un - Blogs - TheBlackList Pub2024-03-28T20:21:37Zhttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/unHAITI: Continental Campaign Launched at Nov. 5 Rally in Brazil to Demand UN Troops Out of Haiti Now!https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/haiti-continental-campaign-launched-at-nov-5-rally-in-brazil-to2011-11-08T06:00:00.000Z2011-11-08T06:00:00.000ZTheBlackList Newshttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackListNews<div><p> </p><div style="text-align:center;">HAITI: Continental Campaign Launched at Nov. 5 Rally in Brazil</div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">On November 5, 2012, more than 600 people crowded into the auditorium of the Municipal Building of the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, at a Continental Rally to Demand "UN Troops Out of Haiti Now!</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">Speakers from seven countries -- the United States, Haiti, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, France and Brazil -- addressed what the U.S. delegation in their declaration characterized as an "historic rally." [See statement below.] The meeting was organized by the "To Defend Haiti is to Defend Ourselves" Committee.</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">From Brazil, speakers included national leaders from the Workers Party (PT), Unified Confederation of Workers (CUT), Unified Black Movement, Landless Peasants Movement (MST), Combat Against Racism, SOS Racism, as well as numerous trade unions.</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">We are reprinting below the PLEDGE of Sao Paulo -- the final document that came out of the rally. Also below is the Declaration of the U.S. delegation to the Rally -- which consisted of Colia Clark, member of the International Commission of Inquiry on Haiti; Kim Ives, representing the Brooklyn-based newspaper <i>Haiti-Liberté</i>; and Dan Coughlin of <i>The Nation</i> magazine.</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">Also attached are two photographs from the events in Sao Paulo. The first shows Sister Colia Clark at the podium of the rally (with interpreter Alberto Handfas on her left). The second photo was taken at a meeting of the CUT's Committee Against Racism, which launched Brazil's Black Consciousness Month. It shows the three-member U.S. delegation in Brazil.</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">In coming days we will send you the final press statement from the rally, as well as excerpts from some of the presentations.</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">Fignolé St. Cyr, president of the Autonomous Workers Confederation of Haiti (CATH), was the final speaker at the event. Echoing an earlier statement by CUT National Executive Board member Julio Turra, he called for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all UN troops from Haiti.</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">As you will read below, the PLEDGE signed by the participants in this rally calls for an ongoing Continental campaign for this purpose. We urge all our readers and supporters to get behind this campaign.</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">The first thing you can do is make a financial contribution to the Continental Conference in Cap Haitien, Haiti, which will take place November 16-18, 2011. Funds are needed urgently to help send a U.S. delegation to this conference -- to help build this continental campaign.</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">Please send a check, large or small, to help defray the costs of this campaign. Make your check payable to "ILC" and send it to OWC, c/o San Francisco Labor Council, 1188 Franklin St. #203, San Francisco, CA 94109.</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">In solidarity,</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">The Coordinators,</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">U.S. Support Committee of the</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">International Liaison Committee</font></div><div><font size="+2" face="Arial"><b><br /></b></font></div><div><font size="+2" face="Arial"><b>* * * * * * * * * *</b></font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="5"><b><br /></b></font></div><div><font size="+2" face="Arial"><b>THE PLEDGE OF SAO PAULO</b></font></div><div><font size="+2" face="Arial"><b><br /> "Aba Okipasyon, Aba Minustah"</b></font></div><div><font size="+2" face="Arial"><b>UN Troops Out of Haiti Now!</b></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">Gathered at a public rally at the City Hall of Sao Paulo, coming from six countries whose governments are involved in the occupation of Haiti and from 12 different states in Brazil, WE HAVE SIGNED a pledge of militant solidarity with the sovereign Black nation of Haiti!</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">For more than seven years, the troops from the "UN Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti," or MINUSTAH, have been responsible for the violation of Haiti's sovereignty and for attacks on their human rights -- the "collateral" effects of a permanent state of war -- along with repression of democratic, union, student and popular demonstrations.</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">The MINUSTAH troops introduced the cholera bacteria into the country that has already killed 6,500 Haitians and infected more than 300,000. Accusations of sexual violence and rape of young people hang over their heads; these are crimes for which they have impunity given their legal immunity.</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">This past October 15, the Security Council of the UN, indifferent to the demands expressed by various sectors in many countries, and by the Haitian people themselves, renewed the MINUSTAH mandate for another year (previously reduced before the earthquake), and even "expressed their intention to renew the mandate for the mission beyond 2012"!</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">WE ESTABLISH THIS PLEDGE, AND CALL UPON all peoples, together with their organizations, not to leave the streets until this military operation is ended, thereby uniting fraternally with the Haitian people who are demanding respect for their sovereignty through continued demonstrations against the occupation -- which should not be replaced with mercenary troops.