atelier genocide warnings suppressed news archives political prisoner updates * * *
*nightslantern
suppressed news
concerned with the prevention of genocide
by j. b. gerald
graphics by j. maas
2023
Geneva Switzerland (the ICC, Myanmar & Ukraine): "While the world's peoples look to the Covenants and Conventions of International law for some hope of protection against the excesses of power and corrupt governments the machinery of the human rights courts risks being pre-empted by Euro-American military agendas. Currently international law is not used to make peace possible or to protect those who are suffering. It is being applied for propaganda purposes by its NATO caretakers, to criminalize and punish rather than stop the slaughter and terminal damage to the environment of a war. Justice, once the hope of our world courts, increasingly becomes the domain of local resistance...." Continue reading "On the Use of International Law as Psy-war," by J.B. Gerald.
March 8, 2023
Peru: "Peru and the People's Defenses," by J.B. Gerald, graphic by J. Maas.
Canada: "Residential Schools and Other Mistakes," by J.B. Gerald, graphic by J. Maas. Warning update.
Brazil: (previous) after visiting the Yanomami Indians on January 24th, Brazil's President Lula da Silva's declared their health emergency a genocide and premeditated crime against the people. They had sought help from the previous Bolsonaro government 21 times since 2019 but without relief. Brazil's Senate has commenced an investigation of the Bolsonaro government on charges of genocide. For example, the deaths of 570 Yanomami children are traced to mercury poisoning (of the water by illegal gold mining) and inadequate nourishment. Bolsonaro's administration is alleged to have intentionally removed structural legal protections for the Yanomami. Partial sources: "Brazil to Investigate Genocide Against the Yanomami People," Jan.25, 2023, TeleSur; "Why Lula Accused Bolsonaro of 'Genocide' Against Brazil's Yanomami People," Sanya Mansoor, Jan. 23, 2023, Time.
Peru: see previous. Update: the situation in Peru becomes more unstable for the government and begins to cohere for the people. Conventional post colonial controls are strained by rebellions throughout the country. The government has sent the army to disperse numerous road blocks in the South. After protest attacks on its trucks and workers' quarters Swiss copper giant Glencore is temporarily out of commission. An article by Ben Norton in Geopolitical Economy Report (Jan. 19, 2023) [access:< https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/01/19/peru-resources-mining-gas-investment/ >] clarifies the amounts of foreign and corporate ownership of Peru's resources operating at great profit, while in 2022 the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization designated Peru "the most food-insecure country in South America:" a quarter of the population couldn't pay for basic food needs ("Peru's food crisis grows amid soaring prices and poverty: FAO," Nov. 17, 2022, UN News). Part of the current problem is traced to war in the Ukraine resulting in high prices for fertilizer; when these are beyond the reach of the agricultural sector, production decreases and prices rise. And in the short term food prices increase with the transportation blockades. While foreign corporate interest and the nation's elite continue to strip the country's resources there is little indication of the system undergoing any fundamental change of its own accord, or by negotiation. Titular President Dina Boluarte concedes that elections must take place later this year but part of the people's refusal to accept a falsely imposed government, is hunger. A genocide warning for Indian related people and workers, therefore the majority of Peru's population, continues.
Peru: "Allegations of Genocide Return to Peru," by J.B. Gerald, graphic by J.Maas. Genocide warning.
Washington D.C.: our Western media propaganda continues to apply the word "genocide" to protest instances of the Russian intervention in the Ukraine, yet without benefit of judgement by any objective international court. Russia's justification of its intervention on the grounds of genocide against Russian ethnic minorities in the Ukraine as well as the Nazification of Ukraine's body politic equally lacks support by an objective international court. The continuation of a propaganda war has demeaned the "Convention on Genocide in what may be an attempt to disempower the Convention through disinformation and perception management. I note a deep establishment "opinion" article ("Russia's abductions of Ukrainian children are a genocidal crime," Editorial Board, Dec. 27, 2022, The Washington Post). The Editorial Board ascribes genocide to Russia's policies attempting to save ethnic Russians in the Ukraine and particularly the children by taking them into the safety of Russia from Russian ethnic regions of the Ukraine devastated by direct Ukraine military assault for nearly a decade. In this instance an attempt to apply the Convention's prohibition against "Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group," seems a witting extreme of propaganda for war, outlawed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights "Article 20" which says simply "1. Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law." While noting instances of propaganda war which may be counter international law, Nightslantern will try to avoid partisan assessment of genocide in the current Ukraine-Russian war. Background: 1 2 3 4 5.
A branch that comes from violence will not take root;
for a blighted root is on sheer rock, like reeds by the
banks of a river, which are dried up before any grass; but
kindness, like eternity, will never be cut off, and faithfulness
will be established forever - from Ben Sira
(Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, Abegg et al)
at first posting in 2002 this bulletin board was for emergency protests, attempts to counter
genocide, anti-war information, which were suppressed in the media; my interest remains in
how a society is moved into what have become genocidal wars, and how people are able to
resist... it becomes a kind of history in motion and a way to counter enforced forgetfulness,
the lies that say these things never happened, or that there is nothing wrong with the murders
of hundreds of thousands of innocents in other countries, or the continuing move toward
eradication of the poor by death, in north america; this account is against forgetfulness. - jbg 2008
by john bart gerald
graphics by julie maas
guest contributions as noted
March 19, 2023
