nightslantern * * *
*suppressed news
concerned with the prevention of genocide
by j. b. gerald2014
December 13, 2014
United Nations: on December 11th the Office of the Special Advisers on the Prevention of Genocide and on the Responsibility to Protect, released The Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes, a listing of criteria present in and applicable to atrocity crimes as they form and progress, particularly the crime of genocide. It's an aware, accurate, thorough, intelligent tool for recognizing genocide before mass killing starts. At its launching, wide dissemination as a document belonging to the world's people, was urged by the UN's Deputy Secretary General. Adama Dieng, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Prevention of Genocide, has warned that "not a single country is immune to the risk of genocide." Because a large number of the Framework's criteria can be applied to policies of the United States and Canada, the document is likely to be suppressed by NATO country media. In the U.S. current evidence of CIA torture practices (the Feinstein report) compounds government's commitment to crimes of atrocity: a morally terminal crime torture is also symptomatic of genocide. The UN special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, Ben Emmerson, has stated that U.S. officials involved in torture must be prosecuted. The UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, noting that the U.S. is party to the Convention Against Torture, says the U.S. must ensure accountability. But the U.S. Justice Department refuses to prosecute these known violations of domestic and international law and many Americans are frightened by the widely publicized impunity into cooperation. Avoiding partisan politics the Framework for Analysis doesn't point out that the policies and actions which become warnings signs of atrocity crimes, usually appear with right wing governments, corporate acquisition, and military takeover. Its criteria understand a connection between resource development and genocide of the Indigenous people. Although it addresses crimes of atrocity as applied by militaries there is recognition of the inevitable genocides resulting from destabilization, displacement, homelessness, starvation. Many of the criteria put forth in the document affirm and strengthen nightslantern's genocide warnings and entries throughout nightslantern's "suppressed news". Partial sources online: "Genocide begins with ‘dehumanization;’ no single country is immune from risk, warns UN official," Press release, Dec. 9, 2014, United Nations News Centre; "UN launches new tool to help to stop atrocity crimes ‘before tensions escalate’," Press release, Dec. 11, 2014, United Nations News Centre; "Deputy Secretary-General's remarks at Launch of the “Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes – a tool for prevention” - From Early Warning to Early Action: The Contribution of New Tools and Non-State Actors to an Effective Prevention Strategy [as prepared for delivery]," Dec. 11, 2014, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; "UN counterterrorism expert says U.S. officials must be prosecuted for CIA torture," AP, Dec. 10, 2014, CBC News; UN expert calls for prosecution of CIA officials over torture report," John Heilprin, AP, Dec. 10, 2014, thestar.com.
December 2, 2014 Updates: "Why the Genocides Continue," by John Bart Gerald.
Iraq: Nightslantern notes an ongoing genocide warning for Iraq's national group, beginning in 1990. It may be inevitable that the genocide of a national group proceeds through the destruction of its parts. The U.S. has initiated military actions against the Muslim fundamentalist group ISIS which is killing large numbers of non-adherents. The U.S. President's justification of military action was to save Yazidi refugees, alluding to the prevention of a genocide. Christians risk mass death at the hands of ISIS in Iraq, within a context where the previous devastation of the country could result in the ultimate loss of its Christian population. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called the current massacres by ISIS related groups, "genocide", as Germany considers expansion of its humanitarian aid for the Kurds in Northern Iraq to supplying weapons. These are minor impediments to massacres like aftershocks to the U.S. and Coalition's horrendous attacks on the entire nation. A genocide warning for Iraq's ethnic minorities, Christians, Assyrians, Yazidis, Kurds, is added to the ongoing genocide warning for the people of Iraq as a national group. See "Narration of Facts," by the Ad Hoc Committee for Justice for Iraq. Partial sources online: "Genocide averted, Iraq crisis persists," Philip Ewing, Aug. 14, 2014, Politico; "ISIS Violence:' All Warning Signs of Genocide,'" Aug. 8, 2014, Sky News; "Merkel accuses Isis of genocide," Aug. 27, 2014, The Local; "Genocide: Christians, religious minorities flee violent persecution in Iraq," Aug. 25, 2014, The Catholic Sun; "White House won’t commit to stopping looming genocide of Christians, Kurds in Iraq," Ben Wolfgang, Aug. 7, 2014, The Washington Times; "Confronting the Yazidi Genocide," Aren Torikian, Aug. 27, 2014, The Armenian Weekly; "ISIS 'Made in USA'. Iraq 'Geopolitical Arsonists' Seek to Burn Region," Tony Cartalucci, June 18, 2014, New Eastern Outlook.