</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">We have a historical debt to the Haitian people. Haiti was a pioneer in the abolition of slavery: 208 years ago they expelled Napoleon's colonial troops and established the first Black Republic in the world. But they were obligated to pay "reparations" for losses of French-owned land and slaves, at the cost of a huge drain of resources throughout their history.</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /> Haiti suffered several military occupations, the last in 2004, decided by U.S. imperialism along with France and Canada, which overthrew the then President-elect Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Since then, it has been subjected to the occupation by troops and police from 40 countries, controlled by the Brazilian army, and masked by the UN as "stabilization mission."</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">The Brazilian government has taken responsibility, not in our name, for the military command of MINUSTAH troops, which encapsulates imperialist interests. Indeed, this occupation renders even easier the vile exploitation of the local work force by multinationals in "free zones" with no rights or social protections, with savage repression of workers that is denounced by their organizations. This happens under the de-facto tutelage of the CIRH, the so-called Interim Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti, whose head is no less than Bill Clinton.</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">We establish the PLEDGE, AND DEMAND OF THE GOVERNMENTS of our countries -- Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia, USA, France ... -- to immediately cease their participation in this shameful operation. The presence of UN troops did not even help those affected by the earthquake, as the powers-that-be preferred to bail out the rich neighborhoods. Almost two years after this catastrophe, more than one million Haitians remain homeless. Neither did it serve to establish democracy, nor could it. The troops were the guarantors, for example, of the last sham election, where only 17% of Haitians voted.</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">Starting today, we constitute ourselves into a Continental Committee for the Immediate Withdrawal of UN troops from Haiti -- supported by similar actions taking place this day in Canada, Mexico, Peru and Ecuador.</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">We call for the creation of Committees for the Immediate Withdrawal in all countries on the continent. And we propose, in particular to the Caribbean Conference in Cap Haitien, Haiti (November 16-18), a Continental Day of Action for the Withdrawal of Troops from Haiti on the 8th anniversary of the most recent occupation of Haiti -- that is, June 1, 2012 with actions and demonstrations aimed at their governments.</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">We therefore affirm and call for:</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"> * Haiti needs doctors, engineers, teachers and technicians -- not occupation troops!</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"> * Cancellation of Haiti's foreign debt! Reparations for the value of the compensation paid to the immoral debt following Haiti's independence!</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /> * Reparation for the families of victims of cholera and human rights violations!</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"> * Immediate withdrawal of UN troops from Haiti!</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"> THIS IS OUR PLEDGE; because defending Haiti means defending ourselves!</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">* * * * * * * * * *</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}3828531256,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828531256,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="640" class="align-full" alt="3828531256?profile=original" /></a><span class="font-size-2">Colia Clark in Brazil</span></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><b><br /></b></font></div><div><font size="+2" face="Arial"><b>DECLARATION OF U.S. DELEGATION TO CONTINENTAL RALLY TO DEFEND HAITI AND DEFEND OURSELVES</b></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">(Sao Paulo, Brazil -- November 5, 2012)</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">We salute the initiative of the Continental Rally to Defend Haiti and Defend Ourselves. Indeed, the </font><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:large;">fight against the illegal military occupation of Haiti is in the interests of all the world's people.</span></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br />The United States delegation to this historic event includes Colia Clark of the International </font><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:large;">Commission of Inquiry on Haiti, Kim Ives of the Haitian weekly newspaper <i>Haïti Liberté</i>, and </span><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:large;">journalist Dan Coughlin of <i>The Nation</i>.</span></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br />We urge the immediate closure of the 25 foreign military bases in Haiti and the withdrawal of all international forces. By any measure, the eight-year Brazilian-led occupation has been an </font><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:large;">unmitigated disaster for human rights and democratic rule in Haiti.</span></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">Under the occupation, thousands of Haitians, most of them poor who were seen as<br /> supporters of the Lavalas political movement and former President Jean Bertrand Aristide, were </font><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:large;">killed or jailed.</span></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">Under the occupation, staged elections have excluded the vast majority of Haitians and themost important political party from the democratic process. This has led to the neo-Duvalierist regime of President Michel Martelly taking power with the promise that he will resurrect Haiti's </font><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:large;">despised army -- a force that was used only to kill and repress Haitians, to deny them their </span><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:large;">democratic rights.</span></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">Under the occupation, the polluting practices of UN troops led to the introduction of a raging </font><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:large;">cholera epidemic that has now killed more than 6,600 Haitians and infected half a million.