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2020 suppressed news

nightslantern

suppressed news
concerned with the prevention of genocide
by j. b. gerald
graphics by j. maas

2018

 

December 30, 2018     Burma     Worcester Mass.     South Sudan     Israel/Palestine     U.S.

      Burma: The U.N. has claimed a genocide against the Rohingya is in progress. Both houses of Parliament in Canada have declared that what has happened and is happening to the Rohingya is genocide. The U.S. House of Representatives has found the military's campaign against the Rohingya a genocide. A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators has asked the Secretary of State to designate the military treatment of the Rohingya a genocide. Yet no country has actively intervened in the affairs of the Myanmar government to stop the genocide. In a country which finds the Myanmar government guilty of genocide, all military, economic or civil assistance to the offending country excepting medical supplies, should be immediately cut off. Supplier of an allegedly guilty country can be considered complicit in genocide, if the offending country is subsequently found guilty in court. The crime of genocide has no statute of limitations. Background of Night's Lantern genocide warnings.     Partial sources online: "'Ongoing genocide' underway against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims: UN," Oct. 25, 2018, The Straits Times; "Bipartisan senators call for US 'genocide' label of Myanmar killings," Dec. 20,2018, Channel News Asia.

 

      Worcester Massachusetts: The Kaloosdian Mugar Armenian History and Genocide Chair at Clark University in Worcester is in the process of making available a website with the history of the Armenian genocide, relying on the research and materials of Father Krickor Guerguerian. See: "Krikor Guerguerian Archive in Cooperation with Armenian Patriarchate Jerusalem Archive". The documents include the kill orders spread through the Ottoman empire to assure the 1915 genocide of Armenians.     Partial sources online: "History of the Armenian genocide goes online," Cynthia Fernandez, Dec. 4, 2018, Boston Globe; "Akçam Launches Guerguerian Collection Digital Genocide Archive at Clark University," The Armenian Mirror-Spectator, Dec. 6, 2018, The Armenian Mirror-Spectator; Akçam Chips Away at Denialism One Document at a Time," Alin K. Gregorian, May 8, 2017, The Armenian Mirror-Spectator.

 

      South Sudan: implicit in South Sudan's formation in 2011, under a European name and favouring foreign corporate interests, were the possibilities of genocide evolving from tribal warfare between the Nuer and Dinka peoples. While part of Sudan the inherent conflict was kept under control. Civil war in South Sudan began in 2013 and became increasingly violent, serving to depopulate and remove the people's claim to their land's resources. The government is allegedly withholding food aid, while UNICEF reported in December of 2017 nearly 3 million children food insecure. There are 800,000 refugees of this conflict in Ugandan refugee communities, 1.5 million in all have had to leave South Sudan. A genocide warning. Due to the Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo where 560 cases of Ebola have been identified since December 19th, and due to the movement of peoples back and forth across the DRC border with South Sudan, the World Health Organization warns there is a very high risk of Ebola breaking out in South Sudan and some medical resources are being mobilized. Night's Lantern first placed a genocide warning for South Sudan in November 2016. See also December 2016, February 2017, December 2017.     Partial sources online: "UK goes beyond UN to say South Sudan violence 'is now genocide'," Rodney Muhumuza, April 13, 2017, Independent; "South Sudan: Ebola Virus Disease Preparedness (EPoA) update n° 01 - DREF Operation n°MDRSS007," Dec. 24, 2018, reliefweb.

 

      Israel/Palestine: according to the World Health Organization currently there is an acute shortage of essential drugs in Gaza due to the 25,000 wounded during demonstrations at Gaza's border with Israel since March 30th. 250 people were killed. 52,000 are in need of psychological service support. Access to what medical services there are is problematic. A "Humanitarian Response Plan" for 2019 will require 350 million US dollars. A genocide warning. The genocide warnings for Gaza and Palestine due to acts committed by the State of Israel with impunity continue. On December 16th the World Health Organization was able to supply Palestine's Ministry of Health a Russian Federation contribution of trauma and surgical supplies which should allow 2000 surgical interventions in Gaza.     Partial sources online: "WHO delivers surgical supplies to meet the needs in the occupied Palestinian territory," WHO, Dec. 16, 2018, reliefweb; "1.2 million people in the occupied Palestinian territory are in need of humanitarian health assistance," WHO, Dec. 23, 2018, reliefweb; "Turkey's Red Crescent donates 8.5 tons of medical aid to Gaza," Dec. 6, 2018, Ma'an News Agency; "Italy makes multiple contributions to UNRWA, reinforcing health and food security for vulnerable refugees in Gaza and the West Bank," Dec. 12, 2018, reliefweb.

 

      U.S.: the U.S. Congress has passed what is called the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act ("S.1158: To help prevent acts of genocide and other atrocity crimes," 115th Cong. 2d Sess. Senate of the United States). This includes the crime of genocide within the U.S. perspective of national security, creates a Mass Atrocities Task Force from various government agencies, increases the importance of genocide-related information, and encourages training of Foreign Service personnel in recognizing genocide.... Elie Wiesel wrote eloquently about Holocaust related issues but did not apply his wisdom to the issue of genocide in Israel's oppression of the Palestinian people.     Partial sources online: "Congress Passes Legislation Named For Elie Wiesel To End Genocides," Marcy Oster, Dec. 24, 2018, The Forward; "From 1945 Until Today – 20 to 30 Million People Killed by the USA," Manlio Dinucci, Nov. 21, 2018, Global Research.

 

 

December 22, 2018     Ezidikhan     North America
 

To date it's unlikely organizations in Canada or the U.S. addressing the prevention of genocide or genocide have confronted the following issues, or will, or move their consideration into the domain of the courts and law. If these issues can't be addressed, are the organizations being heavily censored or is their purpose the control of the public's awareness of genocides in which their governments are guilty or complicit? - ed.

 

      Ezidikhan, Iraq: a provisional Yazidi government was proclaimed July 25, 2017. One of its purposes was to encourage the return of the Yazidi diaspora. In 2014 when ISIS took over Mosul thousands of Yazidi were slaughtered. Yazidi and Assyrians fell victim to ISIS and were displaced throughout the the Ninevah Plains. In November the Governing Council of Ezidikhan formally passed a resolution charging the Kurdish government with genocide and charging the governments of Iraq and the United States with complicity in genocide. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Genocide, Adama Dieng is asked to intervene to expel the Kurdish forces of occupation. The Ezidikhan Information Bureau sites specifically the placing of Yezidi orphans with Christians rather than Yezidi families, and the placing of some Ezidikhan lands in the hands of Arabs. The government of Iraq has offered to stop taking Yezidi lands if the Yezidi Governing Council withdraws its charge against Iraq and the U.S. of complicity in genocide. The Ezidikhan government is in negotiations with Sweden, Iraq and India to encourage assistance to the Yezidi people and their infrastructure, and the withdrawal of Kurdish forces who are occupying Ezidikhan. After the departure of ISIS forces there are reports of war crimes by Ezidikhan forces against Metweti tribe members accused of collaboration with ISIS in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.     Partial sources online: "Emergency Consultations Between Ezidikhan and Friendly Nations," Ezidikhan Information Bureau, Nov. 19, 2018, Intercontinental Cry; "Kurds and Iraq Seek to Extort Ezidikhan Denial of Genocide," Ezidikhan Information Bureau, Dec. 4, 2018, Intercontinental Cry; "Yazidis Proclaim the Establishment of a Provisional Government," AINA News, July 25, 2017, Assyrian International News Agency; "Rights group reports sectarian killings in post-ISIS Iraq," Dec. 27, 2017, Rudaw; "ISIS as a Mirror," J. B. Gerald, June 22, 2016, nightslantern.ca.

 

      North America: recent Canadian reports identify an ongoing active threat of sterilization used against Indigenous women in Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario. Historically, Indigenous peoples were targeted by Alberta's pro-eugenics laws. The subject is important to these pages since sterilization of women and men within any definable group without their consent and in a large number lowers or removes the group's ability to survive. It is not "cultural genocide" but a genocide and should be made subject to charges and punishment for the crime of genocide. The practice betrays its intentional purpose of genocide. While this is discussed in Canada, it remains heavily suppressed in the U.S.A.. It was estimated by Dr. Lehman Brightman that in the decade of the 1970's 40% (60,000 to 70,000) of the Indigenous women in the U.S. had been sterilized, 10% of the men, principally through force, trickery or deceit. These are huge numbers. How can there be doubt of the intention of genocide? This omits discussion of environmental mass denial of a healthy life on some reservations with uranium mill tailings and radiologically contaminated drinking water. In Canada, Amnesty International Canada reports that in the 1970's, 1200 Indigenous women were coerced into sterilization. Of widespread European colonial practices of sterilization in the Americas: Alberto Fujimori's criminal application of U.N. and U.S. birth control programs in Peru is known to have been responsible for the sterilization without their informed consent of up to 300,000 Indigenous women. The former president's other crimes against humanity distracted Peru from properly prosecuting the case against him for genocide. In Canada the issue remains close enough to the surface of public awareness (partly thanks to coverage by the CBC) for Amnesty International to have engaged in its current campaign, "Canada: Stop Sterilizing Indigenous Women Without Consent." Amnesty couches its campaign not within a perspective of ongoing genocide but in protest of violence and torture against women. Forced sterilization is one of many factors contributing to an ongoing genocide warning. Consider as well tuberculosis rates, poverty rates, incarceration rates, infant mortality rates, removing Indigenous children from families, the alleged murder of 50,000 children at residential school, insufficient nourishment, lack of local availability for medical care, lack of local availability of education, lack of availability of psychological counseling, housing standards for extreme cold, drinking water contamination, mining waste, rates of missing and disappeared Indigenous women, suicide rates. Particularly suicide rates. In her recent paper,"Canada's Genocide: the Case of the Ahiarmiut," Rhoda E. Howard- Hassman identifies and documents the forced relocation by the Federal government of the Ahiarmiut band, five times. In the initial relocations the band was left without basic survival needs, resulting in the loss of fifty percent of its members. Canada's treatment of the Ahiarmiut band conforms in microcosm with North American historical treatment of Indigenous peoples and with the U.N.'s Convention on genocide's definition of genocide. Historical note.   Another historical note.     Partial sources online: "An Act of Genocide: Canada's Coerced Sterilization of First Nations Women," Courtney Parker, Nov. 15, 2018, Intercontinental Cry; "Reports of coerced sterilization of Indigenous women in Canada mirrors shameful past," Roger Collier, Aug. 2, 2017, cmaj news; "Feds won’t change Criminal Code to outlaw forced sterilization, despite First Nations outcry," Kristy Kirkup, Dec. 7, 2018, Global News; "Canada's Genocide: the Case of the Ahiarmiut," Rhoda E. Howard- Hassman, Dec. 9, 2018, The Conversation; "Canada: Genocide Warnings and Updates," J.B.Gerald, ongoing, nightslantern.ca.

 

 

December 12, 2018

rgentina: (previous). On December 11, 2018, two former management executives at Ford's Buenos Aires plant were sentenced for their crimes during Argentina's "Dirty War" (1976-1983). Hector Sibilla, then chief of security at the factory received a sentence of twelve years. Pedro Muller, then the factory manager, received 10 years. They were found guilty of selecting and turning over the names, photos, addresses of 24 employees and union leaders to be kidnapped and tortured, and allowing a detention and torture centre to be constructed within the factory. While the Ford Company claims it isn't implicated in the case a lawyer for the victims' families claims Ford was entirely in control of its factory during the crime. The convictions may be appealed by the former corporate officials. It's also likely charges will eventually be levied against Ford. Legal actions within the U.S. by a lawyer for the victim families may be impeded by a declared statute of limitations; under international laws crimes against humanity are frequently without statute of limitations. Argentina has successfully held to account over a thousand military officers, intelligence agents and civilians for human rights crimes during Argentina's "Dirty War," and is increasingly concerned with the involvement of corporate powers. These are the first convictions of corporate officials. While articles from Deutsche Welle and BBC News don't mention it, The Guardian notes a 15 year sentence for the area's former commanding general Santiago Riveros, for these same crimes, and that "All three will benefit from house arrest because of their advanced age." There is some indication that the impunity of convicted fascist leaders of the Americas was increased by the habitual long delays in prosecution of the privileged which allow them not to serve their sentences. Background: The Vanished Gallery / Desaparecidos. See also Night's Lantern's incremental record of the fight against impunity in Argentina, prosecutions, difficulties since 2005:   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28.     Partial sources online: "Argentina court sentences ex-Ford executives on torture, kidnapping charges," Dec. 11, 2018 (*v), Deutsche Welle; "US files illuminate Argentina's 'dirty war'," Aug. 9, 2016, Deutsche Welle; "Argentina's Dirty War: Two former Ford executives jailed," Dec. 11, 2018, BBC News; "Argentina: two ex-Ford executives convicted in torture case," Uki Goñi, Dec. 11, 2018, The Guardian; "Ex-Ford Argentina execs convicted in torture case; victims may sue in U.S.," Cassandra Garrison, Nicolás Misculin, Dec. 11, 2018, Reuters.

