At a press conference in Dublin today (Sept 2nd) at 11am in the UNITE trade union offices in Middle Abbey St, the Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM) announced detailed of their planned protests during the visit of former British Prime minister Tony Blair and explained the reasons for the protest.

The main protest will take place on Saturday September 4th now assembling at 9.30am at the Spire in O Connell St (NB This represents a change from the original assembly time and location). The change results from information that Mr Blair will now arrive at Eason’s earlier than originally expected, in what is probably an effort to frustrate anti-war protesters.

The protest will move immediately to Eason’s where a rally will commence for the duration of Mr Blair’s signing event.

A book of condolences for the victims of Tony Blair’s military actions and foreign policies in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine will be open during the course of the protest.

The protest will include speakers from the countries that have been victims of Mr Blair’s policies and military actions, as well as a wide range of anti-war and Palestinian solidarity groups.

Confirmed speakers for Saturday’ protest include: Confirmed speakers include: Richard Boyd Barrett (Chairperson, IAWM), Robert Ballagh (Artist), Freda Hughes, (Chairperson, Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign), Dr Nouri Al Kaziz (Iraqi exile from war), Claudia Saba (Palestinian), Muhummad Ali (Pakistani from Afghan border area), Dr Mudufar Al Twash (Iraqi), and more to be announced.

The IAWM will also hold a smaller protest on Friday 3rd at 6.30pm outside RTE studios in Donnybrook in advance of Mr Blair’s appearance on the Late Late Show.

The focus of both protests will be on Tony Blair’s key role in launching the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and devastated both countries.

They will also focus on Blair’s complicity - both as Prime Minister and now as EU envoy to the Middle East - with the war crimes and human rights abuses committed by Israel against the Palestinians.

The protest will also seek to highlight the continued complicity of the Irish government with the wars launched by former US president George Bush and Mr Blair – in allowing US troops to use Shannon airport and through the direct involvement of a small number of Irish troops in the Afghan conflict.

The IAWM has begun a major national mobilisation for the demonstration – producing thousands of leaflets and posters for distribution across the country.

Richard Boyd Barrett, chairperson of the IAWM said:

“Tony Blair is a war criminal, if the term as any meaning at all. He played a key role in fabricating the lies and bogus justifications for an illegal and murderous war in Iraq and the equally immoral war in Afghanistan. He has the blood of hundreds of thousands on his hands.

Maybe as many as a million Iraqi’s are dead as a result of the war launched by Blair and Bush. Millions more have been maimed or made refugees, and the infrastructure of Iraqi society has been utterly devastated.

The use of 1.9 metric tonnes of depleted uranium by British forces during the Iraq war now means that cancer rates near the cities of Najaf, Fallujah and Basra are higher than those in Hiroshima. Studies now show a frightening increase in the number of children born with genetic deformities in these areas also.

In Afghanistan, tens of thousands have died and the body count continues to rise daily as result of the war and occupation launched by Bush and Blair, and now continued by Obama and David Cameron.

By every objective humanitarian index, life for the Afghan people is worse now than it was before Blair and Bush launched their brutal war.

As Prime Minister and now as EU envoy, Blair has also done absolutely nothing to restrain or sanction Israel for its deliberate murder of thousands of Palestinians and systematic denial of their most elementary human and civil rights.

Blair has given moral support to Israel in its criminal siege of Gaza by refusing to recognise the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people. This refusal by Britain and other major western powers gave the Israel the green light to besiege and assault Gaza, with terrible human consequences.

The idea of Blair justifying his war crimes in a book, regardless of where that money goes, is nauseating. This book is a purely cynical manoeuvre to whitewash responsibility for war crimes and mass murder.

Blair’s role in the Irish peace process, whatever one may think of it, cannot absolve him of the lies and crimes he committed in relation to Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. If he is allowed to go unpunished for those crimes, then we can be sure similar crimes will be committed by other leaders in the future in the knowledge that they will never be held accountable.

This protest is not just about the past but about Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine today, where people continue to die and suffer every day as a result of the policies initiated by Blair and Bush.

In this regard the protest will, once again, call on our government to end its complicity with US/UK warmongering by ejecting US troops from Shannon, withdrawing Irish troops from Afghanistan and imposing sanctions on Israel for its inhuman treatment of the Palestinians

In 2003 100,000 people came onto the streets in Dublin to oppose Blair and Bush’s war. We hope that many of those will protest once again on September the 4th to express their outrage at the terrible suffering Blair has inflicted.
Claudia Saba, a Palestinian and member of the steering committee of the IAWM said:

"The so-called Middle East Peace Envoy, Tony Blair, has done nothing to promote peace in Israel/Palestine. I researched news archives to see what he has been doing since his prestigious job appointment in 2007 and all I could find was a list of what he has not done.
He has not stopped the Israelis from continuing to build settlements on Palestinian land - even though these are illegal under international law. He has not called for the lifting of the siege of Gaza, which incidentally David Cameron has called "a prison camp." He has not called for an independent UN investigation into the Israeli assault on the Freedom Flotilla. He has not stopped children dying as a result of desperately under-equipped Gaza hospitals, nor has he called for a halt to the demolition of homes on top of people's heads in the West Bank.
He has, however, gone on television to announce a reduction of checkpoints in the West Bank. Of course, he omitted the fact that the number of Israeli checkpoints has been reduced because further land grabs meant that huge sections of stolen land are merging into other tracts of stolen land, making some checkpoints redundant.
Ordinary people must stand up to this charade if the word "peace" in Blair's job title is to have any meaning left at all."