Anti-war group formed

Irish opponents of NATO air strikes in Yugoslavia stepped their campaign up a gear yesterday with the launch of an umbrella group of anti-war political parties.

The Coalition Against the War, comprising the Green Party, Sinn Fein, the Socialist Party, the Workers' Party, the Communist Party and the Socialist Workers' Party, is to hold the first of a series of rallies at the GPO in Dublin on Saturday at 3.00 p.m. The parties have come together with three objectives: to stop the NATO bombing, to end ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, and to keep Ireland out of any military alliance, including Partnership for Peace.

The Green Party TD, Mr John Gormley, said the air strikes had played into the hands of ultra-nationalist Serbs and had destabilised the region. He noted both Albania and Macedonia had been forced to allow NATO troops on their soil because of PfP obligations, while Azerbaijan said it was obliged under PfP rules to have its troops support Operation Allied Force.

If Ireland was a member of PfP, he said, it might be obliged to allow US B52s land in Shannon en route to the Balkans. "PfP is not some sort of benign organisation but is a stepping stone towards NATO," he said.

Mr Gormley accused the Government of engaging in "a stalling exercise" by refusing to publish the full text of the Attorney General's opinion stating that a referendum was not necessary for Ireland to join the PfP. Mr Gormley said the absence of a referendum on the issue was "an affront to democracy".

The Socialist Party TD, Mr Joe Higgins, said the world's main arms dealers were the prime movers behind the PfP, which he said was "fraudulently named". Its agenda was not peace but "dominance and control in the interest of the major capitalist powers".

Mr Sean Crowe, a Sinn Fein candidate in the European Parliament elections, described the NATO bombing as "undoubtedly the most serious act of military aggression in Europe since the end of the Cold War".

All the major Irish aid agencies are taking donations for the Kosovo refugees.