Gaza: a genocide warning continues. Israel's military operation against Gaza, "Protective Edge", has brought a terrible awareness to the world. With a long-term truce declared August 27th, the horrifying effects of a war on their right to exist will remain indelible in the minds of Gazans. These operations against Gaza are periodic. The normalcy of destruction and Israel's insistence on the right to oppress are not tolerable yet the people of Gaza endure the bombing of their homes and deaths in their families. Gazans are refusing extinction. However badly Hamas resistance is damaged, it continues. Israel's right to exist is endangered by refusing that right to Palestinians. The lasting result of operation "Protective Edge" is that Israel's policy toward Gaza and Palestine is becoming widely recognized as a genocide....(Continue reading "The Mourning Hasn't Begun").
Israel continues its oppression of Gaza with direct military actions against a civilian population. These are covered in major media as a response to the desperate firing of rockets at Israel by militants, without military effect. Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas defines Israel's policy as genocide. On July 9th he told an emergency meeting of Palestinian leadership: “What’s happening now is a war against the Palestinian people as a whole and not against the (militant) factions" ( Al Arabiya). The UN Security Council has not intervened and attempts to de-escalate the crisis have failed. What is happening now is the continuation of an established policy. Night's Lantern first noted a genocide warning for Gaza in 2006, with ten additional warnings in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2013 (see "Genocide warnings and updates"). Francis Boyle at the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission on November 21, 2012 clarified Israel's policy as genocide in his argument before the court. Israel, with a claim to represent world Jewry is risking the entire religious group to retribution. In France for example, Jews as innocent of violence as Gazans begin to suffer random acts of violence and increased anti-Semitism: an estimated 5000 will emigrate to Israel this year. Israel's need for settlement space will increase. A cycle of catastrophe is in progress. Partial sources online: "Gaza genocide and criminal rogue Israel," Francis Boyle, July 11, 2014, Press TV; "Abbas: Israel committing ‘Genocide’ in Gaza," Staff, July 9, 2014, Al Arabiya News; "Number of French Jews Emigrating to Israel Rises," Dan Bilefsky, June 20, 2014, The New York Times; graphic from 2009.
Africa / North America: on June 30th the African Union summit meeting at Equatorial Guinea voted the "Protocol on Amendments to the Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights." It maintains that while in power, African leaders and "senior officials" are not subject to prosecution for genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity. In principle the Protocol mirrors the judicial realities of Canada and the U.S. which assure our heads of state immunity, but less overtly....(continue "Of Leadership and Genocide," by J.B.Gerald).
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Historical note: Independence 1960. Grand Kalle - "Independance Cha Cha" [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y6BjNJD0ZM >].
Global: the United Nations reports over fifty million of the world's people are refugees or "forcibly displaced persons", with half of these, children. A New York Times headline falsely implies this is a result of civil wars ("U.N. Reports Sharp Increase in Refugees as Civil Wars Cripple Nations"). The U.N. alludes to the principle cause as "wars", and avoids naming the aggressors. Displaced persons in Syria for example, are the result of a war initiated, funded, and supplied from beyond its borders. The disintegraton of Iraq society is a result of U.S. and allied bombings and invasions. The input of NATO country aggression through armed support of a political position disrupting the national fabrics of Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Cote d'Ivoire, Libya, among others has resulted in massive displacement of each country's people. Remaining alive, the refugees are casualties of destabilization and attempts at regime change by powers seeking the resources of victim countries. Partial sources online: "UNHCR: Refugee numbers highest since World War II," Scott Martelle, June 20, 2014, Los Angeles Times; "UN Rights body warned Syria conflict threatens whole region," June 18, 2014, Jurist; "U.N. Reports Sharp Increase in Refugees as Civil Wars Cripple Nations," Somini Sengupta, June 20, 2014, International New York Times; "War's Human Cost: UNHCR Global Trends 2013", June 20, 2014, UNHCR.
China: despite its official policy of not interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, on Feb. 28th, China responded to U.S. official criticisms of its human rights policies with "Human Rights Record of the United States in 2013," a white paper from the Information Office of the State Council. The paper cites instances of racial, ethnic, sexual, and economic persecution, discrimination and lack of protection for the rights of children. Relying on U.S. and United Nations sources, among a wide and familiar variety of domestic crimes the report also faults civilian deaths in drone strikes abroad, gun related domestic violence, government surveillance, homelessness, the treatment of Indigenous peoples and 80,000 U.S. prisoners held in solitary confinement - some for over 40 years. Among faults noted: the U.S. has either not ratified or is not a party to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities or the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Partial sources online: "China Issues Retaliatory Report on US Human Rights," Feb. 28, 2014, VOA; "China issues report on U.S. human rights," Feb. 28, 2014, Xinhua; "Full text of Human Rights Record of the United States in 2013," Feb. 28, 2014, China Human Rights.
