Mayor condemns military assault (From Stroud News and Journal)

Mayor condemns military assault

STROUD'S mayor has condemned the Allied attacks on Afghanistan.

Cllr John Marjoram believes the military assault will undermine diplomatic efforts to resolve the current crisis.

"I'm horrified," he told the News & Journal on Monday.

"This will destroy the diplomacy which I thought seemed to be going well." He claimed plans to drop food parcels in Afghanistan would not solve anything and was little more than a publicity stunt.

"They need more than arbitrary food parcels," said the mayor. "They need other supplies too.

"I can't understand it, the richest country in the world is bombing what is virtually a stone age community."

He claimed the Americans were motivated by revenge as well as a desire to see justice done and believed there was a hidden agenda to keep oil flowing from the Middle East and Central Asia.

He spoke of his doubts about the stability of the alliance against terrorism and his belief that the Muslim world would only tolerate so much before it started withdrawing its support.

Cllr Marjoram and other peace campaigners will be holding a nightly vigil in Stroud's High Street from 5.15pm.

"We want to see politicians eliminating the causes of terrorism rather than escalate the violence," said campaigner Carol Kambites.

"If we tackled poverty and injustice support for terrorism would disappear." Mary Jeans, co-ordinator of the small but committed campaign said: "We are a core group of about a dozen individuals and every evening we have been joined by newcomers.

"They are people of all ages who stay to bear witness to the fact that war solves nothing but imposes pain and mayhem on innocent people."