 

 

December 5, 2018

      Yemen: see previous. Concerning U.S. support for what appears to be Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen, the U.S. Senate has voted for U.S. Bill SJR 54 which requires the U.S. President to withdraw U.S. military forces in or affecting Yemen. The bill specifically leaves out "United States Armed Forces engaged in operations directed at al Qaeda or associated forces," which The Mint Press picks up as a loophole for leaving allocated U.S. forces exactly where they are. The Bill also risks not being passed by the House, or signed by the U.S. President. The Bill shows some effort to hide U.S. involvement in what history may consider a genocide. "The Strategies of the Coalition in the Yemen War: Aerial bombardment and food war," a report by Professor Martha Mundy (Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, London School of Economics) reveals Saudi Coalition intentions and efforts to destroy Yemen's nourishment infrastructure, in other words the country's ability to feed its people. Bombed are agricultural fields, animal flocks, irrigation systems, fishing boats and ports, with the combined effect of widespread starvation. Amid bombings of civilians and other crimes against the people of Yemen this contributes to understanding of a genocide in progress, currently supported by U.S., British, Canadian and French arm sales to Saudia Arabia, and it's a genocide supported not only by corporate weapons sales but the middle classes investing in arm sales and a way of life sustained by war profits. U.S. bombing and missiling of Iraq in the 1990's included the targeting of water facilities, and lack of effective prosecution has resulted in overlooking this war crime when it's committed in other countries. Because prosecution of a U.S. Coalition's genocide against Iraq remained out of reach under NATO country legal systems, the U.S. Coalition wars against Iraq have become a cover for subsequent genocidal wars and actions against Muslim and Christian communities. Starvation as a factor contributing to genocide is not discussed by genocide prevention organizations which avoid aspects of genocide rising from any conflicts between the rich and the poor. Starvation may have been a factor if not tactic of genocide in the Ukraine's Holodomor (a result of Stalin's assignment of Ukrainian food collective production to other collectives), Cambodia's genocide (partly a result of U.S. bombing the agricultural infrastructure), or Myanmar's attempt to destroy the Rohingya (which may be partly a result of the military takeover of and the flooding of agricultural regions).     Partial sources online: "Media Advisory: New Report Documents 'Strategies of the Coalition in the Yemen War'," Report by Martha Mundy distributed by the World Peace Foundation documents patterns of Coalition targeting of civilian, agricultural and fishing sites, Oct. 9, 2018, World Peace Foundation; "America and Britain Complicit in Saudi Acts of Genocide in Yemen: 85,000 Children Dead, 14 Million at 'Risk of Starvation'," Dr. Leon Tressell, Dec. 4, 2018, Global Research; "The Forgotten War: Loophole in Bernie Sanders' Yemen Bill Actually Allows Continued US Involvement in Yemen," Whitney Webb, Dec. 3, 2018, The Mint Press; " S.J.Res.54 - A joint resolution to direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress," Sponsored (Feb. 28, 2018) by Sen. Bernard Sanders, 2nd version Nov. 28, 2018, Calendar No.682, 115th Congress 2d Session.

 

 

November 26, 2018     Nigeria     Cote d'Ivoire     Cameroun

      Nigeria: a genocide warning in response to reports by the Christian Association of Nigeria concerning a "pure genocide" of Nigeria's Christians with 6000 dead in the first six months of 2018 and churches destroyed. The statistic is also presented by Release International. The motivation for the killings is thought to be land-grabbing by removing Christians from their ancestral lands. The Association is an assembly of the country's Christian denominations. The victims are reported to be primarily children, women and elders, hacked to death or beheaded. The Association considers the perpetrators Muslims and Sharia law itself. A Nigerian Anglican Archbishop Benjamin Kwashi has asked his government to stop well armed Fulani tribe herdsmen from the killing against Christian communities, which has lasted for two years and occurs without any apparent reason. Christians report no protection despite British and U.S. assistance to the government. An Agence France Presse report of November 23rd reveals a recent and facile takeover by ISIS troops of a Nigerian army base near Metele with over a hundred government troops killed, and suggests ISIS is receiving foreign support. Villages of farmers and loggers are reporting being attacked, and civilians killed. According to AFP, from the start in 2009 to present, 27,000 people have been killed and 1.8 million of the displaced remain homeless. Nigeria moves toward elections in February 2019. The President Muhammadu Buhari has maintained that Boko Haram is defeated. There is some concern that Nigeria is overly indebted to Chinese creditors who have helped construct the country's infrastructure. And in dealings with Europe Nigeria lost about six billion dollars in an oil agreement with Italy's Eni and British-Dutch Shell. The U.S. Brookings Institute has recently released a report estimating 87 million Nigerians of the country's nearly 200 million live in abject poverty (73 million live in the extremes of poverty in India); 80% of Nigerians exist on less than $2/day. Within this perspective government corruption and foreign corporate profits are lethal,. The people, whatever race, religion, or tribe, unmanipulated are more likely to cohere against their oppressors than fall into genocide against eachother. The job of the oppressors is to divide the people, to set them against each other. Divisions which result in conflict and deaths function as distractions from an elite's thefts of what belongs to the people, and with 'land clearing' the national resources can be sold to other business interests without native title, and result in fewer voters. This proceeds steadily with the cooperation of all the institutions formed taught and nurtured by colonialism.     Partial sources online: "ISIS claims 118 killed in 'West Africa province' after Nigeria army bases attacked," AFP, Nov. 23, 2018, news24; "Around 100 Nigeria Soldiers Killed by Jihadists, Reuters Reports," Tope Alake, Nov. 22, 2018, Bloomberg; "Boko Haram kidnaps 50 loggers in Nigeria," AFP, Nov. 23, 2018, Channel NewsAsia; "Chinese investment extends its influence in Nigeria," Emily Feng, Nov. 21, 2018, Financial Times; "Archbishop tells govt to 'rise up and protect Christians' in Nigeria," Vsra Bentley, Nov. 21, 2018, Premier; "Nigeria loses $6bn from 'corrupt' oil deal linked to fraud," Russell Padmore, Nov. 26, 2018, BBC; "'Politicians have failed us': The despair of Nigeria's poor," Fidelis Mbah, Nov. 25, 2018, Al Jazeera.

      Historical note on Cote d'Ivoire: there's a precedent of first destabilization then takeover by encouraging Muslim /Christian rifts. The threat of genocide was used in Cote d'Ivoire to allow U.N. presence and intervention for a change of government. In 2010 the Christian and socialist Laurent Gbagbo with a history of non-cooperation with France was particularly out of favour for preferring better business arrangements with the Chinese. In 2010 - 2011 Muslim forces from Cote d'Ivoire's north supporting the former International Monetary Fund employee, Alassane Ouattara, became aggressive. Ouattara with a B.A, M.A. and PhD from the U.S. clinched the military takeover with U.N. and French troops. Gbagbo's re-election as president while legally accepted in Cote d'Ivoire, was not accepted by France and the U.N.. On arrest by troops Gbagbo was humiliated and placed in prison by the International Criminal Court which now unofficially concedes he's probably not guilty of any serious offences and that the funds and impetus for prosecuting him come from France. Many of Gbagbo's supporters were murdered as Ouattara's people assumed power and Ouattara is not providing the Cote d'Ivoire's Christian communities with adequate security. See background,  1   2   3   4   5   6   7.

 

      Cameroun: in regions adjacent to Nigeria - across its western border with northern Cameroun, forces of Boko Haram have been eradicating villages of Christians for nearly a decade. The region is primarily Anglophone and Muslim. The predominantly Christian French-speaking government of Paul Biya has been fighting Boko Haram successfully and receives U.S. assistance. Closer to the sea and also next to Nigeria, primarily Muslim and English speaking activists are in open rebellion against Cameroun's army. Some have set up a very small independent state called Ambazonia. See background. School attendance in the region is currently banned by the Anglophone resistance. English speaking international human rights organizations are sympathetic to violations of the Anglophone human rights. Cameroun's Francophone President Paul Biya who generally condemns violence and has ruled for 36 years, was recently re-elected. From 2017 to 2018 government revenues from Cameroun 's mining sector increased by 25%. The Anglophone insurrection portions of which refused to vote, remains active. In September, 7 students were reported kidnapped from school in Bafut. The Camerounais army is searching for 79 children abducted or kidnapped November 5th from their school in Bamenda. 9 students kidnapped from a school in Kumba Nov. 20th were freed in an Army operation against an Anglophone Separatist camp Nov. 21. On October 30th an American missionary was shot to death in Bambui and while Anglophone sources tried to blame Cameroun's army, Cameroun's defense minister identified the perpetrators of the ambush as "militants," four of whom were shot. On Nov. 21 an English speaking Catholic priest was killed; the Church has blamed it on the Army. To be said for the Francophone government, the nation of contemporary Cameroun was formed and abides by both U.N. mandate and plebiscite of its citizens. The long tenure of Paul Biya has provided the country with a long peace despite its deep colonial divisions - English (only about 20%) and French. To be noted against Paul Biya's government is the enrichment of the ruling family since the early days of Independence. The fulcrum of the language debate whenever it appears is its distraction from the theft of the people's treasure (or if you prefer, "national resources"), by the elite and former colonial 'masters'. Since conflict between French and English national groups continues, Night's Lantern continues a genocide warning for both national groups at risk to foreign interests. So of course the risk is also increased for non-native groups.     Partial sources online: "'A Pure Genocide': extremist Persecution of Christians, June 2018," Raymond Ibrahim, Nov. 18, 2018, The Gatestone Institute; "Cameroon: Mining revenues grew to CFA5bn in 2018," Nov. 23, 2018, Business in Cameroon; "Cameroon army frees kidnapped students," Nov. 21, 2018, BBC ; "Cameroon urged to view death of US citizen as time to end violence," Nov. 1, 2018, Journal du Cameroun.com; "Cameroun: the Battle of Languages Serves Colonial Masters," J. B. Gerald, June 14, 2018, nightslantern.ca.

 

 

November 20, 2018

      Haiti: on November 18th, the day which marks the 1803 Battle of Vertières , the defeat of Napoleonic forces, the overthrow by Haiti's enslaved people of France's colonial rule, over a million Haitians are reported to have thronged the streets of Port-au-Prince and many more throughout the country. The event received little notice from NATO country news media. The Washington Post notes a police officer was killed and three people wounded, two in an attempt to block a tourist shuttle from reaching the airport, and notes demonstrators calling for the Haitian president's resignation. There is currently a scandal of corruption focusing on the government's mismanagement or theft of Venezuela's gift energy program (Petro-Caribe). The Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse, stayed in Port-au-Prince rather than travel north to the traditional celebration site of the battle. Aware of the revolutionary appeal of Haiti's victorious commander Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Moise assured the people "The time for fighting is over..." Protesters throughout the city carried placards demanding " Where is the Petro-Caribe money?" According to the Miami Herald both the U.S. and Canadian embassies are attempting to soothe troubled waters. The Petro-Caribe scandal follows closely numerous ongoing scandals concerned with transnational crimes connected to the Clinton Foundation. In unverified reports 50 people protesting government corruption in the Lasalin area were allegedly massacred by paramilitary forces October 17th, 2018, and their bodies burned to conceal the crime.     Partial sources online: "1 killed, 3 wounded in Haiti amid violent protests," Evans Sanon, Nov. 19, 2018, The Washington Post; "Anti-corruption protest in Haiti turns into referendum on Haitian president," Jacqueline Charles, Nov. 18, 2018, Miami Herald; "Red/Black hoisted up! | More than ONE MILLION marched in Port au Prince alone against systemic colonial corruption, millions others throughout nation | The colonial puppets could not freely travel to the Vertieres monument. Haiti shut them down.... We stood alone, we died. The World is SILENT about the Western-supported DUOPOLY terror against unarmed Haitians protesting the thievery of development monies..." Èzili Dantò, Nov. 18, 2018, HLL Network Newsletter; "Clinton-Obama installed right-wing PHTK paramilitary in Haiti, disguised as police, executed over 50 Haitians protesting embezzlement of development monies," Èzili Dantò, Nov. 16, 2018, HLL Network Newsletter.

