97
Top, English soldiers engaged in facing urban guerrillas in Basra; below, a group of Iraqis demonstrating against the American presence in front of the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad
The daily deaths caused at this current moment, which is hard to consider “post-war”, weigh in massive fashion on everyone indiscriminately. We are profoundly distressed for the Italian soldiers killed in Iraq; but with equal suffering we mourn, together with their families, the 787 American soldiers and the enormous number of Iraqis killed in this “futile slaughter”.
Recognition cannot be postponed of the right of the Iraqis – a people of ancient civilization - to decide their own arrangements and to govern themselves without protectorates and without confusion between civil liberty and religious affiliation: a risk present here in Italy very much more than in other parts of the world. It is necessary that the UN – as you, Prime Minister Berlusconi, have been assured in recent days – take on direct responsibility through legitimate modes for the transition from “after Saddam” to a genuinely representative system. Outside of that precise and radical project the legitimacy and certainly the political and human purpose of the presence of Italian soldiers would be inconceivable. To be part of regimes of occupation is not in our vocation nor our constitutional arrangements.
The other focal point of crisis is painfully dramatic. We must firmly ask the European Union to strengthen its commitment and to take peace initiatives through dialogue so as to achieve the true co-existence of the Israelis with neighbor countries, including the Palestinian State recognized also in the Oslo Agreement. The fundamentalists on both sides must finally be induced to see that they will not, by sowing death, block negotiations for agreement, as has so far happened.
But it is necessary to aim high and give young people everywhere new prospects in life.
Something to raise the spirit must be found precisely in these bleak crises. I am thinking – and I submit the idea to the consideration of the government that it may promote it – of a great campaign in education to peace that would take up among other things the guidelines for arms reduction that, under the Reagan and Bush senior administrations, and with the firm commitment of NATO, led to the halving of the nuclear arsenals.
We of the so-called First Republic are proud to have worked for that policy.
Honorable President of the Council, the government and you personally, come more often to the Senate (and to the Chamber of Deputies also) to inform and to listen to the majority and non-majority. The time of the terrible German bombing, when it truly seemed that all was lost, remains memorable in the history of the British democracy. The House of Commons sat each day and Winston Churchill went each day to give and be given courage.
Let no one forget that Italy is a parliamentary Republic.
Giulio Andreotti
Peace through dialogue
The text of the motion
The Senate, ever more concerned about the grave situation in the Middle East and in peculiar about the unresolved Palestinian question and the dramatic crisis in Iraq;
mindful of the need to set going further enquiry and proposals from the European Union in the framework of the common foreign policy, enacted at Maastricht and reconfirmed in the draft Constitution, but unfortunately still not implemented;
having reconfirmed that the sphere of respect for the human rights and for the representation of the wishes of the people must be defended without ever infringing sovereignty, retains that
1) the way to peace through dialogue must be reconfirmed so as to achieve true co-existence of the State of Israel with neighbor States, including the Palestinian State recognized also in the Oslo Agreement;
2) recognition must be given to the right of the Iraqis – a people of ancient civilization - to decide their own arrangements and to govern themselves without protectorates and without confusion between civil liberty and religious affiliation;
3) the efforts of the UN – including those of the Secretary General in person – must be reconsidered and the indispensable consequence drawn to adopt precise and objective responsibility by the UN itself through modes that exclude harm to any interests. Only in the international framework can an Italian military presence be considered;
4) a great worldwide campaign of education to peace must be promoted that takes up the guidelines of arms reduction that under the Reagan-Bush administration launched new prospects – unfortunately not then fostered – for war on war.
VOTING
Votes for 165
Votes against 9
Abstentions 97