Israel: while affirming Israel's right to exist, the United States Presbyterian Church has voted to divest itself of stock in Hewlett-Packard, Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions, to protest Israeli's treatment of Palestinians. Israel uses products of the three companies in its occupation of Palestine. Partial sources online: "Presbyterian Church votes to divest in protest of Israeli policies," John Moore, June 21, 2014, RT; "Presbyterians dump companies they say are tied to Palestinian occupation." June 22, 2014, CNN U.S..
La Realidad, Mexico: José Luis Solís López, a Zapatista teacher known as Compañero Galeano, was assassinated May 2nd, by a group of paramilitaries using machetes and guns. As in the 1997 attack on the villagers of Acteal, the attackers seem to be local political groups but their tactics are paramilitary. The EZLN sees the attack as part of the government's counter-insurgency program while the press tends to present the crime as local politics. The Zapatistas continue to seek justice rather than revenge. The murder preceded a gathering of Zapatista and a reappearance of Subcommandante Insurgente Marcos. At Galeano's funeral he announced he was withdrawing as the Zapatista movement's spokesman. He is to be resurrected under the name Subcommandante Insurgente Galeano. Galeano lives.
Historical note: implicit in the tragedy of Guatemala's failure to honour its 2013 verdict which found Ríos Montt guilty in the 1982-3 genocide of Ixil (Maya) Indians, is that the impunity, with U.S. and international support, now threatens others; nightslantern carries a genocide warning for Maya in Guatemala. There are reports that Guatemala's special forces, Kabiles, widely known for their atrocities and with U.S. advisers, are currently asserting corporate interests against an ongoing peoples resistance in northern Guatemala. Corporate threats to the Maya people include the oligarchy's oil palm and sugarcane plantations (underwritten by loans from the Inter-American Development Bank) and mining interests such as Goldcorp's (Glamis) near Sipakapa, working the Marlin gold and silver mine (initially ventured by the governments of Guatemala, U.S. and Canada), under a heavy loan from the World Bank. The region is adjacent to peaceful Zapatista communities of Chiapas. Cultural Survival estimated 45,000 Guatemalan Maya refugees fled into Chiapas by 1983. The Mexican Mayan (Zapatista) uprising of 1994 coincided with their disenfranchisement under newly imposed NAFTA accords, and was justifiable within the perspective of the Convention on Genocide. Within a regional policy which has allowed U.S. trained militaries to commit genocide with impunity, Mexico's singular oppression of the Zapatista movement gives way to risking a crime against all peoples.Partial sources online: "Paramilitaries Are Still Murdering Zapatistas in Mexico," Andalucía Knoll May 21, 2014, VICE News; "After an Assassination, the World Stands in Solidarity With the Zapatistas," Martan Molina, May 20, 2014, truthout; "Mexico's Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos steps down," May 25, 2014, BBC news; "Compañero Galeano Murdered in La Realidad Attack, 'Marcos' Disappears and Becomes SCI 'Galeano,' June 2, 2014, Zapatista News Summary For May 2014 / dorset chiapas solidarity; "Subcomandante Marcos," current, Wikipedia; "Uprooted Mayan Children," Neil Booth, winter 1986,; "Introduction," The War for the Heart and Soul of a Highland Maya Town. Robert S. Carlsen, 2011, University of Texas Press; "'Sons and Daughters of the Earth': Indigenous Communities and Land Grabs in Guatemala," Alberto Alonso-Fradejas, April 11, 2013, Upside Down World; "Mayans in Guatemala: No compromise, halt mining," Brenda Norrell, September 30, 2007, narcosphere.
The following bulletins concern some current examples of issues shielded by the media from consideration within a perspective of the Convention on Genocide. Yet without application of laws against genocide to the officials of Western countries, the right to survival of affected population groups relies on secondary legal challenges and increasingly on extra-legal group consensus, movements and actions.
U.S.: concerned with heavy rates of suicide among soldiers and veterans both in the U.S. and its allies, a video protesting psychiatric regimens in the armed services focuses on pharmaceuticals, revealing what may be a chosen method of controlling military personnel. Drugging removes the group from 'normal' society. Counseling is replaced by prescription in practices affecting children of the military families as well with 91% of children visiting psychiatrists prescribed drugs. "Psychiatry in the Military: The Hidden Enemy" [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHC2wH_iGYM >]. Partial sources online: "Behind the Epidemic of Military Suicides," current CCHR apprec., eaglewatch
South Carolina: The New York Times reports that the German nuclear industry and Department of Energy have signed an agreement of intent to store nuclear waste from German reactors at South Carolina's Savannah river site. Previous entries here suggest the site cannot sustain further material. Germany's President Merkel is closing Germany's nuclear plants following the disaster at Fukushima. Since the U.S. has made no moves to close down its nuclear industry, Department of Energy officials should be held accountable under the Convention against Genocide for the effects of any additional nuclear meltdowns. A genocide warning. Partial sources online: "Nuclear Notes: the Savannah River Watershed," J.B.Gerald, March 4, 2010, nightslantern.ca; "German Nuclear Waste May Be Headed to South Carolina Site," Reuters, June 4, 2014, The New York Times.
