To: Citizens of the World

In any society killing is a crime, a very serious crime deserving of the most severe punishment. It is called murder. Long ago we had prohibited duelling, i.e. the killing of your opponent as a way to settle disputes. It was not a fair way because it is not the righteous who would win but the skilful. And rogues can be more skilful than the righteous and the just.

But today we still train people to fight and kill in what amounts to duels between nations. The winner would be the best trained killers with the best weapons, not the forces of right, the forces of justice. If duels are allowed to settle disputes in society, then the best duellists, the best killers will eventually fill up society and lead it. How safe would a society made up of and led by successful killers be.

By the same token if duels between nations are still considered a proper option to settle disputes between them, then the nations with the best killers would win. Justice would not prevail in such a world. It would be a very primitive world where killers rule, where might is right. Is this what the 21st century civilisation is about. We cannot claim to have made much progress since the Stone Age.

In today's wars we kill large numbers of people at one stroke, most of whom would be civilians, non-combatants. The seventy million people killed in the two World Wars were largely civilians. The carpet bombing of Dresden, the atom bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed defenceless civilians almost entirely. In the wars that we are witnessing now, we know that a few soldiers lost their lives but many times that number of civilians have been killed. In a world ruled by people who glory in killing, who are good at international duels called wars, there will be no peace.

We know these killer nations are busy inventing all sorts of diabolical weapons in order to increase the numbers they can kill, to prolong the killings, so that it goes on long after the war is over. We know that long after the Vietnam war, people, innocent people, children were still being killed by exploding mines and the effects of agent orange. It is the same in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Killing is habit-forming. That is why there are serial killers. War, the killing of people is just as habit-forming. Having killed a few thousands, killing tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands would come naturally, especially for those giving the orders.

It is necessary for us to describe the horrors of war, the killings and the destruction so that peace will become more meaningful and desirable, so that we would want to struggle for peace. The route that we must take, seeing that most of the warmongers are elected to office in the great democratic countries is to make as many members of the electorate as pro-peace and anti-war as possible. Peace must be made by the majority of the electorate the main issue in every election. The candidates must be made to declare their stand on peace. They must be made to reject war totally. If they don't then they should get no votes. Peace-lovers must make sure that these people will be defeated always.

We need international laws which will render wars illegal. We need to define acts of war and acts of terror. We need to provide proper punishment for people who commit mass killings of innocent people, whether they be by irregulars or they are by elected leaders of nations; whether in formal wars or undeclared wars.

We must act now for peace. We who desire peace must raise our voices, must make it heard by all, so that we will get the support and cooperation of all right-thinking people, so that they will rally to all-out and sustained efforts to condemn wars as ignoble and inhuman, to promote the quest for peace and against war. Let us start by signing our names to the petition below and committing ourselves to the cause of peace.

For us, Peace means No War.

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The Kuala Lumpur Initiative to Criminalise War

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THE Kuala Lumpur Global Peace Forum of concerned peoples from all five continents

UNITED in the belief that peace is the essential condition for the survival and well-being of the human race,

DETERMINED to promote peace and save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,

OUTRAGED over the frequent resort to war in the settlement of disputes between nations,

DISTURBED that militarists are preparing for more wars,

TROUBLED that use of armed force increases insecurity for all,

TERRIFIED that the possession of nuclear weapons and the imminent risk of nuclear war will lead to the annihilation of life on earth.

TO ACHIEVE PEACE WE NOW DECLARE THAT:

1. Wars increasingly involve the killing of innocent people and are, therefore, abhorrent and criminal.

2. Killings in war are as criminal as the killings within societies in times of peace.

3. Since killings in peace time are subject to the domestic law of crime, killings in war must likewise be subject to the international law of crimes. This should be so irrespective of whether these killings in war are authorized or permitted by domestic law.

4. All commercial, financial, industrial and scientific activities that aid and abet war should be criminalised.

5. All national leaders who initiate aggression must be subjected to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

6. All nations must strengthen the resolve to accept the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter and institute methods to settle international disputes by peaceful means and to renounce war.

7. Armed force shall not be used except when authorised by a Resolution passed by two-thirds majority of the total membership of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

8. All legislators and all members of Government must affirm their belief in peace and pledge to strive for peace.

9. Political parties all over the world must include peace as one of their principal objectives.

10. Non-Governmental Organisations committed to the promotion of peace should be set up in all nations.

11. Public servants and professionals, in particular in the medical, legal, educational and scientific fields, must promote peace and campaign actively against war.

12. The media must actively oppose war and the incitement to war and consciously promote the peaceful settlement of international disputes.

13. Entertainment media must cease to glorify war and violence and should instead cultivate the ethos of peace.

14. All religious leaders must condemn war and promote peace.

To these ends the Forum resolves to establish a permanent Secretariat in Kuala Lumpur to:

~IMPLEMENT this Initiative.

~OPPOSE policies and programmes that incite war.

~SEEK the cooperation of NGOs worldwide to achieve the goals of this Initiative.

Sincerely,

 http://www.petitiononline.com/klnowar/petition.html