Page 31 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 12 February 1991
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History has shown that peace will not be sustained in the Middle East, or, for that matter, other regions in the world, without addressing the problems of poverty, exploitation and oppression that really are the buttress for wars. We have heard so much about the so-called new world order which already echoes from the First World War. It seems to me that that will remain empty rhetoric unless the problems I referred to earlier - that is, the problems of poverty, exploitation and oppression - are recognised and dealt with. Again, none of these things are mentioned in this very empty motion; not one of them.
Mr Moore: What about the Kuwaiti royal family and their oppression of the Kuwaiti people?
MR BERRY: None of them are mentioned in this motion. It is a very poorly thought out motion by a group of people who do not understand the goings on around that confrontation.
Mr Stefaniak: I have a pretty good idea; a better idea than you have, pal.
MR BERRY: I heard Mr Stefaniak say that he has a better idea than I have. Well, it seems that his idea is to whip in there with the big guns and shoot them all. That has not solved anything. The fact of the matter is that the superpowers, at one time or another, have supported many of the repressive regimes in the Middle East, including Iraq, as we all know, and they have had little regard for human rights while they have been doing that. That is why I am particularly sceptical of a motion that only looks at what, essentially, are national border issues.
I think we have to talk about the sanctions because much has been made of them from time to time. I believe that the sanctions were working and would have worked, but I believe also that they were never intended to work. I believe that the invasion on 2 August would have met with immediate military reaction if such reaction had world support; but the support of other powers in the world had to be cornered before the approach that is currently under way could be taken. It would have been unsupportable, by any standard, for a single nation to go in against the people of Iraq.
There has been criticism too of the Kuwaitis and what the liberation of Kuwait would mean to Kuwaitis. Would it mean a return to democracy? I doubt that, because there was no democracy there in the first place. Would it mean a better standard of living for Kuwaitis? What would it mean for the Kuwaiti people? I do not think that issue has ever entered the equation. It has never entered the equation.
It is my belief that most Australians, though sceptical about the sanctions - some were downright opposed to the sanctions - felt that once they were implemented we had no option but to support them and hope that they would work.
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