</span></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">Under the occupation, UN troops have been used as a partisan political force, primarily to suppress the legitimate demonstrations of Haitians against the 2004 coup and UN occupation.</font></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial">UN troops have also tried to stop Haitians -- already the lowest paid workers in the hemisphere -- </font><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:large;">from demonstrating for a living minimum wage.</span></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br />This disastrous and anti-democratic occupation has stained the reputation of all the countries that are involved. But it is Washington that is leading this effort. As U.S. State Department cables revealed by Wikileaks shows, the UN mission in Haiti fulfills a "core" U.S. foreign policy objective at half the cost to Washington and at a time when U.S. troops have been tied up in Afghanistan and Iraq.<br /><br />Neither the UN, nor the armies and police forces of more than 45 countries from around the </font><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:large;">world, should be used as Washington's weapon to create a low-wage sweatshop country with no </span><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:large;">democratic or human rights.</span></div><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br />As many Haitian leaders have said, there must be Haitian solutions for Haitian problems. If the UN wants to send doctors, engineers or other specialists to assist Haitians, as the Cubans and Venezuelans do, we have no problem with that. But the UN should never have sent soldiers, tanks and guns to Haiti, weapons which have only been used to enforce the neoliberal agenda of </font><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:large;">Washington, Paris, and Ottawa. It is past time for the UN swords to be turned into ploughshares.</span></div><p> </p><div id="msgbody"><p> </p><p><b>submitted by</b> ILC <ilcinfo@earthlink.net></p><p> </p><p><i><br /></i></p></div><ul><li><b><a href="https://lists.riseup.net/www/viewmod/theblacklist/a26acc2fefa44f777d17aab1ff474cc1/msg00000.html">HAITI: Continental Campaign Launched at Nov. 5 Rally in Brazil to Demand UN Troops Out of Haiti Now!</a></b>, <em>ILC, 11/07/2011</em></li></ul><p> </p><div><font size="+1" face="Arial"><br /></font></div><p> </p></div>No Gender Equality at African UN Missionshttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/no-gender-equality-at-african-un-missions2011-09-15T14:48:19.000Z2011-09-15T14:48:19.000ZTheBlackList Newshttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackListNews<div><p>When African Presidents, Heads of State and Prime Ministers arrive in New York this year for the General Assembly meeting, they will find that the African Missions to the UN have turned into the proverbial "old boy's club." Of course, you have to understand that the continent itself is governed exclusively by men, with the exception of Liberia, where President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the only female President in the continent. It is quite a sad situation. I remember when there used to be quite a few female African Permanent Representatives to the United Nations, but today, the number has dwindled to only two. Only the most populous country in Africa and the smallest, Nigeria and the Gambia, have female Permanent Representatives.</p><p><br /> Prof. Joy Ogwu is the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotenciary and Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations. She is a former Foreign Minister and the Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs. The other is Ambassador Susan Waffa-Ogoo of The Gambia, who is also a Permanent Representative to the United Nations. She had earlier served as Minister for Trade, Industry and Employment; Minister for Tourism and Culture; Minister for Fisheries, Natural Resources and the Environment; Minister for Tourism and Culture; and Minister of Information and Tourism. Even in the diplomatic staffing of these Missions, the men dominate in an extraordinary way. Even Nigeria, with a female Ambassador, has no female in the upper echelons of the Mission. Of the 8 posts of "Minister" or the 4 posts of "Minister Counsellor", none of them is held by a female.<br /> <br /> The African Union, which has been advocating the issue of gender equality in Africa is more in tune with objectives of gender equality. Of the eight Commissioners at the Addis Ababa office, about 5 are women. At the New York office of the African Union Permanent Observer office to the UN, of the 8 senior staff apart from the Ambassador, there are 4 females.<br /> <br /> Of all the African military advisers attached to the Missions to the UN, none is a woman. An observation here: even in the so-called developed countries, their missions are basically dominated by men. But one area Africans could be proud of, is our ambassadorial group in Washington, DC, where there are about 9 to 12 African female Ambassadors. That's a lot more than the two in New York.<br /> <br /> So, why the empty platitudes of African leaders about tackling the issue of gender equality? Is it just a game being played by the "old boys' club," or the usual African empty promises about doing something and choosing to let it slide away without doing anything about it? What of the so-called "Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa,” by the African Union? <br /> <br /> Here's what the African Union had to say about the Solemn Declaration: "At the Third Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in July 2004, the Heads of State and Government adopted the <b><i>Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA)</i> .</b> The Declaration is an important African instrument for promoting gender equality and women's empowerment as it strengthens African ownership of the gender equality agenda and keeps the issues alive at the highest political level in Africa. Through the Solemn Declaration, Heads of State and Government commit themselves to report annually on progress towards gender equality. In addition, the Chairperson of the AU Commission is expected to submit an annual report to the Assembly on progress made in the implementation of the Solemn Declaration as well as on the state of gender equality and gender mainstreaming at the national and regional levels.