 

 

November 3, 2018     Yemen     Washington D.C.

      Yemen: the war in Yemen continues beyond reason the genocide of the national group. The aggressor has become Saudi Arabia supported with arms by the U.S., Canada and U.K. who slowly are being forced to confront their business interests faced with the atrocities of a life threatening famine for 7 million children and 7 million adults. According to UNICEF 1.8 million children face starvation now. The UN finds 22 million needing food badly. In 2017 the U.K sold 1.37 billion pounds sterling of arms to Saudi Arabia. Germany has said it will suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia. With a questionable respect for human life the U.S. president has expressed his preference to protect jobs in the U.S. defense industry. Canada's Justin Trudeau as well has indicated that cancelling the 12 to 15 billion dollar Harper government armored vehicle contracts with the Saudis would be very expensive despite a reasonable concern for the Saudi embassy murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. North American governments are currently preferring profit and privilege to the people of Yemen and their right to life.     Partial sources online: "Over 7 million Yemeni children subject to 'serious' famine threat, warns UN," Nov. 1, 2018, PressTV; "Britain ‘complicit’ in Yemen famine, Tory ex-cabinet minister warns amid calls to end arm sales," Harry Cockburn, Nov. 1, 2018, Independent; "More Yemeni children die as medicine prices skyrocket," Bernard Smith, Oct. 28, 2018, Al Jazeera; "Two days after U.S. call for cease-fire, Saudi-led coalition launches new attacks in Yemen," Sudarsan Raghavan, Nov. 2, 2018, The Washington Post; "Defense contractors stand with White House on Saudi arms sales," Aaron Gregg and Christian Davenport, Oct. 25, 2018, The Washington Post; "Trudeau won’t stop $12bn of arms sales to Saudi after Khashoggi’s death because money always wins over murder," Robert Fisk, Nov. 2, 2018, Independent; "Justin Trudeau says he is unlikely to cancel Saudi armored vehicles sale," Reuters, Oct. 23, 2018, The Guardian.

 

      Washington D.C.: NATO has chosen to hold its next meeting of members in Washington D.C. on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination. The NATO summit meeting opens April 4, 2019. Current informed assessments concerning the murder of Dr. King reveal a conspiracy involving the Memphis police department, its city hospital, military intelligence and death squad units, and J. Edgar Hoover's FBI (see previous). NATO's choice is unfortunate in that this primarily military organization's usefulness is the defense of an often Nordic, consistently Caucasian, white power group within global politics, while Dr. King's power base was initially among southern Black people, the poor, those who believed in civil rights, voting rights, and human rights for people of all races, and non-violence. In response, a U.S. resistance organization UNAC (The United National Antiwar Coalition) has called for a national mobilization to this March 30th to honor the great American champion of peace, in Washington.

 

 

November 2, 2018

A note on Night's Lantern: focused on the prevention of genocide, nightslantern.ca was first posted in 2001 and has now grown to several thousand pages, including many of my essays and a few essays by other writers. Work not by me is specifically attributed and published with the author's permission (Permission for the UN's Convention on Genocide was first obtained in 1989 for our print publication of the Convention when it fell out of print at the UN). The years of "suppressed news" pages and political prisoner pages often rely for information on multiple news sources which I've made some effort to credit for verification of facts and to counter "fake news". The work of doing all this rises from what both my partner Julie Maas and I have considered necessity, finding through our publication of the UN Texts with our kitchen table press in Maine and then the Gulf War and destruction of Iraq, a risk of genocide to any country where the damage would benefit U.S. and international corporate interests. Increasingly the protections against this were being removed. I remember in 1990 sending complementary copies of UN Texts: The Crime of Genocide & Bill of Human Rights to most members of the U.S. Congress, at a time when the issue of genocide was a non-issue to the media, despite U.S. ratification of the Convention treaty in 1988. Our small press usually published my writings and Julie Maas's artwork. With exception the publication of UN Texts was badly received and in 1995 we continued publishing by moving to Canada. The internet was taking hold; a friend taught me to write .html code. These years of following genocide related news and trying to counter tragedies and the horror done individuals and entire groups, without compromising what I and we consider objective truth is an almost hopeless task, without payment, without overt effect other than the puzzling back and forth of web traffic statistics and "visits" from many countries. The only thing which has kept us going is where we started, our own artforms, which sustain us, and which is why drawings appear irregularly and my poems, simply as alleviation from reporting and realizations of what is too painful to understand or humanity would have been able to stop the extremes of suffering. I include here one of my poems, which may help explain this endeavor:

bearing news to the future

we reached a clearing in the forest
where bedrock pocketed with grasses
claimed a space of prose
un-englanded un-christianed outside gardens
of literature borders nations
the sunny facts of dandelions unadorned with rhyme
haphazard spores a song of lost notes
attended by birch and maple

in my sense of self i return there
for communion with the spring of landwaters
bearing all that ever came before and will be
if meant for me to understand:

and once a journeyplace became apportioned
is why your first love married someone else
and why the land you're born to
isn't yours and why there's poverty
inequity beyond reason or control
suffering survived through madness
at the pain of loss - our mirror, truth
shattered to shard sparked slivers
                  through the inner eye

so we call truth a fire that burns in us
rather than our refuge our home

when land that was ours
which means all the peoples'
became owned by conquest
all became prisoners of a code
honouring power before god
coining humanity for profit when
you know the ethic wrong that lets
one live in ease another in continuing pain
these words like gnats aimless black flies
                  with a point
and how will you shut your ears and eyes to
the river murmurings the dance of the mountains
the breath in the roar of waterfalls
the freedom of birdsongs constancy
                  of crickets counselling
be true to eachother

                       -John Bart Gerald. Poems from a River City. Ottawa: Gerald and Maas, 2000

 

 

October 23, 2018

      New York City: PEN America, a U.S. chapter of P.E.N., the international organization of writers and people in the publishing business, has opened proceedings against President Trump on the grounds that he has suppressed and is suppressing freedom of expression and violating the constitutional rights of Americans. P.E.N. International began in England in 1921. The American Center was founded in 1922 in New York. There are now internationally about 148 P.E.N. chapters. What was once PEN American Center (NYC) has joined with the Los Angeles PEN chapter to provide us with what may be an overreaching title of "PEN America". PEN's primary purpose is by its charter, to protect literature and art particularly, against censorship while encouraging the freedom to write and free flow of ideas across international borders. By the 1970's it was appreciated by the U.S. State Department for championing repressed Soviet writers and PEN gained considerable affect within the U.S.'s literary, academic and publishing world. It also provided a gathering place for U.S. writers who stood against illegal and immoral government practices of their own country - Arthur Miller, Rose Styron, Grace Paley, Allen Ginsberg, among many others. After a period of resistance to U.S. policies such as Vietnam PEN American Center began drifting toward government policy and was cut in early to the "war on terror" with its campaign of support for the poorly used Salman Rushdie whose work provoked a predictably censorious reaction among Islamic fundamentalists. After some years of overtly furthering State Department policies it is a pleasure to see PEN maintaining its founding purposes with the suit against President Trump. PEN America v Trump was initiated Oct. 16, 2018 in the Southern District Court of New York. It alleges the U.S. President "has violated the First Amendment and his oath to uphold the Constitution, has threatened journalists, initiated "unconstitutional actions aimed at suppressing speech," attempted to market journalists as "the enemy of the American people," threatened to retaliate against critics, threatened to act and acting (with a postage increase) against Jeff Bezos as owner of The Washington Post, threatened to act and acting against CNN because of its news coverage - by having the Justice Department challenge the merger of CNN's owner company Time Warner with AT&T, threatened to punish individual instances of critical reporting as well as to withdraw TV licensing in retaliation, threatened retaliatory actions for the writings of any critics, caused duress in requiring writers to write under threat, infringed "freedom of speech and freedom of the press," and has chilled and intimidated the right to give and receive free speech. These points are explored within the text of the suit which is available at https://pen.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/PEN-America-v-Trump-Complaint.pdf. While supporting this serious defense of freedom of speech, I keep in mind that the Trump administration continues to arm the Saudis as they hasten the deaths of 13 million Yemeni civilians, and ignores what Canadian Parliament understands as a genocide against the Rohingya peoples of Myanmar, and has participated in the displacement of 6.2 million Syrians, and continues to fund what may eventually be judged as a genocide of Gazans by Israel. The freedom to say so is surely something we must fight for, but PEN America's case benignly avoids naming the horrifying crimes American media's and judicial silences have wrought, the ignorance engendered, and the perception management silence has allowed, and the number of lives lost to global crimes - which is staggering. It is a very proper and modestly stated suit, if not understated.     Partial sources online: "PEN America v. Trump: a letter," Jennifer Egan, Suzanne Nossel, Oct. 16, 2018, PEN America; "Trump praises Montana congressman who body-slammed reporter," Zeke Miller and Ashley th9omas (AP), Oct. 19, 2018, CTV News; "Britain, France, Germany join Canada in saying Saudi version of Khashoggi’s death not ‘credible’ ," Reuters/AP, Oct. 21, 2018, Reuters; PEN American Center v. Donald J. Trump, Case 1:18-cv-09433 Document 1 Filed 10/16/18 [access:<https://pen.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/PEN-America-v-Trump-Complaint.pdf >].

 

 

October 22, 2018    Canada    El Salvador    South Carolina

 

 

 

Canada: the Government of Canada and the Government of Quebec both shifted their support away from Michaëlle Jean in her bid for a second term as Secretary General of la Francophonie, to Rwanda's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Louise Mushikiwabo. The position of Secretary General is usually arrived at by consensus rather than vote. Canada's lack of loyalty to its own former Governor General is traced to the country's politicking for a seat on the UN Security Council. And Quebec's recent elections brought in a Provincial government described as anti-immigrant. One of the results of Paul Kagame's conquest of Rwanda by armed invasion was the changing of the national language from French to English so France's early support for Louise Mushikiwabo was surprising, though France is contrary to much that Haiti favours (such as reparations for colonialism etc.). Michaëlle Jean's birthplace, Haiti remained loyal to her candidacy. Her renovations of Canadian government-assigned lodgings in Paris were held against her by any who found it convenient, and who should have asked why the Canadian government assigned her such poor lodgings in need of extensive renovation. Michaëlle Jean who's term as Secretary General began in 2014, was acknowledged as a militant defender of women's rights and by her first name when Prime Minister Trudeau addressed the Francophone assembly October 11. On October 12, Michaëlle Jean lost her bid for a second term. Some may remember the honesty of her comments last January, faulting the American president for "an insult before humanity" - to quote her on the CBC: "it was so disturbing this morning to hear President Trump's comments reported all over the news calling my poor native land and African countries 'shithole' nations."     Partial sources online: "Michaëlle Jean continues bid for Francophonie post without support from Quebec, Canada," Melanie Marquis (The Canadian Press), Oct.10, 2018, Global News; "Michaelle Jean loses top spot at La Francophonie," The Canadian Press, Oct.12, 2018, Global News; "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau praises Michaëlle Jean at Francophonie summit," Oct. 11, 2018, Global News; "Michaëlle Jean under fire over expenses as she heads into Francophonie election," May 29, 2018, CBC Radio; "Ex-governor general Michaëlle Jean calls reported Trump comments 'troubling, offensive'," Jan. 12, 2018, CBC News.

 

 

 

 

 
El Salvador: the assassinated Archbishop of El Salvador, Oscar Romero, was among the seven men and women canonized by Pope Francis October 14, 2018. Romero tried to defend the poor and denounced the attacks on members of the Church who defended the poor. When the military dictatorship came to power in 1979 he asked U.S. President Carter to stop military aid to the country and was ignored. His lack of compromise offended the wealthy families of El Salvador. He was assassinated March 24, 1980. See previous.     Partial sources online: "Salvadoran Bishop Romero Becomes Saint of The Americas," Oct. 14, 2018, TeleSur; "Vatican Canonizes Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero, Who Was Killed by a U.S.-Backed Death Squad," Oct. 15, 2018, Democracy Now!.

