THESE ARE YOUR DEAD CHILDREN, PRIMEMINISTER -- Denmark/Iraq-war/debate
List It's not only in USA and UK that pressure is mounting after the war. As you may know, Denmark participated in the war against Iraq. This has lead to an increasing pressure on the danish government as the evidence of WMDs - and thus the reason to go to war - evaporates. Now there's talk of public inquiries into the war. The following articles were printed in Ekstra Bladet, the second largest daily newspaper thursday, june 19, 2003. The pictures of dead children mentioned in the articles can be found at thememoryhole.org. (http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/gulfwar2/) Yours Bo Elkjaer, Denmark THESE ARE YOUR DEAD CHILDREN, PRIME MINISTER Shaken primeminister tries to evade weapons lies and bombed children: 'The war is justified' Ekstra Bladet does what apparantly no one else dares: We confront prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen with the direct result of his, Bushs and Blairs war on Iraq: Dead children. One of the pictures show a boy that has been horribly burned by coalition bombs. Another picture is a close up of a boy who's head has been blown to pieces. Two innocent children. Killed in a war based on a lie about weapons of mass destruction. Conservative estimates say that at leas 5.500 civilians died in the war. Others speak of up to 10.000 killed civilian iraqis. After a long, heated debate in the foreign policy select comittee, where primeminister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and foreignminister Per Stig Moeller tried to justify the reasons for danish participation in the war and talked about UN-mandate and international law, Ekstra Bladet asked the primeminister: -- What is your opinion about the picture of the boy, who's head has been blown of? 'War is terrible', said primeminister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, visibly shaken by the horror of the brutally killed iraqi boy. -- How do you feel about how the reason for war is obviously very thin, yet it ended with little children like this boy having their brains blown away? 'I think, that if your paper is going to bring pictures like these, then it should bring other pictures too, the pictures of mass graves, showing how Saddam Husseins regime murdered thousands of people. You should bring those pictures too.' -- But these are YOUR dead children? 'Yes, but now its interesting to see if you're going to show the pictures of mass graves at the same time so the readers can have a fair and balanced picture of, how horrible it is.' THE WEAPONS ARE THERE In spite of the large civilian losses, in spite of how no weapons of mass destruction has been uncovered in Iraq and in spite of how inquiries have been launched both in the US and in UK, prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen still has no doubts about the war. -- What you're discussing today is that you - both you and the foreign minister - on several occasions, both in public and in the parliament has declared with great certainty, that there were weapons of mass destruction. Have you deceived the people and the parliament? 'But listen! No! Certainly not! And I'd like to say, that it hasn't been proved that they're not there. They just haven't been found yet.' 'Everything shows that of course he had those weapons. They must be some where.' -- You have no doubts about that? 'Where in the world should they be, if he hasn't declared them?', says the danish prime minister before he ends the interview and hurriedly leaves the scene. FOREIGN MINISTER ON SLIPPERY ICE 'The evidence should be able to stand in court', the danish foreign minister Per Stig Moeller said on september 6 last year. Today his demands of legally solid evidence against Iraq is completely gone. 'At no time did we say that we with certainty knew that he had those weapons. What we said was that he had the threat of having the weapons. He has used that threat to destabilize the entire region', says foreign minister Per Stig Moeller today. -- But you said that the government was sure that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction? 'Not me. I haven't said that. I'm pretty sure I have said 'alleged weapons of mass destruction'...' -- But Fogh said last september he had no doubts that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction? 'Well, yes. But you should talk to primeminister Anders Fogh Rasmussen about that.' -- Are you rejecting what the prime minister said? 'No! But you're interrupting me. See, now you interrupted me.' -- But today it suddently does'nt matter to you at all, whether Saddam had those weapons of mass destruction? 'Yes, you might say that. The important thing is that he used it as a threat to the international society. And that he couldn't declare that he had destroyed it. It was Saddam who needed to prove that he didn't have it. That's what UN said all along.' WHAT THEY SAID BEFORE THE WAR Eight times in the same speach the foreign minister Per Stig Moeller on march 21 said that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. This is what he said: 'You have to go in with military force to remove Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass desctruction.' 'He has hidden those weapons of mass destruction.' 'You have to take the consequences and remove his weapons of mass destruction.' 'All aspects of the weapons of mass destruction programs should be laid clear and the weapons destroyed. The same thing goes for the missiles.' 'Then Saddam Hussein will sit there with his weapons of massdestruction.' 'This is a fight with Saddam Hussein because of his weapons.' 'We all want to disarm him of his weapons of mass destruction.' 'I'd like to thank for two days of long debates, where we have discussed every element in connection with participation in the fight with Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction.' September 6 the danish foreign minister Per Stig Moeller said: 'The evidence should be able to stand in court.' The same month the danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: 'I hold no doubt at all that he has weapons of mass destruction and that he wants to produce them.' THEY DECEIVED BOTH PEOPLE AND PARLIAMENT In the middle of the long and heated debate about the Iraq war, MP Keld Albrechtsen left the meeting to relieve himself. He was so shaken that he completely forgot to go to the bathroom. 'I can't get prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and foreign minister Per Stig Moeller to understand that they have deceived both the parliament and the people', Keld Albrechtsen told the press outside the meeting room. 'They simply don't understand. But then we'll have to work for getting a thorough inquiry which has to find out whether the government has misguided or deceived the people. Something along the lines of what's starting in the US.' 'It has to be with the possibility of interrogating civil servants so we can find out whether they knowingly deceived us and what stake the intelligence services has in this', Keld Albrechtsen of the Unity Party said before hastening in to the meeting again. MP Villy Soevndahl of the Socialist Peoples Party also wants an independent inquiry while the socialdemocratic MP Jeppe Kofod talked about a declaration from the government while keeping an eye on the revelations in USA and UK. 'Lets see what happens, then we can find out what to do about it here', Kofod said. By Bo Elkjaer and Kenan Seeberg, Ekstra Bladet, Denmark. (www.ekstrabladet.dk)
participants (1)
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Bo Elkjaer