<br /> <br /> To assist Member States in its reporting responsibly, the Ministers Responsible for Women's Affairs and Gender, at their First AU Conference held in Dakar, Senegal in October 2005 adopted two documents, namely the <i>Implementation Framework for the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA)</i> and the <i>Guidelines for Monitoring and Reporting on the SDGEA."<br /> <br /></i> I am sure you are going to ask what is the concern of the African Sun Times, or Onyeani for that matter, in trying to rile our womenfolk about being mistreated by the menfolk. Okay, I hate people who make promises and don't keep them. The African Presidents or Heads of State have made promises to correct the inequality between the sexes in Africa, they should keep that promise. If they are not going to do it, there is no need making empty promises. On the other hand, it is our womenfolk who have to mount pressure on their respective Presidents to correct the imbalance in appointments to our diplomatic missions abroad, especially to the United Nations. The excuse that their husbands don't like to play the spouse is not a valid excuse anymore.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>The African Sun Times</strong></p><p><strong><span><a target="_blank" href="http://africansuntimes.com/cms/modules/content/index.php?id=655">NO GENDER EQUALITY AT AFRICAN UN MISSIONS</a></span></strong></p><p>Onyeani's Blog<br />Sept 15, 2011 </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p></div>In defence of Libya - Pan Afrikanist Steering Committee of Namibia condems UN invasion of Africa.https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/in-defence-of-libya-pan2011-06-07T12:00:00.000Z2011-06-07T12:00:00.000ZTheBlackListhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackList<div><p><b><font size="3"><font face="Calibri"><span style="color:#ff0000;">The Pan Afrikanist Steering Committee of Namibia against The United Nations Resolution 1973 (PSCNAUNR) </span> </font></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">6th June 2011</font></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size="3"><font face="Calibri"> </font></font></b></p>
<p><em><b><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">The Bombardment of Libya is an act of War and a Desecration of the Afrikan Homeland by a set of Europeans</font></font></b></em></p>
<p align="center"><span style="color:#ff0000;"><b><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">STOP IT NOW OR SHIP OUT</font></font></b></span></p>
<p><b><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">a) The Pan Afrikanist Steering Committee of Namibia Against The United Nations Resolution 1973 (PSCNAUNR), notes with deep sadness, the appalling atrocity being committed by NATO’s bombardment, the protracted sponsoring of mercenaries described as rebels by European Governments to kill, maim, destroy local infrastructures, attack Afrikans and presenting to the world Black Afrikans as Gaddaffi’s forces, thus leading to ethnic cleansing, where such people are living in fear of their lives within Libya. This violates Afrikan human rights and violates the territorial integrity of Afrika and its people. The PSCNAUNR now calls upon the Government of Namibia, a member state of the Afrikan Union (AU), without further delay, demand that the United Nations Assembly put an immediate cessation to the aggression and genocide against the people of Libya and the Afrikan people therein. <br /></font></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">b) We note, with deep regret that there was an Official AU Road Map in place under Article 20 of the United Nations’ Charter, wherein the AU Delegation was positioned to meet with the sovereign leader of Libya and the Western sponsored Rebels. Before the AU could carry out its legal and moral duty, The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), under the guise of the UN, deliberately started its bombardment under a hidden agenda for Regime Change, contrary to the principles enshrined within the said Article. This represents a desecration of Afrika and genocide, as part of the Fratral Doctrine. [They will attack one state together while others watch until their turn to be attacked comes, and they will fight all by themselves and get defeated. No individual state can defeat these fellows]. Yet when we are united as like during the independence struggle we will emerge victorious. The Europeans through NATO cannot be allowed to ignore the AU and override Africa in the second colonial bid. It is now crystal clear that the motive behind Resolution 1973 was of a sinister nature, in the first instance representing a Declaration of War, as demonstrated by attacks and acts of aggression against a sovereign state of the AU. This has thus culminated in Crimes against Humanity. Therefore we demand the immediate removal of those NATO terrorists from that area and that they be speedily brought to justice. <br /></font></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">c) As Pan Afrikanists, the PSCNAUNR calls upon our brothers and sisters across the globe for the defense of Afrika and its people in respect of NATO’s act of war against an Afrikan State. An attack on one is an attack on all; we therefore reserve the right inter alia to defend ourselves by any means necessary. <br /></font></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">d) The PSCNAUNR further notes that the United Nations 1973 Resolution was a deception from the first instance, the Brain Child of the USA, France and Britain, a group of reputed war mongers within the Security Council and whose track records are well known on the globe, who had indeed succeeded in fooling the Members of that Honorable Council of the UN, under the false pretence that the said Resolution was for the protection of civilians. From the evidence so far, NATO and the Western backed mercenaries are the ones killing civilians and destroying the infrastructure of that Afrikan state, where genocide has become an every day occurrence and where NATO has gone beyond the scope of the Resolution, in attempting to assassinate the sovereign leader of that state, which according to the International Criminal Court (ICC) statute Article 5, 6 and 7 constitute an unlawful act. All these actions have nothing to do with the protection of civilians and that the real motive manifested so far is for Regime Change and a programme of re-colonization. <br /></font></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">e) PSCNAUNR demands that, in the interest