DURING the past few days Saddam Hussein's special forces have raided homes in Kirkuk, Northern Iraq, rounding up males and jailing them to prevent an uprising against him.

Many managed to flee and have told horror stories about what is happening.

Meanwhile thousands of anti war protesters in York and elsewhere were marching against war with Iraq.

Rory Palmer, spokesman for York Against The War, suggested the march was only the beginning and that further action, including civil disobedience and workplace sit-ins, could follow (March 15).

Now is probably a good time to remind these people just how lucky they are to live in a country such as Britain.

They are free to express their opinions - and quite rightly so.

However, they have no right to enforce their views on everybody else.

Thousands have protested against war with Iraq - millions haven't! A minority of MPs is opposed to war.

The majority is not.

With freedom comes responsibility. The protesters have every right to express their views but if they go on to break the law to try and enforce their views then they should expect to have the full force of the law thrown against them.

Britain is a democracy.

Using illegal tactics to enforce the views of the minority is dictatorship and there can be no room for that in Britain.

Tony Taylor,

Grassholme,

Woodthorpe,

York.

...WITH so many people making the effort to march in protest against a war on Iraq why are so many unwilling to make the effort to walk to a polling booth? Is one to assume people consider the banner is mightier than the ballot?

Governments usually ignore marches, just think of all those CND demos. Marchers need reminding it is only voting that governments cannot ignore.

Richard Lamb,

Greystoke Road,

York.

...CLARE Short was wrong to label the policies from Prime Minister Tony Blair as reckless.

Had she used the term "risky" I should have agreed with her.

David Quarrie,

Lynden Way,

York.

...I WOULD like to quote from a paper by the charity Save the Children, which I have supported for many years, on the situation regarding families in Iraq.

"Iraqi children and families have been in a perilous situation for more than a decade because of international sanctions and a history of internal and external conflict.

"For example, 79 percent of the population is without access to safe water; 23 percent of children are chronically malnourished; approximately half of all babies are delivered without trained health personnel; and infant death rates have doubled in the last 12 years."

In addition to this sorry catalogue, cancers in Southern Iraq have increased tenfold since the last Gulf War, which is probably a legacy from the large amount of depleted uranium (DU) used in that conflict.

DU has a half life of billions of years and actually becomes slowly more radioactive with time. Effectively it is a slow weapon of mass destruction, which will affect Iraqis in many succeeding generations.

Would Tony Blair like to explain the use of this to the International Criminal Court as a war crime, perhaps?

Instead of wreaking hell on Iraq, we should be cleaning it up and giving the children a chance of a better life.

Chris Clayton,

Hempland Drive,

York.

...I SEE that our MP, Hugh Bayley, helped write a report by the House of Commons international development committee pointing out the humanitarian costs of a war with Iraq amounting to billions of pounds (March 12).

Perhaps anticipating this criticism, the Government announced a generous donation to aid agencies working in the region, an offer that some were quick to denounce saying that in the event of war they could not be identified as being associated with the military invasion.

What a crazy situation. Talk about giving with one hand and taking with the other.

Jean Clifthin,

St Paul's Square,

York.

...WAKE up Britain.

We are being dragged into a war situation by American President Bush who, having threatened Iraq, has made sure of our commitments by getting control of our early warning system i.e Menwith Hill and Fylingdales.

Russia does not want war, nor do France and Germany and now Turkey is backing off.

This could easily escalate to a religious conflict ending goodness knows where.

As Churchill said, jaw jaw is better than war war.

P E Porteous,

Borrowdale Drive,

Clifton,

York.

Updated: 10:22 Tuesday, March 18, 2003