Fukushima Japan: "More than 48 percent of some 375,000 young people—nearly 200,000 kids—tested by the Fukushima Medical University near the smoldering reactors now suffer from pre-cancerous thyroid abnormalities, primarily nodules and cysts." - "Fukushima’s Children are Dying," Harvey Wasserman, June 14, 2014, EcoWatch.
France: NATO countries' lack of respect for the Convention on Genocide evident in military campaigns against Iraq, the former Republic of Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya, has furthered the rise of fascism throughout the European Union. First evident in Haider's Austrian populism through the 1990's, underscored with the rise of Jobbik's curiously corporate populism in Hungary (ie. 2009), the politics of hatred blended with the anti-Roma campaigns of Italy's Berlusconi and France's Sarkozy, maintained by their successors. Previous. Predictable in campaigns of French ethnic cleansing of the Roma, discrimination against all groups not conforming to a national stereotype is increasing. Currently youths from the "City of Poets" housing project in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, have abducted a Roma youth and beat him into a coma, leaving him along the highway in a shopping cart. The press labels the victim a petty thief. Interior Minister Vals who has effected a policy of putting Roma communities on the street and destroying their camps, vows to get to the bottom of the crime... Attacks targeting Roma for dehumanization and violence find a parallel in the increasing attacks on Jews. Two armed men were recently chased from attacking a synogogue in Paris. The far right blames the anti-semitism on Muslim extremists. Election of right wing candidates in recent mayoral elections creates a climate of xenophobia. Historically persecuted groups, the true left, Muslims, Roma, Jews, the LGBT community, the early generations of immigrants, and people of intelligence, will eventually ally or lose their freedom through collaboration and then be made to pay for their difference. The problem is not limited to France as xenophobia becomes entrenched throughout the European Union at the service of corporate agendas and "austerity" that shield NATO's military expansion. Nightslantern first noted a genocide warning for France's Roma in 2010. The warning is extended to other minorities.
Lety, Czech Republic: in an affirmation of Roma Pride, EGAM, the French based Mouvement Antiraciste Européen (European Grassroots Antiracist Movement) with its Czech organization, Konexe, on June 13th commemorated the holocaust against Roma in Czechoslovakia at Lety, a 1940's concentration camp where Roma were interned and murdered. The camp site is currently in production as a pig farm.Video [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=posI5jbrlhA >]. EGAM [access:< http://www.egam.eu >] plans expanded protests of Lety on August 2nd, and Roma Pride rallies throughout Europe October 5th. The need for continued protest of Lety underscores a genocide warning Nightslantern first noted for Czech Roma in 2008.
Israel: Nightslantern has added a link on our links page to B'Tselem "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories." Ongoing genocide warning.
Author's note: I regret the interruption of Night's Lantern bulletins. On May 16th I was taken to a hospital emergency room for a life saving operation. While I can now return briefly to my desk I won't be able to resume substantial contributions for a while. I and we affirm our continuing support for all those who refuse inhumanity and take the risk for justice. [ ... ]. All information posted here is true and verifiable to the best of my knowledge, and corrections of fact are welcome (gandm@nightslantern.ca). The protest against the phenomenon of genocide is ongoing. Our history of identifying early genocidal situations for prevention, finds its basis in humanity's ethical norm, enduring the current applications of rule and financial control by all powerful groups, political administrations, governments, regimes, laws: Night's Lantern entries which seem antagonistic to one powerful group or another are intended as an affirmation of a more human norm. Our thanks to our comrades and friends; la lucha continua. - John Bart Gerald
May 4, 2014 updates
Guatemala: found guilty of genocide on May 10, 2013, the former dictator Efrain Ríos Montt was sentenced to 80 years in prison. By May 20th the verdict was overturned under pressure from President Molina ("Major Tito") implicated in the genocide and as suggested by The New York Times, the country's business elite. A re-trial was scheduled for 2014, subsequently delayed until 2015.. The country's Attorney General who pursued the case and the court's judge who tried the case became revenge targets of Ríos Montt supporters. Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz was forced from office early by a technicality as decided by the high court. And most recently, a Guatemalan legal body (errors of judicial behavior are traditionally addressed by other means) ruled Judge Yassmin Barrios forfeit judicial duties for a year and pay a fine for her judicial conduct. The spurious decision reveals a matrix of corruption that allowed the society to plunge into genocide. The United Nations, international human rights NGO's and organizations of lawyers have shown a [damaging] lack of hard support for Guatemala's opponents of genocide, and by mocking the Convention with hypocrisy become complicit in the effects of its absence. For more background on trial: "Guatemala: a brave judiciary;" "Masks of Investment: a Trial in Guatemala;"; "Good vs. Evil in Guatemala." Partial sources online: "A year after genocide trial, has justice been done?" Romina Ruiz-Goiriena, May 3, 2014, CNN World; "Guatemalan Judge Faces Retaliation over Role in Genocide Trial," Emi MacLean, April 7, 2014, Open Society Justice Initiative; "Guatemala - Interview with Judge Yassmín Barrios: 'The Door to Impunity and Corruption is Being Opened,'" Óscar F. Herrera, Trans. NISGUA, April 9, 2014, Upside Down World.