of safeguarding humanity, our territorial integrity and in the pursuit of Justice that two Permanent Seats be created on the UN Security Council within the same time span it took to enact Resolution 1973 and this should not go beyond three months. One Seat for the AU and One for Caribbean Union (CARICOM). <br /></font></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">f) In the mean time PSCNAUNR calls upon our Government and fellow AU members to recall our Ambassadors and to expel all Ambassadors whose countries are directly involved in the bombardment of Libya within 3 days, until the war of aggression is called off. <br /></font></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">g) The PSCNAUNR encourages the AU to continue with its policy of non recognition against governments via coup d‘ etat which historically has been the mechanism through which the West, particularly those bombing Afrika under the NATO flag ,has maintained Afrika’s backwardness, continued with the exploitation and plundering and prevented democratic progress. <br /></font></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">h) We the Pan Afrikanists demand an immediate Trade Embargo and the freezing of all assets of those governments and their people that have declared war against Libya and we call upon the AU Assembly to effect this programme of action without delay.<br /></font></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">We the Pan Afrikanists, Friends of Afrika and the peace loving people of humanity hereby, call upon the Government of Namibia and the AU to mobilize a National March (es) on the 11th June 2011 against the UN, NATO, US, France, Italy and Britain program of Regime Change in Libya. </font></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size="3"><font face="Calibri"> </font></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size="3"><font face="Calibri">The Pan Afrikanist Steering Committee of Namibia Against The United Nations Resolution 1973 (PSCNAUNR)</font></font></b></p></div>TIME FOR A "SPECIAL SESSION" OF THE U.N . GENERAL ASSEMBLY: Crimes committed in our name.https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/time-for-a-special-session-of2011-04-18T00:25:53.000Z2011-04-18T00:25:53.000ZTheBlackListhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackList<div><div class="gmail_quote"><p align="center"><b>TIME FOR A "SPECIAL SESSION" OF</b></p>
<p align="center"><b>THE U.N . GENERAL ASSEMBLY</b></p>
<p align="justify">The governments of Britain, France and the United States of America are in the process of committing a terrible crime against the nation and people of Libya, and they are doing it in the names of all of us - the citizens of all the countries that are members of the <u>United Nations</u> (UN)!</p>
<p align="justify">The latest and most compelling evidence of this crime emerged last Thursday, when President Barack Obama , Prime Minister David Cameron and President Nicholas Sarkhozy issued a joint public statement in which they declared - boldly and unequivocally - that they were determined to continue their military assault on Libya until they drove the governmental regime headed by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi out of power, and seemingly, out of Libya as well.</p>
<b><u>
</u></b><p align="justify"><b><u>And, of course , they purported to be carrying out this objective as members of the United Nations Security Council , and under a mandate conferred by the UN Security Council Resolution 1973 (2011) , adopted on 17<sup>th</sup> March 2011.</u></b></p>
<p align="justify">Now, the first point that needs to be made is that the said U N Security Council Resolution 1973(2011) <b>never</b> authorised a military attack on Libya for the purpose removing the government of Libya!</p>
<p align="justify">The relevant portions of the Resolution read as follows:-</p>
<p align="justify">" The Security Council ,</p>
<div style="margin-left:4em;"><p align="justify">4. Authorizes Member States ...to take all necessary measures ....to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory ....;</p>
<p align="justify">6. Decides to establish a ban on all flights in the airspace of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in order to help protect civilians;</p>
<p align="justify">8. Authorizes Member States.. ...to take all necessary measures to enforce compliance with the ban on flights imposed by paragraph 6..."</p>
</div>
<p align="justify">Thus , the joint UK, British and French military operation to drive the Gaddafi-led regime from power and out of Libya is in contravention of both Security Council Resolution 1973 and the Charter of the United Nations, which states in Article 2 that " all Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State..." The US , Britain and France are therefore committing a fundamental breach of international law!</p>
<b><u>
</u></b><p align="justify"><b><u>But what should cause us even more concern is that they are committing this fundamental breach in OUR names!</u></b></p>
And we say this , because Article 24 of the United Nations Charter stipulates that the member nations of the UN "confer on the Security Council primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security,<b>"<u>and agree that in carrying out its duties under this responsibility the Security Council acts on their behalf</u>".</b>
<p align="justify">It is now therefore incumbent upon the nations and citizens of the world who do not support this egregious perversion of the name and authority of the United Nations Security Council to take active measures to halt and rectify this unlawful abuse.</p>
<p align="justify">The first step that the governments of the <b>moral majority</b> of nations must take is to officially request Mr Ban-ki-Moon, the Secretary-General of the UN, to convoke a "Special Session" of the UN General Assembly <b><u>for the purpose of discussing the specific threat to international peace and security created by the US, France and Britain engaging in a military assault on the nation of Libya, outside of the parameters - and indeed in violation- of Security Council Resolution 1973.</u></b></p>
<p align="justify">( Of course, Article 20 of the UN Charter establishes that "Special Sessions" of the General Assembly shall be convoked at the request of a majority of the member nations, while Article 11 authorises the General Assembly to discuss any question relating to the maintenance of international peace and secutity, and to make recommendations to the States concerned or to the Security Council.)</p>