 

South Carolina: the construction of the MOX nuclear processing plant has been stopped by the Trump administration. The Mixed Oxide project has been underway since 2005 at the Savannah River Site, intending to convert bomb grade plutonium into nuclear power while assuring the further radioactive contamination of South Carolina and Georgia. The State's political machinery brought an injunction against the Department of Energy's attempt to close the operation but the injunction was recently overturned by the Federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. The MOX project was being built by CB&I Areva MOX Services, a consortium (Areva is now called Orano and is owned by France). The DOE found the plant would cost another $48 billion beyond the $7..6 billion already spent (Reuters) and prefers to 'dilute and dispose' the 34 tons of plutonium, burying it in New Mexico. The original cost estimate of the project was 4.8 billion to be completed by 2016. The State's Attorney General's office has pointed out that the "dilute and diffuse" technology is unsure and risks exposing the population to radiation.... Canada, Japan, as well as Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, have used the site as a nuclear waste receptacle. There are few other signs that the problem of nuclear materials containment in the face of climate change and Carolina flooding, is being addressed. Background - "Nuclear Notes: the Savannah River Watershed," by J.B.Gerald.     Partial sources online: "Trump administration kills contract for plutonium-to-fuel plant," Timothy Gardner, Oct. 12, 2018, Reuters; "South Carolina Attorney General contends DOE can’t close MOX without analysis," James Folker, Aug. 15, 2018, The Augusta Chronicle; "South Carolina Republicans prepare last-ditch effort to save a federal nuclear project," Andrew Brown, May 22, 2018, The Post and Courier.

 

 

October 9, 2018    Peru    Turkey    Germany    Canada    Mexico

      Peru: Supreme Court Judge Hugo Nunez has nullified the pardon of convicted war criminal and former president, Alberto Fujimori, and ordered his capture and return to prison. Shortly after, Fujimori was rushed to the hospital while his lawyer appeals the decision. The former Peruvian president was serving 25 years for death squad related war crimes; he was also convicted of corruption. He has so far escaped charges of genocide in the sterilization without informed consent of possibly 300,000 Indigenous women. Previous.     Partial sources online: "Peru annuls ex-leader Fujimori's pardon and orders his capture," Oct. 3, 2018, Reuters; "Peru: Judge Reverses Pardon for Ex-Dictator Alberto Fujimori," Oct. 4, 2018, Democracy Now!.

 

      Turkey: on October 2nd the court of appeals refused to overturn the conviction and life sentences of Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan, Nazli Ilicak, and other journalists convicted for assisting those who attempted the military coup d'etat of 2016. Altogether 221 accused of links to Fethullah Gulen, a U.S. supported Turkish religious leader living in Pennsylvania, were convicted. Over 300 were killed during the failed attempt against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Previous.     Partial sources online: "Turkish court confirms life sentences for prominent journalists," Austin Koltonowski, Oct. 3, 2018, Jurist; "Turkey court upholds life sentences for prominent journalists," Oct. 2, 2018, Al Jazeera; "Five more journalists jailed in Turkey bringing total imprisoned by Erdogan regime to more than 150," Arun Kakar, Jan. 17, 2018, PressGazette.

 

      Germany: a recent report of alleged sexual abuse of 3677 minors by German Catholic clerics between the years of 1946 and 2014, was released Sept.25th. Criminal charges were pressed against about a third of the accused. See previous.     Partial sources online: “Sexual abuse of minors by catholic priests, deacons and male members of orders in the domain of the German Bishops’ Conference,” rough translation Neil Mussett, Secretariat of the German Bishops’ Conference, Sept. 24, 2018, Research Project (MHG Study); "Germany Bishops Conference study finds reports of sexual abuse against 1,670 clerics," Erik Slobe, Sept. 26, 2018, Jurist.

 

      Canada: a second food bank has opened in the city of Iqaluit, allowing weekly access to food for low income families. The Arctic Food Bank, a project of the Islamic Society of Nunavut is open alternating Saturdays with the Niqinik Nuatsivik Nunavut Food Bank. Speaking for the Islamic Society its V.P. Mumammad Wani is quoted by the CBC: ""We are committed to serving all of those in need, irrespective of religion, nationality, caste or creed," said Wani. "I truly believe the love for humanity surpasses the demographic, religious and cultural barriers." Last June the Muslim community of Iqaluit was able to distribute 75 bags of groceries from its mosque in celebration of Ramadan. Nunavut's people cope with a history of starvation, food shortages and food overpricing. Currently a head of lettuce costs $6.99. Background.     Partial sources online: "Islamic Society of Nunavut opens food bank in Iqaluit," Oct. 2, 2018, CBC News; "Iqaluit Muslim community hosts food bank to mark Ramadan," June 5, 2017, CBC News; "The High Cost Of Food In Nunavut Should Shock All Canadians," Margaret Whitley, Oct. 6, 2018, HuffPost.

 

      Mexico: Mexico's president-elect, Andrés Manuel López Obrador promised a rally commemorating the Tlatelolco massacre Oct. 2, 1968, to not repress or use military force against the people. The Tlatelolco Massacre is on people's minds since 43 students in a group were disappeared in 2014 after they were attacked by the police. October first, the "Comité 68 Pro Libertades Democráticas," victims of the 1968 repression against students, asked the government for Luis Echeverria, generals participating in the massacre, and the entire paramilitary Olympia Battalion, to face charges. Currently there's a tendency to blame deaths of minors on drug gangs. As of April 2018 Mexico's Registry of the Missing and Disappeared showed 37435 missing people; nearly twenty percent of those are minors.     Partial sources online: "Mexicans Commemorate 50th Anniversary of Tlatelolco Massacre" Oct. 3, 2018, Democracy Now!; "Mexico's AMLO vows not to use military against civilians 50 years after Tlatelolco deaths," AP, Sept. 30, 2018, El Paso Times; "Víctimas del 68 piden investigar al ex presidente Luis Echeverría," Oct. 1, 2018, 24 Horas; "More than 6,600 children have gone missing in Mexico," Oct. 5, 2018, The Guardian.

 

 

October 4, 2018    Rwanda     Canada

      Rwanda: Victoire Ingabire has been released from prison by executive clemency. The former presidential contender who challenged Rwandan President Kagame was imprisoned for speaking about the genocide of Hutu as well as Tutsi in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. The genocide marked the final days of a four year civil war in Rwanda. Discussion of any genocide against the Hutu has been against Rwandan law. A US Attorney at International Law, Peter Erlinder, who tried to challenge that law and defend the rights of Ingabire was also imprisoned by Kagame and released only through medical clemency for illness caused by his imprisonment. It's worth noting the U.S. State Department made no public efforts to protect Erlinder's rights and freedom. In 2017 The African Court of Human and People’s Rights ruled that under Rwandan law Ingabire's civil rights were violated and she should be released. Another political prisoner released was Kizito Mihigo, a Catholic Tutsi singer and composer (for example "Usaba Yezu ntavunika iyo aganisha ku Rukundo n'Amahoro - Wedding song") whose post genocide songs of peace and reconciliation have mourned and honored Hutu victims as well as Tutsi. He was convicted of conspiring to overthrow Kagame's government - the BBC reports - "plotting to kill" the president. He was sentenced to ten years. Under a presidential prerogative of mercy, Kagame freed 2140 prisoners in all. Background. NATO media news of Rwanda is heavily censored and remains problematic. The American journalist Ann Garrison [recommended] who frequently writes on Rwanda was barred from covering a Rwanda government-sponsored event in San Francisco Sept. 27, 2016, where Kagame spoke.     Partial sources online: "Two African Heroes Leave Prison in Rwanda," Ann Garrison, Sept. 20, 2018, Global Research; "How the journalist Ann Garrison was kicked out in Rwanda Day San Francisco," Peter Phillips (Project Censored Show) Nov.12, 2016, Great Lakes Post - YouTube.html [access:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DBEGcWAano >]; "Rwanda Day San Francisco: Bay View journalists get the boot," Ann Garrison, Oct. 6, 2016, EDU Rwanda & Bayview; "Victoire Ingabire: Rwanda frees 2,000 people including opposition figure," Sept.15, 2018, BBC News; "Don’t be shocked if you go back to jail, Kagame tells Ingabire," Sept. 19, 2018, TheEastAfrican.

 

      Canada: (update). The Senate has unanimously approved withdrawal of Aung San Suu Kyi's honorary Canadian citizenship, making the House's withdrawal of her citizenship September 27th, official. Her silence in the face of Myanmar's genocide of the Rohingya may present a violation of the Convention on Genocide (complicity) and has embarrassed the world's human rights community. The CBC notes that she is the first person ever to be stripped of honorary Canadian citizenship. See previous.     Partial sources online: "Senate votes to strip Aung San Suu Kyi of honorary Canadian citizenship," Kathleen Harris, Oct. 3, 2018, CBC News; "Senate votes unanimously to strip Aung San Suu Kyi’s honorary Canadian citizenship," Bill Curry, Oct. 2, 2018, The Globe and Mail.

 

 

September 28, 2018

      Canada: the Canadian House of Commons has unanimously rescinded the honorary citizenship it once bestowed on Aung San Suu Kyi. The motion remains to be approved by the Senate. The action follows the House's unanimous support of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar's conclusions declaring that Myanmar's military has inflicted genocide on the Rohingya people (see previous). Aung San Suu Kyi's silence during the atrocities, her lack of intervention, caused the U.S. Holocaust Museum to withdraw the Elie Weisel award she received in 2012 (previous). She retains the US Congressional Gold Medal (once awarded George Washington and the Pope among others) received in absentia when she was under house arrest in Myanmar, 2008, and received in person in 2012, from the U.S. Congress as she was bountifully praised for showing continuing resolve to stand against her country's military. Interestingly, her fêting by U.S. human rights organizations, academies and policy-makers coincided with the U.S. withdrawing personal sanctions against Myanmar's head of state, Thein Sein at a point when Myanmar's military was engaged in the early stages of murdering the Rohingya (see the Night's Lantern entry of August 27,2012, or Oct. 29, 2012). In an ongoing campaign against international law, this past Sept. 20th the US threatened the world community and judges of the International Criminal court by dissociating itself from the International Criminal Court, warning others against cooperation and denying the Court affect. In this context the bravery of Canada's House of Commons should be noted, for honoring the law, spirit and purpose of the Convention on Genocide. Canada deserves international support for these votes which reflect the values not of one political party but all, not for economic gain but for the values of humanity, and in this instance of a people with national difficulties in providing answers to the crimes of North America's history.     Partial sources online: Burma / Myanmar, "Genocide Warnings & Updates," J.B.Gerald, ongoing, nightslantern.ca; "In unprecedented move, Commons passes motion to strip Suu Kyi’s honorary citizenship," Michelle Zilio, Bill Curry, Sept. 27, 2018, Globe and Mail; "MPs unanimously pass motion to revoke Aung San Suu Kyi's honorary citizenship," Sept. 27, 2018, CBC News.

 

 

September 24, 2018    Mexico     Guatemala     New York City

José Guadalupe Posada
      Mexico: this note in pursuit of justice is also in tribute to the Mexican poet Octavio Paz who honored the world's traditions of poetry by resigning from Mexico's diplomatic service in protest against his government's mass murder and alleged genocide of students at Mexico City's Three Cultures Square Tlatelolco massacre, October 2, 1968, by military and security forces. Diaz Ordaz was President, Luis Echeverria the Secretary of the Interior. Official history has suppressed and tried to ignore the massacre since evidence implicated the U.S. embassy and ambassador. An attempt to officially investigate the massacre was made in 1998 but proved unsuccessful. Luis Echeverria became a President of Mexico and was subsequently accused of other crimes against humanity. In 2004 an investigation charged Echeverria with genocide for a paramilitary attack on students in 1971, referred to as the "Corpus Christi massacre," but the judge refused to provide a warrant. In June 2005 the Supreme Court ruled that Echeverria could be prosecuted on charges of genocide for the 1971 student murders. Then in July 2005 the judge ruled that Echeverria's indictment on charges of genocide didn't apply to the 1971 massacre. The prosecutor layed further charges against Echeverria for the 1968 Tlateloco massacre in September 2005 but in July of 2005 Echeverria was released from charges on grounds that the statute of limitations had expired. However, Mexico is bound to the U.N. Convention on Genocide which doesn't allow a statute of limitations for genocide. The judiciary's inability to protect the rights of those who aren't in the military or police, furthers the impunity by government organizations. Echeverria was arrested again in November 2006. In March 2009 he was cleared of genocide charges rising from the Tlateloco massacre and granted "absolute freedom." Nevertheless a group called Committee 68 concerned with the Tlateloco masscre has recently appealed to the Supreme Court to reopen the cases against Echeverria. Sentence deleted: unconfirmed. 2018-10-09. Background.     Partial sources online: "Mexico: Genocide Case Against Former President 'To Be Reopened': Luis Echeverria is accused of masterminding the Tlatelolco (1968) and Corpus Christi (1971) massacres,'" Sept. 22, 2018, Telesur; "Mexico Judge Dismisses '71 Genocide Case," Richard Boudreaux, July 27, 2005 Los Angeles Times; "Capitulo ll - Genocidio, Artículo 149-Bis," Código Penal Federal, current, Justia México; "A 50 años del movimiento del ’68, la PGR podría reabrir investigaciones contra Luis Echeverría," Sept. 20, 2018, televisa.NEWS.

