Organising Action

A strategy to end and prevent

Britain’s involvement in war

“Humanity has paid a heavy price for the lesson that nothing
is more tragic and cruel than war. I believe that we have as
our first priority an obligation to our children to open a clear
and reliable path to peace in the twenty first century.”
Daisaku Ikeda

Make Wars History

“Evil triumphs when good men do nothing”

Governments cannot reform themselves; they must be persuaded to do so by constant and
inexorable pressure from the media and the electorate. As 50 years of demonstrating,
protesting, petitioning and marching have had no affect whatsoever on British Government
policies, we need to adopt a different approach and use political, financial and legal sanctions
to force Parliament and Government to uphold and enforce the laws of war.

Since 2001 Britain has spent £400bn on unlawful armed attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq,
killing 1m innocent people, including 300,000 children, injuring and maiming 2.5m and driving
5m into exile and destitution. None of our victims was allowed to plead for their lives in court
or was shown any mercy before they were killed. These massacres of defenceless civilians
are the worst atrocities in British history and they must be stopped.

To this end Elfyn Llwyd MP [Plaid Cymru] is setting up a new All Party Parliamentary Group to
take daily action in Parliament to halt the indiscriminate killing of civilians, stop the illegal war
with Afghanistan, end the occupation of Iraq, prosecute Britain’s war criminals, increase
understanding of the laws of war and bring a permanent end to Britain’s unlawful involvement
in warfare and armed conflict.

A different approach
In contrast to the many groups and committees in and outside Parliament that talk about the
issues but fail to hold the government to account for its performance, this APPG will take daily
political, legal and financial action in Westminster and Whitehall to uphold and enforce war
law. Once the killing has stopped, the armed forces have returned home and criminal
proceedings have begun, it will work to prevent Britain from ever again waging unlawful war.

We can end the killing within days

It takes less than ten minutes to issue the orders that start or end a war. If Parliament, the
Prime Minister, the Queen or our military commanders had wanted to stop the wars or halt the
indiscriminate killings of innocent Afghan and Iraqi civilians, they could have done so at any
time. Their collective failure to act in compliance with war law is the greatest failure of
government of modern times. This APPG will cut through the apathy and indecision that grips
our political, civil and military leaders and compel them to end the war and obey the law.

We will tackle this project in two phases. In Phase 1 we will concentrate on stopping the war,
ending the killing and bringing the troops home. Then in Phase 2 we will focus on identifying
and eliminating the deep-seated corrupt practice within Government, Parliament and society
that causes Britain to so readily wage war and replace it with new systems, structures, laws
and procedures that will create a permanent culture of peace and reconciliation.

Phase 1 - Ending War

 “War is essentially an evil thing; its consequences are not confined
to the belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world. To initiate
a war of aggression therefore is not only an international crime, it is
the supreme international crime, differing only from other war
crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the
whole.”
Nuremburg War Crimes
Tribunal

Some of the actions that the APPG will consider include :-

1. Educating Parliament in war law. There is widespread ignorance in both Houses of

Parliament and the media of the laws governing warfare and armed conflict and the
prohibitions that they contain. The APPG will organise briefing meetings, publications
and advice to Parliament and the media on the laws of war and how to uphold them.

2. Voting for an end to the war. Parliament is the sovereign governing body in Britain
with the ultimate power to stop the war and end the killing. The APPG will work to
persuade every MP and Peer and both Houses of Parliament to make a decision
acknowledging the unlawful nature of the war in Afghanistan and demanding a cease-
fire and a recall of the troops.

3. Obtaining Declaratory Judgements. For more than fifty years Parliament has been
repeatedly misled by Government lawyers over the laws of war. The APPG will
organise applications to the Supreme Court for declaratory judgements on the laws
that govern warfare and the use of armed force in international affairs.

4. Diverting military funds into an escrow account. One way of ending war is to stop
the funds that pay for it. The APPG will ask 350 MPs to sign and vote for an EDM
ordering the diversion of all military appropriations into escrow accounts to be withheld
from the MOD, the armed forces and suppliers until they can prove to a court that the
wilful killing of men, women and children in Afghanistan has stopped and that all their
activities are peaceful and accord with the laws of war.