Greece: four legislators in the Golden Dawn Party (neo-Nazi) have been stripped of their immunity by Parliament and are now liable for prosecution for crimes, ie. setting up and/or running a criminal organization. 7 others may face similar charges. 5 other Golden Dawn legislators are in prison awaiting trial. The party is fielding two retired generals, former special forces commander Eleftherios Synadinos, and Georgios Epitideios who has directed the EU's military staff and served at NATO HQ SHAPE, for election in the upcoming European Parliamentary elections. Partial sources online: "4 more far-right lawmakers to be charged," The Associated Press, April 30, 2014, ICARE; "Another four Golden Dawn MPs to answer to crime charges on May 5," April 25, 2014, ekathimerini.com ; "Retired generals to fight Euro election on Golden Dawn ticket," Damian Mac Con Uladh, April 30, 2014, Enet.gr; "Countering the Far-right in Greece," J.B.Gerald, Dec. 12, 2012, Night;s Lantern.
Canada: despite evidence collected by the RCMP of nearly 1200 murdered and missing Aboriginal women during the past thirty years, the Conservative government again refuses to instigate a national inquiry. Previous. Partial sources online: "1,186 murdered and missing Indigenous women over past 30 years: RCMP," Kenneth Jackson, May 1,2014, APTN National News; "Demands for inquiry follow report of more than 1,000 murdered, missing aboriginal women," May 1, 2014, CTV News.
Toronto: a panel discussion - then dinner, featuring former U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton is scheduled for Toronto, May 12th, sponsored by Toronto's "Friends of Simon Weisenthal Center for Holocaust Studies." Others concede that the Bushes are largely responsible for policies of genocide against the Muslim world, most notably in the destruction of Iraq. Attempts to bar George W. Bush from Canada due to his admitted furthering of the war crime of torture, have in the past proven unsuccessful. Recently a Spanish court maintained the right to prosecute Bush among others for the crime of torture at Guantanamo. See the Lawyers Against the War press release: "Spanish Court Refuses to stop investigation of torture at Guantanamo Bay." In California a class action lawsuit is currently being pressed against Bush among others at federal court, for the crime of aggression as established by the Nuremberg Tribunal. On April 16th -17th, lawyers from around the world participated in The Iraq Commission's ongoing indictment of Bush and Blair for Iraq war related actions, a BRusssells Tribunal initiative to bring to justice those guilty of the worst crimes known to humanity. To date Canada's Law enforcement and judicial system have not had the courage to prohibit entry to wealthy and politically powerful war criminals.
Honduras: UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, has urged increased protection for the children's rights, and in particular questions the government military program "Guardians of the Homeland" which gives disadvantaged children 'moral' training. Partial sources online: "UN Urges Protection of Honduran Children From Sale, Abuse," Press release, April 29,2014, UN News / Scoop.
*Page note: no entries were possible during April due to unexplained illness and ongoing lack of adequate support.
Ukraine: "Canada, Ukraine and the Ghosts of Babi Yar," by J.B.Gerald
Canada: for the second time a Parliamentary committee of the Harper government has refused to call for a national inquiry into the disappearances and murders of Aboriginal women, despite the insistence of Indigenous leaders, women's groups, human rights groups, native communities. The Parliamentary report fails to counter the basic terrorization of native people and the additional threat of genocide in targeting a community's women of child bearing age. Previous. On March 19 Mohawk people staged another interruption of rail service between Montreal and Toronto in protest. The demand for a nonpartisan national inquiry will not go away. Partial sources online: "Invisible Women: a Call to Action," Report of the Special Committee on Violence Against Indigenous Women, March 2014, 41st Parliament, Second Session; "No national inquiry into missing, murdered Aboriginal woman," Stephanie Wesley, March 19, 2014, Wawatay WRN; "Via Rail blockade by First Nations that halted Montreal-Toronto trains ends," March 19, 2014, CBC News; "Pressure mounts for national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women," Chris Plecash, March 17, 2014, Hill Times.
pdf download 8.5 x 11 permission to reprint
Red Butte, Colorado: "Song of the Sun" [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEBhDVnzG_s >]
El Salvador: the very close election of Salvador Sánchez Ceren, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) candidate, as President was confirmed March 13th. The extreme right wing Arena party is accepting defeat with difficulty. Partial sources online: "Former guerrilla commander wins El Salvador presidential election," Joshua Partlow, March 14, 2014, The Washington Post; "Salvador Sanchez Ceren wins El Salvador's presidential election," Tracy Wilkinson, March 13, 2014, Los Angeles Times.