 

      Guatemala: found guilty May 10, 2013 of genocide among other crimes against the Mayan Ixil people, Efraín Ríos Montt's conviction was quiickly nullified by the Guatemalan Constitutional Court; his death by heart attack April 1, 2018, allowed the former dictator to escape legal justice and without punishment or rejection by his country's military and bourgeois elites. By comparison in May 2011 four "kaibilles" soldiers and their commanding officer were sentenced to 6000 years in prison for terrible atrocities. Corporate greed and the impunity of Guatemala's privileged can be blamed for the country's ongoing genocide of native people. On September 21, 2018, Juana Ramirez Santiago, a Mayan Ixil midwife and known human rights defender, was murdered on the street as she took dinner to her husband at his work. 13 human rights defenders have been murdered in Guatemala in less than six months. The government of President Jimmy Morales has banned Iván Velázquez, (see previous), head of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) who and which were largely responsible for the functioning of legal mechanisms which brought Ríos Montt to trial and whose anti-graft efforts ended the government of Otto Perez and implicated the brother and son of current President Morales in cases of corruption. While a court ruling requires the government allow Velázquez to enter the country again, the government argues his tenure as commissioner has expired. The U.N. is considering a replacement. Velázquez and the former head of Guatemala's Supreme Court (and former Attorney General), Thelma Aldana, have just been awarded the alternative Nobel prize (Sweden's 2018 Rights Livelihood Prize) for fighting the impunity of Guatemala's corruption and abuse of power.     Partial sources online: "Guatemala: a brave judiciary," J. B. Gerald, March 19, 2013, nightslantern.ca; "Masks of Investment: a Trial in Guatemala," J. B. Gerald, April 5, 2012, nightslantern.ca; "Good vs. Evil in Guatemala," J.B.Gerald, April 21, 2012, nightslantern.ca; "Genocide Denial in Guatemala," J.B. Gerald, May 21, 2013, nightslantern.ca; "Updates: coping with oppression in Canada, Guatemala, Ethiopia," J. B. Gerald, Jan. 16, 2016, nightslantern.ca; "Guatemala: Indigenous Mayan Ixil Midwife and Activist Murdered," Sept. 22, 2018, Telesur; "Guatemalan Court Ruling Favors CICIG But Chief Remains Banned," Sept. 20, 1018, TeleSur; "U.N. to send deputy to Guatemala as anti-graft leader remains banned," Sophia Menchu, Michelle Nichols, Sept. 19, 2018, Reuters; "Guatemala anti-corruption duo wins Swedish rights prize," Sept. 24, 2018, France24.

 

      New York City: the Center for Constitutional Rights has joined 25 human rights organizations to urge the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to investigate crimes which have occurred in occupied Palestine. Among other signers of the letter of Sept 17th to "Dear Madame Prosecutor," Al-Haq, Adameer, Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights, the International Federation for Human Rights, protest a history of unarmed Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, the ongoing destruction of Palestinian property, the destruction of communities and displacement of peoples. The letter points out that there are no remedies in local courts and the impunity of apparent oppression remains unchecked. The CCR's fidelity to international law is praiseworthy given the Trump administration's threats to penalize all those cooperating with the International Criminal Court. Previous.     Partial sources online: "The ICC must end impunity and open an investigation into crimes committed in occupied Palestine," Sept. 24, 2018, Center for Constitutional Rights email; " End Impunity and Open Investigation on Palestine," Sept. 17, 2018, alhaq.org [access:< http://alhaq.org/advocacy/targets/international-criminal-court-icc/1299--qq-/ >].

 

 

September 21, 2018

      Burma (Myanmar): on September 20, 2018 Canada's House of Commons unanimously passed a resolution condemning the government of Myanmar for genocide of the Rohingya and other minorities, recommending the case be turned over to the International Criminal Court. The move follows the release of the detailed report for the UN Human Rights Council by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar. The advance report released August 27th urged the military leadership of the country be investigated and charged with genocide, and other war crimes and crimes against humanity, and these primarily against the Rohingya but against other minorities as well; six military leaders were named in the report and the complicity of state counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was suggested while non-state armed groups said to include ethnic military groups were implicated in violations as well. The detailed report was released September 18th, reaffirming the conclusions of the advanced report. While the Rohingya remain the primary focus as victims of the government, the Fact-Finding Mission's concern with violations of humanitarian law in conflicts within the Kachin and Shan states, some of long duration between the government military and "the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the Shan State Army – South (SSA-S), the Shan State Army – North (SSA-N), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Arakan Army (AA), and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA)," show the extent of a military ethic which has exceeded human norms. In the Rakhine state, the Rohingya's self defense force, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), has evolved from villagers with "sticks and knives" to moderate organization among remaining villagers, but without funds for weapons, yet still able to mount anti-military attacks in October 2016 and August 2017 which were met with inappropriate degrees of violence. Atrocities and violations of humanitarian law intentionally against civilian villagers seems standard m.o. for the military ( called Tatmadaw) in the states of Kachin, Shan as well as Rakhine, and page after page of brutal examples show practices of a military system with no restraint or code of humanity. The detailed report is 444 pages long, and methodically also presents evidence of political, social and systemic acts and policies by the government which would lead to the destruction of a people. Night's Lantern's first of many genocide warnings for Myanmar appeared in 2012. Since August of 2017 over 750,000 Rohingya have fled Burma to Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a member of the International Criminal Court which is starting to investigate the forced deportation from Myanmar of Rohingya. While managing to avoid a direct challenge to Burmese state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi whom he met with in Burma September 20th, the Foreign Secretary of the U.K., Jeremy Hunt, has suggested Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya be turned over to the International Criminal Court if the Burmese government continues to refuse to address its crimes domestically. Press TV quotes him as saying ""We need to be absolutely clear that there can be no hiding place for anyone responsible for these kinds of atrocities." Previous.     Partial sources online: "Report of the lndependent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (A/HRC/39/64) (Advance Unedited Version) [EN/MY]," UN Human Rights Council, Aug. 27, 2018, reliefweb; "Report of the detailed findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (A/HRC/39/CRP.2)," UN Human Rights Council, Sept. 18, 2018, reliefweb; "Report of the detailed findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar," A/HRC/39/CRP.2, Sept. 17, 2018, Human rights Council Thirty-ninth session; "War crimes prosecutor begins examining alleged Rohingya deportations," Toby Sterling, Sept. 18, 2018, Reuters; "MPs unanimously declare Myanmar crackdown on Rohingya a 'genocide'," Kathleen Harris, Sept. 20, 2018, CBC News; "Myanmar may need to be referred to ICC: British foreign minister," Sept. 20, 2018, Press TV; "60 Churches Bombed or Burned: Kachin Christians Facing Genocide in Burma," Gary Lane, July 10, 2018 cbnnews.com; "Rohingya say Myanmar targeted the educated in genocide," Foster King, June 5, 2018, The Independent.

 

 

September 15, 2018

      U.S.A: The New York Times reports as many as 12,800 migrant children held in detention an increase of over 10,000 since May 2017. The number is much higher than previously made public with the media focusing on children remaining in detention who were taken from their parents earlier this year. While some have been reunited with their parents by court order, at the start of September 2018, 487 of the recently separated children remain in custody. New regulations proposed by the Trump administration would allow families to be incarcerated together and the children to be held in custody for years while their immigration cases are adjudicated. As applicants for asylum and as minors, the children have broken no law. The Department of Homeland Security explains the huge number as due to a reduction in the number of children permitted to live with relative or sponsors, and an increase in those entering the US. While The New York Times reports that facilities such as the Tornillo Texas tent city cost the government $750 per child per day, it doesn't reveal the names of the profiting organizations or of those contracted to build or rent new facilities. The Toronto Star reports that the government of El Salvador alleges three of the children were sexually abused under US authority in Arizona shelters and requests their return. A report by the American Civil Liberties Union and International Human Rights Clinic, University of Chicago Law School, of May 22, 2018 reveals data from 30,000 pages of documents retrieved through the Freedom of Information Act from US Customs and Border Protection. These show the system's extensive ongoing violence against and abuse of unaccompanied migrant children entering the US [access:< https://www.aclusandiego.org/civil-rights-civil-liberties/ >]. N.B. this should affect Canada's current considerations of whether the US is a "safe third country" for immigrants, or not. The status is further jeopardized by recent US policy intentions to discount the International Criminal Court (see previous).     Partial sources online: "Trump Administration Proposes New Rules to Detain Migrant Children Indefinitely," Jennifer Epstein, Sept. 6, 2018, "Bloomberg; "US Holding Nearly 13,000 Migrant Children in Detention Centers," Sept. 13, 2018, TeleSur; "Detention of Migrant Children Has Skyrocketed to Highest Levels Ever," Caitlin Dickerson, Sept. 12, 2018, The New York Times; "El Salvador government says three migrant children were sexually abused at U.S. shelters," Julie Watson (AP) Marcos Aleman, Aug. 31, 2018, The Toronto Star; "ACLU Obtains Documents Showing Widespread Abuse of Child Immigrants in U.S. Custody," May 22, 2018, ACLU.

 

      The Vatican: a Pennsylvania Grand Jury report released August 14th has found that Church documents at six Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses reveal at least 300 "predator priests" and over a thousand children victims of their sexual abuse. The report reveals some of the Church efforts to cover and conceal these crimes and implicates the Archbishop of Washington D.C. in the concealment of the crimes during his tenure as the Bishop of Pittsburgh. On August 16th The Vatican called the evidence of sexual abuse "criminal and morally reprehensible." On September 13th the Bishop of West Virginia was forced to resign due to allegations of sexual abuse. With allegations of sexual abuse by the Church and particularly of children in many countries (ie. Argentina, Germany, Chile, Ireland, the US) Pope Francis has convened a summit of bishops for February 2019 to find ways to protect children. Some have asked Pope Francis to resign. The rift in the Church is made worse by Pope Francis's duality where he appears to be a saint for the poor yet carries the stigma of complicity with the fascist Videla regime during Argentina's 'dirty war' (see previous). The criminal military regime was supported by both the Vatican and the US. Within North American institutions child abuse remains largely hidden and not limited to the Roman Catholic Church. Kevin Annett whose early work on revealing the crimes of Canada's Residential Schools for Indigenous peoples run by the Roman Catholic, Anglican and United Churches, gives ample evidence of institutional child abuse to the point of genocide (an example) yet remains ignored by the establishment media. Evidence of child abuse by the powerful particularly in the realm of mind control research and experiment is usually suppressed as "conspiracy theory." Annett's later work attempting to charge church and lay governing institutions with historical crimes including those of child abuse is suppressed by the media and discouraged by the public's reluctance to acknowledge the corruption of favoured institutions.     Partial sources online: "Kevin Annett on Residential School Genocide, Canada's Royal Family, and the Vatican" [access:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJGdO7zHE0c >]. "Why is the Pope still silent about damning sex abuse report?," Daniel Burke, August 16, 2018, CNN; "Vatican condemns sex abuse by Pennsylvania clergy," Aug. 16, 2018, CBC News; "Fall of a West Virginia Bishop Widens the Catholic Crisis Over Sex Abuse," Laurie Goodstein, Sept. 13, 2018, The New York Times; "Who is Pope Francis? Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Argentina’s 'Dirty War'," Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, March 14, 2013, Global Research.