5. Diverting taxes into escrow accounts. The APPG will call for national support from
the public and businesses to divert all tax payments into escrow accounts to be
withheld from the Government until it can prove to a court that the killing has stopped,
the unlawful wars have ended and that safeguards are in place to ensure that Britain
can never again participate in the unlawful use of armed force.

6. Persuading the Armed Forces to obey the laws of war. Since WWII Britain’s
armed forces have been repeatedly misled by Government lawyers over the laws that
govern war and the use of armed force. The APPG will organise meetings with the
 MOD and military commanders to brief them on war law, persuade them to stop the
killing and establish the unlawful nature of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

7. Arresting and prosecuting UK political, civil and military leaders. Although war
laws are breached and crimes are committed on a daily basis no-one has been held to
account for their offences in court. The APPG will arrange for MPs and Peers to
require law enforcement authorities to arrest and prosecute the political, civil and
military leaders responsible for crimes committed against Afghan and Iraqi citizens.

8. Setting up public meetings in the regions and constituencies to brief the electorate
on the laws of war, explain how Government Law Officers deceived everyone over the
legality of the wars with Iraq and Afghanistan and inform them of what they can do to
stop the killing and prevent future violations of war law.

9. Approaching every MP before the election to establish their knowledge of the laws of
war, their stance on ending or continuing the war with Afghanistan, their understanding
of the personal implications and criminal liabilities of continuing the killing and their
willingness to endorse and support the activities of the APPG.

10. Approaching prospective MPs before the election to discover their knowledge of the
laws of war, their understanding of the personal implications if they breach them, and
their stance in relation to the war with Afghanistan, the occupation of Iraq and the
prosecution of British war criminals. Publish candidates’ responses on the internet to
help voters to judge the quality of every candidate before they cast their votes.

11. Holding an independent Inquiry into the false legal advice on the legality of war.
Approach the Foreign Affairs Committee to discover why the committee has failed to
take any effective action to expose Government breaches of the laws of war, and ask
them to conduct a fully independent inquiry into the Government’s violations of
international treaties and the use of armed force in Iraq and Afghanistan.

12. Persuading political parties to obey the law. Approach all the political parties to
discover why they are failing to uphold or enforce the laws of war and arrange for them
to insert policy statements into their manifestos explaining carefully what they will do to
stop the killing, end the war with Afghanistan and ensure that Parliament and the
British Government upholds international treaties and enforces the laws of war.

Phase II - Preventing War

 “I deeply believe that no individual can experience true happiness
or tranquillity until we turn humankind away from its obsession
with war. War has held us in its irrevocable grip throughout
history; it is the source of all evil. War normalises insanity,
destroying human beings like so many insects, tearing all that is
human and humane to shreds.”
Daisaku
Ikeda

There is something seriously wrong with a system of Government that enables the Prime
Minister and Parliament to renege on treaties, violate international law and wage five wars in
five years killing a million people without having to answer for these war crimes to a court, the
electorate or the international community. If humankind is to flourish and Britain is to take its
part in the development of a just and peaceful world, we must introduce safeguards to ensure
that British governments abide by the rule of law and never again wage illegal war.

The solution is in our hands. We must reform our system of Government and the way we
handle international affairs. In Phase 2 the IPPG will pinpoint dysfunctional, outdated or faulty
procedures, practices, laws and traditions in use in both Parliament and Government, and
suggest modern efficient democratic decision making processes and safeguards to ensure
that our representatives in Parliament enforce the laws of war and uphold the human values
of compassion, honesty, brotherhood and co-operation that underpin civilised society.

The causes and sources of war in Britain

An initial analysis of the systemic and structural causes and sources of the wars with Iraq and
Afghanistan suggests the following causal factors:-