Historical note: a poem by Roque Dalton from Historias y poemas de la lucha de clases"Consejo que ya no es necesario en ninguna parte del mundo pero que en El Salvador"No olvides nunca
que los menos fascistas
de entre los fascistas
también son
fascistas
Ukraine: with the takeover by the Ukraine's (U.S. supported) extreme right wing party, Svoboda, nightslantern places an early genocide warning for Ukraine's Jewish community of 200,000. In Kiev a Rabbi has advised his congregation to leave the city. The Jewish community has asked Israel for assistance. Neither Israel nor U.S. AIPAC has taken a position on the issue. Partial sources online: "Ukraine and the 'Politics of Anti-Semitism': The West Upholds Neo-Nazi Repression of Ukraine’s Jewish Community," Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, Feb. 26, 2014, Global Research; "Ukraine Transition Government: Neo-Nazis in Control of Armed Forces, National Security, Economy, Justice and Education," Greg Rose, March 2, 2014, Global Research; "Fascism's Ugly Face in Ukraine," Stephen Lendman, Feb. 22, 2014, thepeoplesvoice.org.
Cuba: the second prisoner of the the Cuba 5 has been freed. Having served fifteen years of a nineteen year sentence, Fernando Gonzalez was returned to Cuba on February 28th. Rene Gonzalez served thirteen years and returned to Cuba in 2011. Three of the Five remain held in U.S. prisons. All were engaged in anti-terrorist defense of their homeland when arrested by the FBI in 1998. Partial sources online: "Cuban agent released from U.S. prison gets hero's welcome," Daniel Trotta, Feb. 28, 2014, Reuters; "Cuban Five: Fernando Gonzalez Arrives in Cuba," Feb. 28, 2014, Havana Times.
eru: on January 24th Peruvian prosecutor Marco Guzman announced that 26 former officials of the Fujimori regime would not be prosecuted for the mass forcible sterilization of Indigenous women in Peru during the 1990's. The Prosecutor has found no crime against humanity committed. As in the betrayal of the genocide convention by Guatemala in overturning the conviction of Ríos Montt (see "Good vs. Evil in Guatemala") the Peruvian decision risks supporting genocide with impunity. There is no statute of limitations for Genocide. Substantial evidence is recorded and disseminated. Genocide is neither ignorable nor forgivable. Considering the scope (300,000 Indigenous women), clarity and impunity of Fujimori's sterilization campaigns of the 1990's, to not pursue these under the Convention occasions a further genocide warning for the Indigenous peoples of Peru. 1, 2, 3, 4, and "Note on Peru" by J.B.Gerald. See poster / broadsheet Partial sources online: "Officials Will Not Be Charged in Peru’s Forced Sterilization Program," Rick Kearns, Feb. 2, 2014, Indian Country; "Fujimori cleared in Peru sterilization case," Franklin Briceno (AP), Jan 26, 2014, Boston Globe; "Forced sterilization and impunity in Peru," Mariella Sala, Feb. 10, 2014, openDemocracy; "Amnesty International: Closure of Forced Sterilization Case ‘Abhorrent’," Feb. 4, 2014, Peruvian Times.
Knoxville Tennessee: previous. The sentencing of elders Sr. Megan Rice, Michael Walli, and Greg Boertje-Obed, scheduled for Jan. 28th and delayed by a snowstorm was made public Feb. 18, by Judge Amul Thapar. 84 year old Sr. Rice received 35 months; the somewhat younger men, Walli and Boertje-Obed, 62 months. Their "crimes" were basically trespass. The three formed the Transform Now Plowshares. The Plowshares movement has for years presented a solitary morally based response to the deepest crimes of society and government which Americans as a people have not been willing to stop. Partial sources online: "Plowshares sentencing shows U.S. government afraid of peace activists," Jim Haber, Feb. 20, 2014, Waging Nonviolence; "Elderly nun sentenced over US nuclear site break-in," Feb. 18, 2014, BBC News.
New York: Sekou Odinga (Nathanial Burns) is a Muslim "political prisoner of war." According to his support group website, "Free Sekou Odinga" [access:< http://www.sekouodinga.com/index.html >], he is a former member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army. In 1981 he was allegedly tortured by NYC police/ FBI who were trying to find Assata Shakur, and to the point of hospitalization. He was subsequently convicted of various crimes including the attempted murder of a policeman. Due to law enforcement 's need to justify its crimes against him, evidence against Odinga remains unpersuasive. An early adherent of Malcom X, he has served 30 years in New York State, with some access to community.