 

 

September 12, 2018

 

      United States: "The Trump Administration's Wish to Let the ICC Die," by J.B. Gerald, graphic by J. Maas

 

 

 

 

 

August 17, 2018

      United States: initially eligible for parole in 1998 but denied parole ten times, Robert Seth Hayes was finally granted parole July 24, 2018, after 45 years in prison. Like his WWII veteran father he was a veteran, and wounded in Vietnam. During military service he was also called on for the control of uprisings after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. He became a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army. Members of both groups were victims of the FBI's COINTELPRO program. Convicted of killing a Transit policeman (he pleaded not guilty) and other crimes in 1973, he was sentenced to 25 years to life. The father of two children and now a grandfather he was a model prisoner. The length of his sentence ten years past eligibility for parole is understood as punishment for his political beliefs. During this long incarceration he was denied adequate treatment (1   2   3) for type 2 diabetes, hepatitis C and other illness and had to turn to prisoner support groups to pressure authorities into addressing his medical conditions. In the struggle for liberation of the oppressed so many remain in prison from the 60's, 70's, 80's, from lifetimes ago, as though prisons can hide the tragedy brought on by racial injustice. Free all political prisoners.     Partial sources online: "Black Panther Robert Seth Hayes Released After 45 Years," Aug. 9, 2018, Telesur; "Political prisoner of war, Robert Seth Hayes, paroled after 45 years," AUTODIDACT 17, August 9, 2018, Amsterdam News.

 
      South Africa: update. There is some evidence that the murders of white farmers are decreasing (Chutel, Quartz). Whites continue to own a high percentage of South Africa's farmland. Julius Malema, head of the Economic Freedom Fighters has warned of an unled revolution due to massive poverty in the Black population despite independence. Both Malema and current South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa (a man of great wealth) are committed to the expropriation of farmland without compensation. Nightslantern has noted four previous genocide warnings for Afrikaners. Two documentaries with insight into the increasing economic and racial tensions of South Africa: "Farmlands (2018) Official Documentary" [access:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_bDc7FfItk >] and the Deutsche Welle documentary, "Unrest in South Africa" [access:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygWRJ2Ht1kU >]     Partial sources online: "International outrage about a “genocide” against white farmers in South Africa ignores the data," Lynsey Chutel, June 5, 2018, Quartz; "White people are safe under his leadership - Malema," June 13, 2018, iafrica.com; "South Africa to amend constitution to allow land expropriation," July 31, 2018, BBC News; "Blood earth and South Africa's white farmers," J.B. Gerald, March 12, 2012, nightslantern.ca.

 
      The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea): the U.S. threat of annihilation first noted as a genocide warning in 2017, has eased. A short film by Andre Vltchek offers some insight into the peoples' lives: "The Faces of North Korea" [access:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV2RQCZqsTk&featu >]

 
      Iran: under an ongoing threat of destruction, noted on these pages as a genocide warning in 2007, a moment of the Iranian poet Shamlou's poetry: "Ahmad Shamlou ; 'The Final Word' (Trailer) Molsem Mansouri 2009" [access:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t2KlzjuQXY&feature=share >]

 

 

July 25, 2018
"Of Genocide and Those Who Do Nothing," by J.B. Gerald
 

 

July 20, 2018

      Israel / Palestine: On July 19, 2018 Israel's Parliament passed a Nation State law, a "basic law" which has the force of a constitutional amendment, officially declaring Israel the national home of Jewish people. In this instance, "Israel" refers to all of historical Palestine. In a country of under 9 million people about 6 and a half million are Jews, nearly 2 million Arabs and less than half a million Christians. Under the new law Arabic is no longer an official language. Only Jews have the right to national self-determination. The state plans to support Jews and Jewish culture in the Diaspora. Jewish-only settlement is encouraged. Jerusalem is claimed as Israel's capital. These are among other points enhancing the assumptions of the right-wing government's cultural perspective and world view. This basic law neglects minority rights and understands Israel's Arab and Christian peoples as second class citizens. The Zionist government is officially making Israel a Jewish rather than a democratic state. It is also firming ties with Europe's right-wing governments. This comes at a time when Israeli Defense Forces have shown a disregard for human life at Israel's border with Gaza *, the rights of civilians are violated, and the population of Gaza is being intentionally made to suffer to the point of eventual destruction *. This law presents a genocide warning for non-Jews living under the authority of Israel. Is a country declaring itself the homeland of only one racial, ethnic, or religious group, exclusively, furthering a genocide against a minority group with valid historical claims to the same land? Is the law's intention the destruction of Palestine and Palestinians as a national group?     Partial sources online: "Israel Approves Jewish Nation-State Law in Narrow Vote: Bill aims to give Jewish status priority over democracy," Jason Ditz, July 18, 2018, antiwar.com; "Israeli Law Declares the Country the ‘Nation-State of the Jewish People’," David M. Halbfinger and Isabel Kershner, July 19, 2018, The New York Times; "An unlikely union: Israel and the European far right," Ramzy Baroud & Romana Rubeo, July 17, 2018, Al Jazeera; "New Law Declares Israel a Jewish Nation-State with Hebrew as Sole National Language," July 19, 2019, Democracy Now!; "Demographics of Israel," current, Wikipedia; "Israel Approves Nationality 'Apartheid' Law," July 19, 2018, Telesur

 

 

July 14, 2018

      USA: (previous 1  2  3  4). There remains a lack of information on where thousands of unidentified migrant children are being held in detention, and the conditions of their imprisonment. download .pdf   8.5" x 11" leaflet

 

 

July 12, 2018

      U.S.A.:

9/11 Truth Film Festival-Part 6-William Pepper, No Lies Radio on Vimeo; [access:< https://vimeo.com/233568273 >].

This is a current, valid, truth-laden consideration of the assassinations of the 1960s which stripped America of its capacity to build a just democracy. How deeply history was misdirected was gradually understood in the fifty years after. The tragedy was also how easily the shift took hold, how cooperative people were through ignorance, how quickly the courage of the leaders was taken from their hearts. The assassinations weren't issues I could avoid since my then father-in-law was a tutor to the Kennedys at Harvard, and for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a people's march marshal on the Selma to Montgomery march I served as a body shield when we walked into Montgomery. I was also at the time a medic in the USAF reserves. Years later William Pepper noted evidence that Dr. King escaped being shot by a U.S. Army hit squad during that march by stepping out of the site line of fire. Pepper's address is embedded amid these notes and essays on the prevention of genocide because, defending the Convention early, I realized that the U.S. principle moral voices with the power to resist genocide, were gone. The use of napalm and agent-orange against the Vietnam infrastructure put the Vietnam Conflict into the category of a genocide by its intentional destruction of the country's infrastructure and food production. The attendant covert destruction of Cambodia's food supply by U.S. bombing was directly responsible for the genocide in Cambodia. The Kennedys and Martin Luther King Jr. were murdered because of their empowered objections to pursuing the war. After the assassinations the controlling military ethic found no impediment to the most unacceptable crimes against humanity, including the obliteration of Iraq. With the deaths of the Kennedys and King there was no longer a moral/political bastion of resistance to genocide which would became a conscious tactic of U.S. policy. Increasingly any resistance to genocide abroad or within the U.S. has to come from the people.

[Author's note: I find that by December 30th, 2019, the "9/11Truth Film Festival -Part 6" was deleted at its source. The following contains much of the same information: "William Pepper: US Role Assassinating Martin Luther King."   [access:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ISfWE6dMgw >].

 

 

July 7, 2018

      Iraq, historical note: "Fallujah - the Hidden Massacre". This Italian documentary provides evidence of use of a napalm-like chemical weapon, MK-77, in the U.S. bombardment of Iraq, as well as use of white phosphorous as a weapon against civilians in Fallujah. The photographs may help explain why use of these chemical weapons is a crime and those responsible should be held to account. Legal actions against U.S. and U.K leadership for multiple crimes in Iraq have been avoided through the sheer power of the perpetrators. A case against the genocide of Iraq, crimes against humanity and war crimes, was attempted in Spain, October 9, 2009 (see Narration of Facts by the Ad Hoc Committee for Justice for Iraq). In 2010 the case was rejected by the court. So was the appeal. The charges remain relevant. Possibly to avoid litigation most major powers (except Russia and India) and most European countries (except Germany) have avoided signing or ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, which came into force in 1970 and claims instances of war crimes and crimes against humanity are chargeable forever. A European Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes (Jan. 25, 1974, Strasbourg) and laws and codes of some individual countries already insist on this, as does the U.S. Naval Code. More to the point the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court refuses statutory limitations (a cut off date for prosecution) on any of the crimes which fall under its jurisdiction (Article 29). Awaiting its day in the court of history the case remains applicable.     Partial sources online: "Practice Relating to Rule 160. Statutes of Limitation," IHL Database, current, International Committee of the Red Cross; portion of "Fallujah, the Hidden Massacre," Sigfrido Ranucci & Maurizio Torrealta, Nov. 8, 2005, RAI Italia / Youtube [access:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yalyCk4kK-8 >] apprec. Aboriginal News Group .

N.B.: there's evidence white phosphorous as a weapon and sometimes sourced to the U.S., was also used by Ethiopian forces in Somalia, Kagame's forces in the invasion of Rwanda, Israeli forces in Gaza and Lebanon, U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Syria, Saudi Arabian forces in Yemen.

 

 

June 30, 2018

      Italy: right-wing party leader and Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini, has let the press know he's planning a census of the Roma so that he can expel those without proper documentation. Roma have been noticeably under attack in Italy since Silvio Berlusconi's programs in 2008, providing fascist politicians a means of gaining votes. However, ethnic cleansing through a racial census reminds some Italians of Mussolini and Hitler. Minister Salvini's suggestions drew a frightened response from Jewish groups throughout Europe. The European Grassroots Anti-racist Movement (EGAM) which holds a Roma Pride march every October in Europe has called for a European-wide Roma Pride march this October in Italy and asks all Italians to proclaim - "Siamo tutti Roma !" Italy has recently refused to allow landing of a shipload of 600 African migrants at sea (fortunately Spain took them in). The usually right wing programs of persecuting Roma peoples are linked to the campaigns against refugees, immigration and migrants in NATO countries, as if there is a coherent plan to disenfranchise vulnerable peoples. VOA quotes Salvini as saying last week, "Irregular foreigners will be deported via agreements with other countries, but Italian Roma unfortunately you have to keep at home." Supporting a police raid on the River Village Roma camp outside Rome last April, Casa Pound, which has grown into a fascist political party (exploiting the American poet Ezra Pound's moments of insanity) called for the camp to be shut down as so many others have already been. Salvini's neo-fascist Lega party has called for Roma children who weren't in school to be taken away from their families (VOA). There's an indication here of an international fascist platform, if not an agreement of like minds (see previous). Since 2008 Night's Lantern has carried eight genocide warnings for Roma in Italy, and if this seems extreme, read them.     Partial sources online: "Specter of Mussolini evoked as Italy’s Salvini orders full census & expulsion of Roma ‘illegals’," June 18, 2018, TV-Novosti; "Siamo tutti Roma!" EGAM, June 29, 2018, EGAM; "European Jews Watch on in Fear as Italy Targets Roma People," JTA and Cnaan Liphshiz, June 24, 2018, Haaretz; "Accustomed to Police Raids, Italy's Gypsies Fear Vigilante Attacks," Jamie Dettmer, June 24, 2018, Voice of America.

 

 

June 27, 2018

    Canada: on June 26th Lawyers Rights Watch Canada asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, to have Canada revoke the Canada-US "Safe Third Country Agreement." The agreement prevents refugees entering Canada from the U.S., from seeking asylum in Canada since refugees must ask the first 'safe' country they arrive in. The agreement also allows return of refugees to the States and then countries of origin, and makes application for asylum in Canada by U.S. citizens, nearly impossible. This letter clarifies violations of international law by U.S. policies and actions toward refugees and their children. It's available at Lawyers Rights Watch Canada, and here. See previous, 1 and 2.     Partial sources online: "Canada: Systematic US Violation of International Human Rights of Refugee Children and Families | Letter," Catherine Morris, J.B.Gerald, June 27, 2018, Lawyers Rights Watch Canada [access:< http://www.lrwc.org/ws/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/LRWC.Canada-USA.26June2018.FINAL_.pdf >].