<p align="justify">And we stress that the purpose of the <b>Special Session</b> of the General Assembly must <b><u>not</u></b> be to discuss the general situation in Libya , but rather to discuss <b>"<u>the specific threat to international peace and security created by the US, Britain and France engaging in a military assault on Libya OUTSIDE of the parameters of the Security Council Resolution 1973"</u></b></p>
<p align="justify">By correctly and lawfully framing the issue in this manner we would avoid any conflict with Article 12 of the UN Charter which stipulates that -" while the Security Council is exercising in respect of any dispute or situation the functions assigned to it in the present Charter, the General Assembly shall not make any recommendation with regard to that dispute or situation unless the Security Council so requests"</p>
<b>
</b><p align="justify"><b>And so we appeal to the governments of the Caribbean, Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe to recognise the power that their numerical strength gives them in the international arena, and to use that strength in numbers to put the United Nations into motion, so that the authority and power of the General Assembly of the UN can be used to rein in the unlawful actions of these three rogue states.</b></p>
<p align="justify">The time for action is NOW! For God's sake, do not delay any longer!</p>
<p align="justify"> </p>
<b>
</b><p align="justify"><b>David A Comissiong<br />PEOPLES EMPOWERMENT PARTY</b></p>
<p>President</p>
</div>
<b><u>
</u></b>
<p align="justify">Clement Payne Centre</p>
<p align="justify">Crumpton Street</p>
<p align="justify">Bridgetown</p>
<p align="justify">BARBADOS</p>
<p align="justify"> </p>
<p align="justify">submitted by <b class="gmail_sendername">Clement payne chambers</b> <br /><span dir="ltr"><a href="mailto:clementpaynechambers@gmail.com">clementpaynechambers@gmail.com</a></span></p>
<div style="margin-left:4em;"><u><br /></u></div></div>Trouble In Paradise: Chicanery in Cote d'Ivoire Presidential Electionshttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/trouble-in-paradise-chicanery2011-01-26T03:30:00.000Z2011-01-26T03:30:00.000ZKWASI Akyeamponghttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/KWASIAkyeampong<div><p>There are many misconceptions about what actually happened during the attempt at practicing democracy in the great nation of Cote d'Ivoire. The dispute of who was voted to be the next president has caused much misinformation to be written in well known periodicals who take the word of officials who have been given a mandate to assure that the will of the Ivorian people NOT be respected but the needs of western interests be honored.</p>
<p>Alassane Dramane Ouattara did not win the November 28th, 2010 election regardless of his party's use of terrorist tactics against the Ivorian people's attempt to have free and fair elections. As you read this essay what will be revealed to you are the facts of what actually happened on the ground in Cote<br />D'Ivoire before and during they day of election.</p>
<p><br />The area where the vote count was suspect is the northern part of Cote D'Ivoire. The Forces Nouvelles has heavy influence in this section of the country. The democratic process was stained by violence to the point whereas Coordination of the Observers from the International Mission of the African Civil Society (COMISCA),The African Civil Society for democracy and Electoral Assistance (OSCADAE), African Union (AU) and The Emissaries for the promotion of credible Elections in Africa (CEPECA) questioned the veracity of the ballots ?cast? in that part of the country.</p>
<p><br />It is documented that the Rassemblement des Republicaines (RDR) activists enacted rape, murder, beatings, intimidation, threats of violence, kidnapping, vandalism, false imprisonment, destruction of property, armed robbery, ballot box stuffing, refusal of entry of LMP representatives to the voting area, detained LMP representatives, electioneering for the RDR presidential candidate in the polling stations, RDR activists actually filled out the ballot for the voter to assure that their candidate is on that ballot and forced LMP representatives detained to certify the "results".</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Mr. Ouattara claimed in a recent article on the United States State department website that he believes in democratic principles. Now this may be a personal belief of his yet it seems that the members of his party and its armed wing didn't get that memo.</p>
<p><br />Let's delve into more detail on what happened the day before the election and what happened during the election. On Saturday November 27, 2010 LMP representatives were forbidden to enter the city of Korhogo by the Forces Nouvelles. The Forces Nouvelles forcefully evicted LMP representatives and stripped them of their goods and documents. Thus polling wasn't overseen in the city of Korohogo to assure transparency as stated by Ivorian law. Voters where told to vote for Mr. Ouattara or suffer bodily harm and even death by the Forces Nouvelles. These actions hardly subscribe to the proclamations of a man who claims that he is for creating a democratic and peaceful state. <br />These acts were being carried out in the Korhogo District, Bouake District and the town of Bouake Koko.</p>
<p><br />The following are some of the stations affected by Forces Nouvelles terrorism:<br />The EPP Dar Es Salam 2<br />The EPP CNPS<br />Lycee moderne 2<br />The Djezou Rails groupe scolaire<br />Yamousso Marie Therese High School<br />Groupe scolaire Aboliba 4BV<br />Foyer des jeunes de Koko 4BV<br />EPP Dar Es Salam 2 a 6 6BV<br />Modern Lyceum 2-5BV<br />Groupe scolaire CNPS 4BV<br />EPP Dar Es Salam 1-6BV<br />EPP Djezou Kouamekro 1<br />Berger Kindergarten<br />Allokro-Yaokro<br />EPP Kotiakoffikro<br />EPP Kanontakpe<br />Saint Jacques School<br />EPP Dogouba<br />EPP Liberte<br />Groupe scolaire Bakassa<br />Groupe scolaire Paris Bouake<br />Groupe scolaire Annexe<br />Groupe scolaire Olienon<br />EPV protestant<br />Mohamed 5 Modern Lyceum<br />Groupe scolaire Belleville<br />Belleville Modern Lyceum<br />College moderne jeunes filles<br />EPP Military camp<br />Groupe scolaire Belleville Nord</p>
<p><br />LMP campaign headquarters were attacked by Forces Nouvelles the day before the polls were opened.</p>
<p>In the Savana, Denguele, Bafing, Worodougou regions and Bandama Valley Forces Nouvelles were traveling by motorcycle making wholesale threats promising to kill anyone who would vote for Mr. Laurent Gbagbo.</p>