• The unlawful ‘life and death’ decisions by the former and current Prime Ministers to join
the USA in the illegal invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.
• The automatic appointment of incompetent, inexperienced politicians lacking moral,
ethical or legal values to positions of immense power as Cabinet Ministers.
• The failure by politicians, the Monarch, civil servants, military officers and law
enforcement officers to uphold their oaths to govern according to law.
• The false, misleading legal advice provided by the Attorney General and Law Officers
on the legality of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
• Government Law Officers’ failures to advise political, civil and military leaders on their
duties under the laws of war and their criminal liability for failures to obey war law.
• The failure by the media to remain independent and report the unbiased truth and
consequences of the war rather than publishing government propaganda.
• The false legal advice passed to the Chiefs of the Defence Staff.
• The false, deceptive and misleading legal advice provided to the armed forces by the
MOD law officers and the Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict.
• MPs, Peers, civil servants and military commanders’ lack of knowledge of war law.
 • Government control of Parliamentary appointments, Parliamentary committees, the
parliamentary timetable and debates
• Corrupt outdated government systems and failures to innovate, update and improve.
• The overweening power of the Prime Minister. No-one should have the power to
decide whether another human being lives or dies.
• Deep seated ‘obedience syndrome’ culture ensuring that officials and the public obey
superior orders regardless of their moral, legal, ethical or criminal consequences.
• The imbalance of the £50bn pa ‘defence’ budget for planning to kill and killing people
against the £4bn pa in the ‘aid and development’ budget to help them.
• Incompetence and corruption in the FCO.
• Party politics and the practice of ‘whipping’ party members to follow unconscionable,
unlawful party ‘orders’
• The spin, propaganda and lies emanating from the Downing St propaganda unit.
• Outdated and inappropriate governance processes.
• Faulty decision making processes in Government and both Houses of Parliament.
• Professional Armed Forces - ‘standing armed forces’ trained and raring to fight.
• Inappropriate departmental objectives.
• Failures of war law enforcement by Police, CPS, Judiciary, MOJ and Law Officers.
• Misunderstanding the role and requirements of government and political leadership
• The unofficial ‘special relationship’ with America.
• Faulty decision making by the Foreign Affairs Committee.
• FCO, MOD and Cabinet Office failures to consider peaceful options and alternatives.
• Structural conflicts of interest for MPs - putting their electorate’s interests last.
• Lack of structures, safeguards and systems to prevent unlawful war.
• The absence of checks and balances on and within government
• An unelected House of Lords in contravention of the Human Rights Act
• Lack of accountability of MPs, Peers, Law Lords, Ministers and Civil Servants to the
law and the electorate

Organisation
If the APPG is to be effective it will need to be organised in a similar manner to a commercial
project management or lobbying company. To that end we intend to :-
• Build up a membership of about 25 MPs and Peers who are willing to take daily direct
action in Westminster and Whitehall between now and the general election to coax,
cajole or coerce their colleagues in the House of Commons and the House of Lords to
push Parliament, Government Departments and Law Enforcement Authorities to take
political, financial, educational and legal actions to uphold and enforce war law.

• Simultaneously build up a group of peace activists, parliamentarians, journalists, NGOs

and lobbyists to provide support, administrative assistance and help to the APPG to
ensure that it operates effectively, efficiently and with public support.

• Set up a staffed and equipped office within the Parliamentary estate through the
auspices of the Clerk of the House, the Department of Chamber and Committee
Services and the Departments of Facilities and Resources, or if this is not possible
through delegating the administration of the project to a lobbying company or NGO.

• Raise funds, assistance and administrative resources from: (i) MPs and Peers; (ii) the
‘Conflict Prevention’ budget; (iii) charities, trusts, ngos and wealthy individuals; (iv)
NGOs by obtaining the services of competent individuals or employees seconded to
the APPG, and (v) volunteers.

• Delegate the work to project groups. For Phase 1 we will need to set up:

• a Commons group to work with / support / persuade MPs to sign EDMs etc;
• a Lords group to work with / persuade Peers to join / support the project;
• a Military group to work with / persuade the Armed Forces to support the project;
• a Legal group to obtain Declaratory Judgements, apply for Judicial Reviews, organise
the arrest and prosecution of UK war criminals and confirm war law;
• an Education group to brief parliamentarians, military commanders, civil servants and
journalists on war law, the false legal advice, war crimes committed against the Iraqi
and Afghan people, and what to do to avoid prosecution;

• Set up an organisation and administration group leading and managing the project,
obtaining and co-ordinating support from ngos and the public, raising funds, running a
dedicated web-site, formulating a schedule of events and meetings, keeping a tally of
the results of MP and Peer contacts, accounting for costs, and keeping the media
informed of progress, news and events.

Chris Coverdale Make Wars History November 2009

“If you don’t stand up now, when will
you ? If you don’t exert yourself now
when will you ? How many decades
do you intend to wait before you take
your stand ? There is no telling what
condition you will be in then. You are
in the prime of your life. It is a
precious time in this finite existence. I
say this because I want you to have
no regrets.”
Daisaku Ikeda