 

      The U.S. Border with Mexico:

On June 26th, 17 of the United States, and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit at federal court, Seattle Washington, to make the Trump administration unite the children and parents separated in detention by U.S. authorities at the Mexican U.S. border. The states' argument is the overburdening resulting expenses to the states, in child welfare and social services.

Shortly after, in a case brought before U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego by the American Civil Liberties Union (Ms. L et al v U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement et al) for a Congolese seeking asylum from religious persecution and separated at entry for four months from her 6 year old daughter, Judge Sabraw ordered those separated be reunited with their parents within 30 days; he has also required children under five reunited within two weeks. The U.S. government is likely to appeal.

At federal court in Los Angeles, rights activists have asked that parents be released from detention to be reunited with their kids. The government hasn't revealed any plan to reunite these children forcibly transferred from their parents to the U.S. government.

Previously, court cases against Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center near Staunton Virginia and the Shiloh Treatment Center in Manvel, Texas, have revealed evidence of abuse, torture and psychotropic drugging of the children placed in detention centres. Karen Greensberg in The Nation reports that the Justice Department has cut funding to legal aid and has begun to require "special certification" for any lawyers from NGOs seeking to represent detainees pro bono.

Bloomberg notes that in 2017 the U.S. Border Patrol arrested 70 thousand families and 48 thousand unaccompanied children crossing the border from Mexico. These figures are limited to people from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, as countries of origin. An additional 3 and a half thousand families and 12 thousand unaccompanied children with Mexico as their country of origin were arrested crossing from Mexico. Where are these children?

Partial sources online: "U.S. states sue Trump administration over migrant family separations," Gene Johnson, Michael Balsamo, Will Weissert, AP, June 26, 2018, The Globe and Mail; "US Court Documents Reveal Immigrant Children Tied Down, Hooded, Beaten, Stripped and Drugged," Patrick Martin, June 22, 2018, World Socialist Web; "Trump’s Border: Gitmo for Kids," Karen J. Greensberg, June 27, 2018, The Nation; "U.S. judge orders migrant families to be reunited," Jonathan Stempel & Doina Chiacu (Reuters), June 27, 2018, The Globe and Mail; "Trump Urges New U.S. Border Policy: ‘You Can’t Come In’," Justin Sink & Margaret Talev, June 26, 2018, Bloomberg.

 

 

June 21, 2018

      Canada: "'Safe Third Country' eh," by J.B.Gerald, graphic by J. Maas.

 

 

June 19, 2018     The U.S. border with Mexico     Philadelphia

      The U.S. border with Mexico: "When Governments Take Children Hostage," by J.B.Gerald, graphic by J. Maas.

 

      Philadelphia: on June 16, political prisoner Debbie Sims Africa, one of the MOVE 9, was granted parole. Denied parole two years ago she was released after almost 40 years imprisonment on unproven charges. The Guardian reports that Janine Phillips Africa and Janet Holloway Africa, due for parole at the same time were denied but able to have another hearing in May 2019. Also remaining to be freed are Mike Davis Africa (with a parole board hearing in September), Eddie Goodman Africa, Chuck Sims Africa, Delbert Orr Africa. Two of the MOVE 9 have died in prison under unclear circumstances. The MOVE 9 became eligible for parole in 2008. They were sentenced to from 30 to 100 years for the death of a policeman under fire during massive attack by authorities to force them out of their dwelling. The police expended two thousand rounds of ammunition while evidence connecting any of the MOVE 9 to a firearm is lacking. Surviving the police attack Debbie Sims Africa close to term with her son had her nearly 2 year old daughter taken from her. She wasn't allowed to raise her children. 5 of the MOVE group's children were killed with 6 of the adult members in the 2008 Philadelphia police fire bombing of their dwelling. See previous. Mumia Abu-Jamal's radio coverage and witnessing as a journalist of police crimes against MOVE was followed by the police charging him with the murder of a policeman which placed him on death row.     Partial sources online: "MOVE member Debbie Africa released," Betsey Piette, June 17, 2018, Mundo Obrero / Workers World; "'This is huge': black liberationist speaks out after her 40 years in prison," Ed Pilkington, June 18, 2018, The Guardian.

 

 

June 16, 2018     Bolivia     Yemen

      Bolivia: on April 3rd, condemned by a jury for the murders of protestors by police under his regime, former President of Bolivia, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada and his Defense Minister, Carlos Sanchez Berzain, were to pay $10 million dollars compensation to the families of their victims. However on appeal, Florida Judge James Cohn, ruled May 30th that there just wasn't enough evidence.... He dismissed the jury's verdict. Berzain and de Lozada have been living in the U.S. as refugees since the October 2003 massacre when police opened fire on protestors objecting to the export of natural gas, killing 67, wounding about 400. Former President de Lozada went to a Quaker school in Iowa, then the University of Chicago; in Bolivia he was occasionally referred to as "El gringo."     Partial sources online: "US Judge Revokes Sentence Condemning Bolivian Genocide," May 31, 2018, Telesur; "Bolivia ex-leader 'not responsible' for protest deaths," May 31, 2018, BBC News; "U.S. jury finds ex-Bolivia leader responsible for civilian deaths," Danny Ramos, April 3, 2018, Reuters.

 

      Yemen: on the verge of what the media concede is a humanitarian crisis, about seven million of the Houthi Shiite population in Yemen face starvation as U.S. backed Saudi/UAE forces cut the food supply line and take over the port town of Hodeidah. The Saudis have been bombing and destroying Yemen's infrastructure since at least 2015. Starved by military tactics, war and famine, the Houthi face a terminal food shortage headlined in Modern Diplomacy as "America's genocide". Missing from current media reports on Yemen is news of the ongoing cholera epidemic, the largest in history, and related to the destruction of the country's infrastructure. According to the World Health Organization, between April 2017 and May 2018 Yemen endured 1,100,720 cases of cholera with 2,291 associated deaths. Yemen authorities, WHO and UNICEF, have administered an oral cholera vaccination program (a dose lasts 6 months, 2 last 3 years) from May 6th to 15th, but WHO says millions remain at risk. Reporting in Yemen, Gary Brecher makes a strong case that the famine was/is artificially (ie. intentionally) induced by the Saudi and allied military blockade of food as well as medical supplies. Blockading medical relief for prevention and treatment of cholera in areas of high poverty seems the current weapon of choice against the poor, not only in Yemen but in Haiti. In Zimbabwe an overwhelming cholera epidemic in 2008-2009 was claimed by its Minister of the Interior to be the result of biological warfare. Cholera is fairly easily controlled but lethal when there is a lack of fast medical response, as in areas of war, natural disasters and contaminated water. So there is a kind of impunity in the U.S. backed Saudi coalition's intention to deny a starving civilian population in a war zone, food, clean water, and medical supplies. The Saudi alliance military actions are enforcing conditions which inevitably lead to mass death. The hugeness of the crime finds its way into random incidents. A new Médecins Sans Frontières cholera treatment facility clearly marked with the logos of MSF and the Red Crescent was bombed by U.S. supported Saudi/UAE forces on June 11, 2018. As a result of violence against them throughout the country the Red Cross has had to pull 71 of its workers. Records should be kept of the chains of command for military actions and the blockade of supplies necessary for the civilian population, and of arms supply to the region, with the aim of eventual prosecution. Genocide warning.     Partial sources online: "America’s Genocide in Yemen Starts Tuesday," Eric Zuesse, June 12, 2018, moderndiplomacy; "The War Nerd: Anglo-American Media’s Complicity in Yemen’s Genocide," Gary Brecher w. The Exiled, June 11, 2018, naked capitalism; "Fighting the world’s largest cholera outbreak: oral cholera vaccination campaign begins in Yemen," 10 May 2018, World Health Organization; "Battle for Hodeidah: How the destruction of one Yemen port could send millions into famine," Bethan McKernan, May 29, 2018, Independent: "MSF Cholera Treatment Centre attacked in Abs Yemen," Médecins Sans Frontières, June 11, 2018, reliefweb; "WHO: Cholera ‘continues to threaten millions’ in Yemen," June 6, 2018, MEMO/Middle East Monitor; "Outbreak update – Cholera in Yemen, 31 May 2018," May 31, 2018, World Health Organization.

 

 

June 14, 2018

      Cameroun: the Battle of Languages Serves Colonial Masters. There is increasing likelihood of a civil war in Cameroun. Captured from German interests during WWII by the Free French, the Camerouns were divided into British Cameroun to the North and French Cameroun to the South. At its Independence from France January 1, 1960, French Cameroun became the Republic of Cameroun or Cameroun as we know it. To the North, under plebiscite, the southern portion of what was called British Cameroun voted to join the French speaking Republic of Cameroun, and the northern (Muslim) portion of British Cameroun voted to join English speaking Nigeria. Currently.... (to continue).

 

 

June 11, 2018

      Canada: (update). Erroneously reported by the British Columbia Ministry of the Environment as 100 litres, the Kinder Morgan pipeline spill at Darfield May 27th, two days before the pipeline's sale to the Canadian government, was revised June 10th to have been 4800 litres. Generally environmental assessments by all governments are unreliable when these present a danger to the population, but usually in the area of radiation statistics after Fukushima and other instances of widespread nuclear and radiation contamination. Statistics of radioactive contamination of food sources currently remain suppressed news. 30 years after Chernobyl, the radioactive cesium contamination of milk 125 miles distant (the Rivne region of the Ukraine) is found to be 5 times the Ukraine's adult safety limit and 12 times its safety limit for children.     Partial sources online: "Kinder Morgan Pipeline Leak Two Days Before Trudeau Buyout Was 48 Times Larger Than First Reported," Jake Johnson, June 11, 2018, Common Dreams / EcoWatch; "Nathan Cullen accuses Canada of buying 'lemon' from Kinder Morgan after estimated size of oil spill multiplies by 48 times," National Observer, June 11, 2018, National Observer; "Indigenous resistance, title make Trans Mountain pipeline extension ‘untenable,’ says economist," Justin Brake, June 8, 2018, aptn; "Ukrainian cow milk has ‘five times safe level of radioactivity’, study finds", Tom Barnes, June 7, 2018, Independent; "Fukushima nuclear disaster: Lethal levels of radiation detected in leak seven years after plant meltdown in Japan," Jeff Farrell, Feb. 2, 1018, Independent.

 

 

May 31, 2018    Canada    Ukraine     U.S.A.

      Canada: under Justin Trudeau the Canadian government has purchased the Kinder Morgan pipeline shifting from the Texas Kinder Morgan company to the Canadian people the burden of the pipeline construction's difficulties. The Government has the option of reselling the pipeline. In the early hours of May 26 a pipeline pump station in Darfield B.C. began leaking about 100 gallons (see update) of medium crude blend and Kinder Morgan had to shut it down. And on May 26th anti-pipeline groups held a peaceful Montreal rally against the pipeline construction, and while a number of speakers addressed the familiar political issues, a native prayer gave thanks for all that we need, the trees, the air, the oceans, the wind, the sun, the, stars, animals, insects, birds fish, the earth under our feet. Because the pipeline threatens the environment and habitat of natives and non-natives regionally and beyond, this isn't exclusively an Indigenous issue. The Aboriginal peoples have more legal rights to protest with; non-Indigenous peoples against the project may find themselves facing an overwhelming need to preserve the environment, without legal support other than human rights law and the common sense of judges.