<p><br />COMISCA, made up of twenty-one NGOs, stated “...that the ballot credibility in the above mentionedareas is strongly marred.” AU noted “...serious acts of violence, namely losses of human lives,infringement of physical integrity, intimidations, and abductions attempts and damage to the electoralmaterial. So many facts that should be object to a careful assessment from the competent institutions,so as to determine their impact on the ballots.” OSCADAE reported, “...the credibility of the pollingwas strongly called into question in some of the above mentioned places.” Those places beingKorhogo, Touba, Bouake, Mankono, Seguela, Odienne, Tingrela, and Maddinani. CEPECA witnessed,“...activists and representatives of candidate Laurent Gbagbo were prevented from voting freely andsupervising the voting process, ex-rebels took some ballots boxes to unknown places, there wasstuffing of ballots boxes on a large scale, ...some voting section agents gave orders favoring the RDR candidate...”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Considering the above mentioned facts the freedom and the transparency of the voting process inthose regions are strongly called into question....the credibility of the ballots in the Savannah regionsmost of all in Korhogo as badly tarnished.”</p>
<p><br />According to agreement the Forces Nouvelles were suppose to disarm before the elections.</p>
<p>We now see why they were reluctant to give up their weapons. Words alone do not show an organization's intentions one must also judge them by their practice.</p>
<p><br />When all the votes were gathered the sitting President Laurent Gbagbo presented to the Electoral Independent Committee (EIC) a complaint informing the EIC of these irregularities and requested that those votes which came from the zones controlled by Forces Nouvelles be invalidated; a reasonable<br />request.</p>
<p><br />After reviewing the complaint and the information of the irregularities by independent observers the EIC became deadlocked on the complaint thus they didn't announce the ?provisional results? of the elections which is within Ivorian law. The final and certified conclusion can only be given by The<br />Constitutional Council (CC) according to the Ivorian Constitution. The Ivorian Constitution states that the CC proclamation in respect to the electoral results are final and without recourse. No provisional election results were announced by the EIC within the three day legally given time for such to be done.</p>
<p><br />Now it was up to the CC to decide by legal mandate as prescribed by the Ivorian Constitution. In the mean time Mr.Youssouf Bakayoko was persuaded to carry out an illegal act which controverted the Ivorian Constitution by naming Mr. Ouattara the ?winner? of the election. He was not alone in this<br />action. It seems that the US Ambassador Phillip Carter III, French Ambassador Jean-Marc-Simon and Y.J. Choi UN Envoy conspired to bring Mr.Youssouf Bakayoko to the Golf Hotel where Mr. Ouattara was illegally announced the winner of the election. These ?results? were certified by the UN Envoy Y.J. Choi then Mr. Ouattara was installed in the eyes of the US, France, Britain, Canada and others.</p>
<p><br />While this charade was being enacted. President Elect Laurent Gbagbo was installed as per the Ivorian Constitution. This act has caused the West to portray their illegal activity as a crisis.<br />The rest of the world is waiting to see how the Ivorian people are acting in this crises situation.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>As usual the threat of violence is being vented towards the Ivorian people. What Western interests may or may not understand is that this isn't just an Ivorian issue it is a global issue. When does the UN, and its backers, become the king maker to the extent were it subverts the sovereignty of a nation and imposes its chosen one against the will of the people.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When does the UN side with those who make a charade of the democratic process when it is obvious that the elections were rigged through the use of terrorism by those who do not have the interest of the Ivorian people at hand and is only looking for self enrichment by siding with past colonial masters who act like vampires sucking the life force by getting the natural resources at dirt cheap pricing to maintain economic poverty as the word and act of the day.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>These negative forces have been sowing the practice of political instability on the continent of Africa for the past five hundred years by creating antagonisms between North and South, Muslims against Christians, one ethnic group against another.</p>
<p><br />It seems as if the Ivorian people have awakened to the sleight of hand that the West and its compradores have played and they refuse to have their nation sold once again on the auction block to continue the hegemonic relationship. Instead they have chosen to create their own path to assure their independence and development without the permission of past and present exploiters and oppressors.</p>
<p><br />Africa is listening and watching and so is the rest of the world.</p>
<p><br /><strong><span class="font-size-3">By <a target="_blank" href="http://rocketmail.com">Bob Doughtie</a></span><br /></strong>Consultant<br />African Human Rights</p>
<p> </p>
<br /><div style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px;" class="wlWriterHeaderFooter"></div></div>United Nations Rapporteur on Adequate Housing meet with Harlem Residentshttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/united-nations-rapporteur-on2010-10-24T13:30:00.000Z2010-10-24T13:30:00.000ZSendMeYourNewshttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/SendMeYourNews<div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><u><span style="color:#000000;">NOTICE OF MEETING OF UN RAPPORTEUR IN</span></u> <u><span style="color:#000000;">HARLEM</span></u><span style="color:#000000;"><br /><br />BUILD THE HUMAN RIGHTS TO HOUSING MOVEMENT<br />A community forum and strategy session with Raquel Rolnik, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing one year of her historic UN mission.<br /><br />An opportunity to share the strength of our movement and collaboration.