The danger of a catastrophe” “

“I fully endorse the views expressed by French president Chirac, who declared that it’s up to the UN Security Council to decide on a possible conflict, and that war always represents the worst solution”: so said Bishop Josef Homeyer of Hildesheim (Germany), president of COMECE, the Commission of the Episcopates of the European Community and of the Commission of the German Episcopal Conference for social questions. Speaking to SirEurope, Bishop Homeyer was commenting on the statements released by Chirac and Schröder on 22 January, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty. According to Homeyer, “a preventive war is unjustifiable at the present time. Is there any proof of a grave and immediate threat?” In the second place, he continued, “in examining the hypothesis of a war, the danger of a humanitarian catastrophe needs to be very seriously pondered. Thirdly, everything must be done to prevent a new war in the region of the Gulf; that also involves verifying whether Saddam Hussein, who has many human lives on his conscience, does not still have in his possession weapons of mass destruction, which he has certainly used in the past. There exists no guarantee that he will not use then again if he still has them: in any case he recently made considerable efforts to procure such weapons, in violation of UN resolutions. Probably we Europeans have still not sufficiently reflected on how to disarm Saddam Hussein. Are not the Europeans too called to think about this?”. Asked about the probable influence of the Franco-German axis on Europe, Homeyer declared: “The fortieth anniversary of the Elyséè Treaty is a symbol of the good relations that have long existed between Germany and France. I think that the two countries are called to co-opt other European partners into their relation of friendship”.