Georgia: a small number of prisoners commenced a hunger strike February 9th to protest abusive conditions at the Special Management Unit of Georgia's Diagnostic Correctional Prison. Alleged abuses concern bugs in the food, and include sexual assault and torture. A number of the inmates are veterans of the Georgia Prison Strike of 2010 (see poster). The striking prisoners are in need of media attention and outside support. Partial sources online: "Georgia prisoners on hunger strike since Feb. 9," Tamarcus Wright, Feb. 19, 2014, SF BayView.
Pennsylvania: after being held 22 years in solitary confinement Russell Maroon Shoats was released into the general prison population February 20, 2014. This is the result of concern by many groups and Shoats' lawsuit challenging the cruel and unusual punishment of his solitary confinement. He was represented by attorneys from the Abolitionist Law Center among others. Nightslantern first noted the persecution of Shoats in October 2006.
Ottawa: author's note ~recovering: on Feb. 7th, became temporarily incapacitated through illness, and unable to post again until this date. A recent poem in the tradition of Pound's Personae:
the dissident's poem
by john bart gerald"there are some things they let you understand
when they are going to kill you
you do not share them
communication is loving
you don't choose to share death
but there's a temptation -
to rip off death and share
the stones to build a path to knowledge
hiding, so they think you don't know
this is an unsafe stanza
to help you live"27 dec. 2013, ottawa (.pdf)
February 6, 2014
France: some twenty years after Paul Kagame's U.S. supported invasion of Rwanda resulted in genocide, the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) with 95 indictments (exclusively of Black Africans) since 1994, is being phased out. On February 4th France under its laws of universal jurisdiction charged Pascal Simbikangwa with complicity in genocide. Referred to in press accounts as Rwanda's intelligence chief during the genocide, the plaintiff denies the charges against him. The trial has the public approval of Rwanda's Minister of Justice who finds "history being made"(AFP). The Guardian (U.K.) suggests that the two months of expected proceedings will reveal the Mitterrand government's complicity in the Rwandan genocide. Press accounts concerning Rwanda consistently fail to note that Kagame's minority Tutsi military takeover of France's former colony led to foreseeable military and popular resistance by the country's Hutu majority, and mass murders of Rwandan Tutsis. Trials focusing on the interface of individual perpetrators of hatred and horror deflect attention from the dynamics of an international military takeover with predictable results. They also allow the courts to focus publicly and exclusively on the guilt of Africans, introduced to the concept of genocide by Europe's colonialism. What was identified by UN General Dallaire's accounts as a "third force," both alien to the conflict's norms and crucial to understanding the genocide, remains omitted in global media accounts. Also omitted and denied official recognition are the Hutu population groups slaughtered in genocidal proportions during the Kagame invasion (previous). When American attorney Peter Erlinger clarified an equivalent genocide of Hutu peoples (ie. previous) he was arrested and imprisoned by the Kagame government, released on compassionate grounds to return to the U.S. under threat of extradition and prosecution. Victoire Ingabire, attempting to stand as a presidential candidate, was arrested, tried, convicted, after asking equivalent respect for Hutu deaths denied their country's recognition. She serves 15 years in prison. Kagame is also considered responsible for a huge number of deaths of Hutu exiled in the Congo (previous). Within a pattern of murdered political opposition President Kagame's former intelligence chief Patrick Karegeya who accused Kagame of ordering the Rwanda's President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane be shot down (previous and see also Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa) - the triggering of Rwanda's bloodshed - was found murdered in Johannesburg exile, Jan.1, 2014. The AP notes 27 other possible cases concerned with the genocide in Rwanda awaiting trial under French law. In 2014 France provides an ambiguous venue, with its government vulnerable to the Convention on Genocide domestically for its ongoing treatment of Roma peoples, and equally vulnerable for its foreign policy/actions in Cote d'Ivoire, Libya, Syria, Central African Republic. Unlike the ICTR cases which remained largely unknown to the general public, a genocide "show trial" of a black foreigner preceding French elections in the Spring (36,000 mayors), raises questions of political favour in votes from increasingly racist, xenophobic corporate populism. Historically, the need for this trial may be understood as a distress call. Partial sources online: "France to open Rwanda genocide trial,"Feb. 4, 2014, Al Jazeera; "France holds up mirror in Rwanda genocide trial," Jamey Keaton, Feb. 3, 2014, BloombergBusinessweek; "France holds up mirror in Rwanda genocide trial," AP, Feb. 4, 2014, Omaha.com; "France’s role in Rwandan genocide exposed in trial," Linda Melvern (Guardian News Service), Feb. 6, 2014, The Hindu; "Ex-Rwandan spy 'was on hit list'," Alexander Joe (AFP), Jan. 6, 2014, The Daily Telegraph; "Landmark Rwandan genocide trial opens in France," Agence France-Press, Feb. 4, 2014, The Raw Story. "A Genocide Trial in France" (.pdf)
North America: "A Political Prisoners Update."
