Hawke, Murdoch warn of increased terrorist threat
April 3 2003, 3:58 PM
Hawke calls on Howard to withdraw troops
Former prime minister Bob Hawke today called on the Howard government to
withdraw Australian troops from Iraq.
"Surely by now the government can see they've made a fundamental
mistake," Mr Hawke told a Sydney book launch.
Mr Hawke, who committed Australian troops to the UN-backed Gulf War in
1991, said the alternative was to place more and more Australians at risk
both abroad and at home.
Murdoch says war could increase terrorism
A prolonged war with Iraq could bring terrorism to the US and Britain, as
well as greater instability to the Middle East, according to media mogul
Rupert Murdoch.
"It's very possible to see freelance suicide attempts both here and
in London, and that would psychologically shake this country up,"
Murdoch said today at a conference in California.
The best thing to do to avoid that, said the head of News Corp, is to end
the war quickly.
Amnesty blasts use of cluster bombs in Iraq
A leading human rights organisation today said the use of cluster bombs
by US-led forces in Iraq will indiscriminately kill civilians.
And Amnesty says the use of cluster bombs on a civilian area is a grave
violation of international humanitarian law.
When the individual bombs from a cluster fail to explode on impact, they
remain active on the ground like landmines.
Yesterday, an AFP correspondent said what appeared to be US-dropped
cluster bombs killed 33 civilians - including children - in the town of
al-Hilla, in central Iraq.
Around 300 people were injured.
http://smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/03/1048962833493.html
