CND supports Rochdale campaigners

Philip Gilligan, Pat Sanchez and Rae Street at the CND Conference on 10 October 2010.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) has unanimously supported a resolution from Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group at its annual conference on Sunday (10 October 2010).

It reaffirmed their opposition to NATO’s war in Afghanistan and Pakistan and called for the immediate withdrawal of British, US and other troops and support for a peace agreement negotiated by and between Afghan civil society.

Philip Gilligan who spoke in favour of the motion said: “The numbers of civilian and military deaths and injuries in Afghanistan and Pakistan have all increased dramatically during 2010.

"The United Nations reports, for example, that the number of Afghan children killed during the first six months of 2010 was 55% higher than the number killed during the same period in 2009, while the total number of troops killed this year, is already greater than for any year since NATO started its disastrous war in 2001.

"Meanwhile, as the US military diverts more of its pilot-less drones for CIA attacks on targets in Pakistan, increasing numbers of Pakistani civilians, including large numbers of children are being killed, there.

"Between January 2006 and April 2009, such attacks killed at least 701 people in Pakistan, including 687 civilians. It is time for the killing to stop.”

He urged people in Rochdale to support the national ‘Afghanistan: Time to Go’ demonstration called by CND, Stop the War Coalition and the British Muslim Initiative in London on Saturday 20 November 2010.

The CND conference also endorsed the membership of three people from Rochdale on its national council. Pat Sanchez and Rae Street were endorsed as directly elected delegates, while Philip Gilligan remains as the representative from Greater Manchester and District CND.