Iraq: see previous. The lethal constant struggle within Iraq is a foreseeable result of U.S./Coalition invasions and occupation, and likely to continue until the U.S. and Coalition are made accountable for the crime against Iraq [previous]. Gerald and Maas understands the crime as a genocide against the national group. In 1990 we issued a pre-invasion genocide warning by poster, the first of many genocide warnings currently posted for Iraq on nightslantern. Resistance by the people within the aggressor countries has remained suppressed, managed, helpless, and sporadic. The establishment's perception management programs continue to bend both right wing and left wing from recognizing an obvious genocide. By 2007 Dr. Gideon Polya had found 2.7 million avoidable deaths caused by the bombings, invasions and occupation (previous). A report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council by the BRussells Tribunal in 2012 notes 39% of the fatalities from US and Coalition air raids were children, and 42% the fatalities from ground actions were children (previous). The most thorough summary of the crime against Iraq available is the Ad Hoc Committee for Justice for Iraq, "Narration of Facts" archived here to counter its possible suppression. It was presented to a Spanish court (Audiencia Nacional) in 2009 as part of a legal case against George H.W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack H. Obama, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Anthony Blair, Gordon Brown, on charges including the crime of genocide (previous). The case was closed in 2010 but the "Narration of Facts" (which doesn't include substantial corroborating materials submitted to the Spanish court) remains valid and a basis for individual cases in any aggressor country where the judicial system is not broken to political / military agendas.
International: on January 10th, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) presented the International Criminal Court with a 251 page brief, Communication to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court: The Responsibility of Officials of the United Kingdom for War Crimes Involving Systematic Detainee Abuse in Iraq from 2003-2008. It asks the ICC to consider and investigate substantial evidence of war crimes by the U.K. in Iraq. The request focuses on "412 Iraqi victims of severe physical and psychological abuse sustained while in custody of UK services." Presented is a compendium of what civilians call torture. The extremes many North Americans were introduced to by accounts of Guantanamo and the photos of Abu Ghraib, seem familiar in a context of European colonial practices and post WWII refinement of interrogation techniques that rely on psychological mechanisms of breaking down the victim to obtain information. To read, the document is devastating and shameful. Some techniques were previously outlawed in the U.K. following military interrogation practices used against the IRA in Northern Ireland. The brief's allegations of "systematic torture" are torture by program, policy, a systemic failing, and hold responsible the upper levels of the U.K. government and military. While the U.S. military and CIA (the evidence presented is interwoven with the practices of the CIA's counterintelligence interrogation manual, KUBARK) aren't addressed directly, the Communication to the ICC should be read by U.S. judge advocates and civilian judges acquainted with military law, or attempting human rights and humanitarian law, but apparently unfamiliar with customary law as it becomes codified. A previous entry summarizes the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission's 2011 judgement finding both Tony Blair and George Bush guilty of crimes against peace and requiring its "reports of genocide and crimes against humanity" be filed with the International Criminal Court. Partial sources online: “The Responsibility of UK Officials for War Crimes Involving Systematic Detainee Abuse in Iraq from 2003-2008,” current, European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights [access:< http://www.ecchr.de/index.php/archiv_en.html >]; "Exclusive: Devastating dossier on 'abuse' by UK forces in Iraq goes to International Criminal Court," Jonathan Owen, Jan. 12, 2014, The Independent; "U.K. officials accused of war crimes," Benjamin Minegar, Jan. 13, 2014, Jurist; "‘Systematic torture’: Dossier accusing UK politicians of Iraq war crimes goes to ICC," Jan. 12, 2014, RT; "Iraq: “Devastating” Dossier Alleging British War Crimes Lodged with the International Criminal Court," Felicity Arbuthnot, Jan 12, 2014, Global Research.
New York City: political prisoner Lynne Stewart was released December 31 from Federal Medical Center Carswell Texas. She returned to New York City with her husband Ralph Poynter, landing at LaGuardia about 1PM New Year's day. On Dec. 31, 2013 the Bureau of Prisons presented Judge John G. Koeltl with the request for her compassionate release and the judge signed the order for her release allowing her return to the care of her family. Ms. Stewart is suffering from terminal cancer with the State's opinion that she now has less than eighteen months to live. Granting Lynne Stewart compassionate release is a welcome New Year's event for Ms. Stewart, her husband, family, support group and thousands of people internationally, outraged at her treatment by the government. Whether the government's 'compassion' begins to balance the mistake of prosecuting her, the lack of ethics in imprisoning a people's lawyer to serve the interests of a military "war on terrorism," the ruthlessness of the sentencing, the increase in sentence when she was known to have breast cancer, the slowness in response to a necessary request for compassionate release, the suffering of an elder faced with terminal illness, - all as a result of an arbitrary application of protocol, is a question. 