 

      Ukraine: following the lead of Nazi programs to control the German people, advanced anti-Semitic incidents continue. So far their purpose seems to be to terrorize the Jewish and minority populations and build a conforming nationalist norm to wage war against Russia. This is useful to U.S. and NATO anti-Russian policy. The campaign to increase intense racist nationalism extends to persecution of the Roma and LGBTQ communities. On April 20-21 a small group (about 12) of far right fascists from "C-14" attacked and burned homes of Roma in the capital city Kiev. The elements of persecuting minorities include marches with Nazi salutes and swastikas, direct threats against Jews, graffiti praising Hitler, use of pejorative terms for Jewish people, vandalizing the tomb of a rabbi sacred to the community, public and political praise for Nazi collaborators, honoring a former SS battalion known for slaughtering Jews and Poles, honoring of Stepan Bandera, the fire bombing of a Holocaust memorial, and of a synagogue, the theft of religious articles, desecrating grave markers of Holocaust victims, lack of police protection against the displays of fascism and twisted rhetoric of overt anti-Semitism, etc. These are tactics which could be easily recognized as fascist by the Canadian government and unacceptable, yet Canada and the U.S. have staunchly supported Ukraine's anti-Russian government. The tactics become a source of anxiety for peoples who believe in democracy. While Israel has found the Government of the Ukraine slow to deal effectively with anti-Semitism, any information about Israel's support for the Ukraine's Jewish communities - is hard to find. While a genocide warning for the Jewish communities continues with its warning to other Ukrainian minority communities as well, it may clarify for Jewish communities of other nations just how much support Israel will provide in the event of fascist outbreaks and takeovers. Anti-Semitism in the Ukraine is considered on the increase as U.S. and Canadian military support grows. The U.S. House of Representatives voted a 250 million dollar military budget for the Ukraine May 24th, and last year the Ukraine received 200 million dollars in U.S. military aid. FRN and Russian news groups report that Canadian and U.S. troops (as NATO forces) have recently died in a minefield near Avdeevka.     Partial sources online: "Violent Anti-Semitism Is Gripping Ukraine — And The Government Is Standing Idly By," Lev Golinkin, May 26, 2018, Forward; "Police Break Silence After Video Shows Far-Right Attack On Kyiv Roma," Christopher Miller, April 26, 2018, Radio Free Europe; "Far Right Hate Group Shuts Down LGBTQ Event in Ukraine Following Threats," Nico Lang, May 11, 2018, Into; "Is there anti-Semitism in Ukraine? Look at the facts," Viktor Ruzhynsky, May 16, 2018, 112UA; "NATO Troops Killed in Donbass, War Provocations Suspected," Eduard Popov, May 19, 2018. FRN; "U.S. Congress approves $250 mln in military aid to Ukraine," May 25, 2018, "UNIAN; "America’s Collusion With Neo-Nazis," Stephen F. Cohen, May 2, 2018, The Nation.

 

      U.S.A.: The U.S. currently has a staggeringly cruel policy of separating children from their parents if the families are caught crossing the border illegally into the States. In the past children, who are alone when caught crossing the border, have been placed with caretakers or sponsors by the Department of Homeland Security. While individual States have mechanisms for vetting the custodial parents, the federal government's are less stringent and 1475 children were found missing by the end of 2017. This group pre-dates the current policy of separating families and refers only to children caught illegally entering the States on their own. But the worry is that children have fallen and will fall into the hands of sexual predators, the sex trade traffic, the body parts market, and slavery.     Partial sources online: "The feds lost ' yes, lost ' 1,475 migrant children," EJ Montini, May 22, 2018, azcentral.; "1,475 Missing Immigrant Children," David Leonhardt, May 29, 2018, The New York Times.

 

 

May 20, 2018

stay calm decolonize     no pasarán
      Canada:

Article 32
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for the development or use of their lands or territories and other resources.
2. States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources.
                                                  - United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Canada was one of the four countries officially objecting to the Declaration when it was passed by the UN General Assembly Sept. 13, 2007. In 2010 the Harper government endorsed the Declaration, without making it legally binding. On May 10, 2016 Canada officially withdrew its objector status and made the Declaration legally binding in Canada. To quote Carolyn Bennett, Minister of what was then Indigenous and Northern Affairs, "We are now a full supporter of the declaration, without qualification... We intend nothing less than to adopt and implement the declaration in accordance with the Canadian Constitution." Section 35 of the Constitution assures Indigenous title , rights, where consent is required. This was specifically reiterated by the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Tsilhqot’in Nation vs. B.C.. Projects such as the Kinder Morgan pipeline require Indigenous consent from the native peoples of the lands they affect. The company obtained approval for its pipeline from some of the Indigenous bands affected. Others have not approved at all and are protesting the violation of their rights. Prime Minister Trudeau's Liberal government is heavily committed to supporting the Kinder Morgan project despite location of the company's headquarters in Houston Texas. Grand Chief Serge Simon, head of the Treaty Alliance Against the Tar Sands Expansion, has let the government and company know of the seriousness of native resistance: "They refuse to acknowledge that it’s the First Nations out west that are prepared to be arrested... They’re prepared to go all-out to prevent this from being built."     Partial sources online: "As Feds and Alberta talk, Indigenous rights left out of Trans Mountain debate," Lucy Scholey, April 12, 2018, aptn; "First Nations court challenges continue to hang over $7.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion," Gordon Hoekstra, April 19, 2018, Vancouver Sun; "Trudeau’s support of Kinder Morgan leading to a ‘flashpoint’ of Indigenous resistance," May 18, 2018, aptn; "Canada officially adopts UN declaration on rights of Indigenous Peoples," Tim Fontaine, May 10, 2016, CBC News; "Comment: There should be no confusion about aboriginal consent," Roshan Danesh, Oct. 23, 2016, Times Colonist.

 

 

May 19, 2018

      Gaza: in response to actions on the boundary between Gaza and Israel (see previous 1 and 2) the U.N. Human Rights Council on May 18th passed a resolution to form an “independent, international commission of inquiry” into the killings of Palestinians. Its report is due in March 2019. With 29 of the 47 members affirming, the Council condemned "the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by the Israeli occupying forces against Palestinian civilians" (The Washington Post). Also according to The Washington Post the Israeli-Egyptian blockade is a response to the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007. Egypt's participation in the blockade may have been intended to control the movement of people with diverse politics. Nevertheless Egypt as well bears responsibility for the suffering of Gaza's people. The U.S. and Australia voted against the resolution. Britain and Germany were among the abstentions. On May 14th the U.S. vetoed a similar resolution before the U.N. Security Council. The General Assembly's views are evident in its vote last December against the U.S.'s declaration of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. On May 18 a summit of 57 Arab leaders convened by Turkey's President Erdogan as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, suggested resolution through the offices of the U.N., which included an international peace force to protect the Palestinians.     Partial sources online: "Israeli Settler Colonialism and Occupation Fact Sheet," Robert Barsocchini, May 18, 2018, Global Research; "U.N. sets up human rights probe into Gaza killings, to Israel's fury," Tom Miles, May 18, 2018, Reuters; "UN Jerusalem vote: General Assembly rules against US, declaring recognition of Israel capital 'null and void'," Mythili Sampathkumar, Dec.21, 2017, The Independent; "Gaza border protests resume as UN calls for inquiry," Ashraf Sweilam & Fares Akram (AP), May 18, 2018, The Washington Post; "Muslim leaders call for international protection force for Palestinians," Ali Kucukgocmen, Tulay Karadeniz, May 18, 2018, Reuters.

 

 

May 16, 2018

      Gaza: the UN has known since 2012 that Gaza may be uninhabitable by 2020 (Report on UNCTAD assistance to the Palestinian people: Developments in the economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territory). Blockades have impeded the basic necessities of life, hospital supplies, materials necessary for reconstruction and replenishment after Israel's military campaigns. Water sources have been contaminated or denied. Electric power is often denied. In order to counter psychological and physical conditions destroying their people's ability to have any future at all, Palestinians are protesting at the border with Israel. Palestinians are being shot, wounded and killed in large numbers, on their own land and on their own side of the border, by Israel's snipers under illegal orders encouraging them to use force against the unarmed protesters. Since these protests at the border began on March 30th, 12,271 Palestinians have been wounded, 112 or more, killed. When the U.S. contrary to international law declared Jerusalem Israel's capital and relocated the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem May 14th, international law's power to restrain criminal acts was weakened. On May 14th amid the unarmed crowd of 40,000 protesters at the border 2771 were wounded, and 60 killed. Canada's government expressed sadness and deep concern. On May 16th Prime Minister Trudeau called for "an immediate independent investigation" in response to allegations of an inexcusable use of force. The shooting of Dr. Tarek Loubani, a Canadian in his surgical clothes, is not understandable. The member of Dr. Loubani's medical team who saved him was shot and killed in another rescue attempt shortly after. The U.S. takes Israel's position that "Israel has the right to defend itself." Britain's Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry MP has asked her House of Commons to "Stop this vicious slaughter." Arab and Islamic countries have condemned Israel's violent actions against unarmed people. Victims were not only shot while praying and kneeling, but included children and clearly marked medical personnel and members of the press. According to The Electronic Intifada, "An Israeli general [Brigadier-General (Reserve) Zvika Fogel] has confirmed that when snipers stationed along Israel’s boundary with Gaza shoot at children, they are doing so deliberately, under clear and specific orders." According to truthout Amnesty International has documented that hundreds of people "have been hit with hunting bullets that 'expand and mushroom inside the body...." Deliberate atrocities form an illegal policy which is continuing with impunity: another genocide warning for Gaza and Palestine. To not recognize that the Convention on Genocide is violated many times over becomes a convenience of sophistry. Article II, a., b., c. are violated. There are two genocide warnings here. Mercifully the second lacks evidence but holds with common sense. It's a genocide warning for the people of Israel. A difficulty with impunity is the helplessness of victim groups - particularly when they are denied justice, particularly when the actions of the guilty become too outrageous or inexcusable, there is finally a human response throughout many countries. Suppressed, denied, overpowered, still it grows stronger. By not listening to the international community the Government of Israel places Israelis at risk of retribution. Documentation of Israel's alleged violations of international law should be available from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B'Tselem, and others.     Partial sources online: "The Massacre in Gaza: A Deliberate and Calculated Policy," Steven Chovanec, May 15, 2018, truthout; "Snipers ordered to shoot children, Israeli general confirms," Ali Abunimah, April 22, 2018, The Electronic Intifada; "What you need to know the Gaza border violence and the global backlash against Israel," Globe Staff, The Associated Press, and Reuters, May 14 & May 16, 2018, The Globe and Mail; "Israel: Gaza Killings Unlawful, Calculated, Officials Green-Light Shooting of Unarmed Demonstrators," April 3, 2018, Human Rights Watch; "Trudeau calling for independent probe of reported use of 'excessive force' in Gaza shootings," John Paul Tasker, May 16, 2018, CBC News; "UN General Assembly Votes for Palestinians," J. B. Gerald, Dec. 9, 2017, nightslantern.ca.

 

 

May 10, 2018

      New York City, NY: On April 27th, 2018 Herman Bell went home to his friends and family. Eligible for parole after 25 years he served 45 years, as a model prisoner. His 8th application for parole was granted by the New York State Parole Board Feb. 18, 2018 but the announcement was followed with extreme attempts by the New York Police Department's Patrolmen's Benevolent Association to make sure Bell never left prison.... (continue reading "Why Are They Still in Prison?")

 

      Philadelphia, PA: Historical note: survivors of the MOVE 9 are being kept in prison to silence the truth. Without proof 9 were convicted of shooting one policeman and each was sentenced to from 30 to 100 years. Police brutality caused the miscarriage of 2 children carried by MOVE women, the alleged murder of another child and other children who were killed in the police bombing of MOVE's residence. 7 MOVE members are up for parole this year and should be freed. Police crimes in this case need to be known and understood by all Americans and internationally, everyone concerned with justice. The documentary is narrated by Howard Zinn. See: Move! Part 1/6 [access:< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbOPrV_NHAE&feature=share >].

 

 

April 18, 2018

April 9, 2018

The ultimate logic of racism is genocide." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
      St. Mary's, Georgia: on the evening of April 4th, the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a group of dedicated pacifists entered the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base without authorization. The Kings Bay Plowshares are Carmen Trotta, Clare Grady, Mark Colville, Elizabeth McAlister (former nun and founder of Jonah House, widow of the U.S. Peace movement hero and former priest Phil Berrigan), Martha Hennessy (granddaughter of Dorothy Day), Jesuit Fr. Stephen Kelly, and Patrick O'Neill. The base hosts Trident submarines armed with nuclear missiles and is part of a U.S. nuclear first strike program. The Kings Bay Plowshares carried with them baby bottles filled with their own blood, hammers, an indictment and banners. Among banners was a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr - "The ultimate logic of racism is genocide." Another banner read "The ultimate logic of Trident is omnicide.” The indictment they carried charges the U.S. government, President Trump, the Kings Bay Base commander, the nuclear Triad and Trident nuclear program, with violating United Nations Treaty law and international law, with war crimes. They identify themselves as "white Catholics" but repenting the sin of white supremacy. The seven are currently at the county's Public Safety Complex after being charged with a misdemeanor - criminal trespass, and two felonies - "interference with government property," and the "possession of tools in the commission of a crime." They were denied bond. Their path is constant.