<br /><br />Monday,</span> <span style="color:#000000;">October 25, 2010</span></b><span style="color:#000000;"><b><br />Doors open at 6 PM/Event at 6:30 PM<br />James Chapel at Union Theological Seminary<br />121st Street 7 Broadway<br />FREE & OPEN TO ALL<br /></b><br /><a title="http://restorehousingrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Oct25_Rapporteurevent.pdf CTRL + Click to follow link" target="_blank">http://restorehousingrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Oct25_Rapporteurevent.pdf</a></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:#000000;">Saturday, October 24, 2010</span></b><b><span style="color:#000000;"><br /><br /><i>Hello everybody,</i></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color:#000000;"><br />A number of folks called asking if we knew of a</span></i></b> <b><i><span style="color:#000000;">Harlem</span></i></b> <b><i><span style="color:#000000;">meeting today with the United Nations’ Rapporteur on Adequate Housing. We checked with at least two dozen</span></i></b> <b><i><span style="color:#000000;">Harlem</span></i></b> <b><i><span style="color:#000000;">housing folks and organizations, nobody had heard of anything. Kinda of strange, right? So we began to dig deeper on the internet. We found the link below (<a target="_blank">restorehousingrights.org</a>). See the attached link below for October 25th flyer. <br /><br />Clearly, there are folks who don't want the greater community of</span></i></b> <b><i><span style="color:#000000;">Harlem</span></i></b> <b><i><span style="color:#000000;">to know about this event, which is why they didn't publicize it! Which leads to the question, why? Why would any group, local or national take it upon themselves to exclude large segments of the Harlem community from such a public event that is meant to provide under the auspices of the United Nations, "<u>An opportunity to share the strength of our movement and collaboration"</u> and to "Build the Human Rights to Housing Movement".</span></i></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i><b>We faced the same obstacles this year as we did in October of 2009 when Rapporteur Rolnik visited Harlem to solicit testimony on the inadequateness of housing from members of the public. Many of us in Harlem learned about the 2009 meeting after the fact. A group of Harlem activists, tenants and heads of not for profits agreed we should ask for an audience with Rapporteur Rolnik. The Host Committee headed by Rob Robinson for Picture the Homeless denied our request to meet with Mr. Rolnik. I hand delivered a letter protesting the exclusion but Ms. Rolnik never replied. I guess THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE! We heard similar stories from some of our housing partners in New Orleans.</b></i></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i><b>Yet this is the same Rapporteur Rolnik who met with the anti-displacement task force of City Councilwoman Melissa Mark Viverito who voted for the expansion of Columbia University's 18 acre expansion in West Harlem that will displace (according to Columbia University) 5,000 low income Latino and African American families. (We believe the figure is much higher over a 30 year construction period).<br /><br />The same Viverito who voted in favor of the 125th Street rezoning plan despite fierce community resistance from across Harlem. According to the New York Times (2/21/08) "City's Sweeping Rezoning for 125th Street Has Many in Harlem Concern", the rezoning calls for the "thoroughfare to be transformed from a low-rise boulevard lined with businesses like hair salons and buffet-style soul food restaurants into a regional business hub with office towers as high as 29 stories and more than 2,000 new market-rate condominium apartments, as well as hotels, bookstores, art galleries and nightclubs." In addition, the rezoning will displace 70 most African American small businesses and their 975 workers. The New York Times also said, "Although the city has said it will not require any residents to move out, the proposal has caused widespread fear that thousands of longtime African-American residents will eventually have to move as the area becomes more expensive. Even now, some apartments in Harlem sell for $2 million or more."</b><b><br /><br />The same Viverito who voted for billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s much touted $700 million East Harlem 125</b> <b><sup>th</sup> Street Development Project, a <u>public/private</u> mixed used complex consisting of a Media, Entertainment and Cultural Center, more than 600 affordable housing units, a public plaza, office/retail space, and a hotel. According to the Mayor’s press release “Affordable housing will be available to families at varying income ranges; with a maximum income level of 60 percent of Area Median Income (AMI) or what is equal to an annual household income of $46,100 for a family of four.” Here the problem: the median household income in East Harlem is $16,234. This is the same Viverito who will not support East Harlem local small businesses whose properties the city with confiscate under New York State’s abusive eminent domain law: seizing private property for rich private corporations.</b></i></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i><b>This is the same Viverito who funds Picture the Homeless. Which is why some forces in the housing movement don’t want us at the table, so there will be no discussion of the gentrification driven displacement carried out by Columbia University, rich private developers and Harlem politicians whose campaign coffers are filled by New York’s powerful real estate industry. The capture of Harlem’s 125<sup>th</sup> corridor has been completed: Columbia University in the western corridor (the Hudson River); and the sweeping commercial and residential developments from central Harlem to the East River represents the final push out of Harlem’s working Black community. We demand a meeting with</b></i> <i><b>Rapporteur Rolnik. For those interested in pursuing the meeting with Rolnik please email me with your contact information.<br /><br /></b></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="#888888"><i><b><span style="color:#000000;"><a href="nelliehester@yahoo.com">Nellie Bailey</a></span></b></i></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"></p></div>Anouncement from the UN Group of Expert of people of African descenthttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/anouncement-from-the-un-group2010-02-28T02:43:46.000Z2010-02-28T02:43:46.000ZSendMeYourNewshttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/SendMeYourNews<div><p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><font size="2" face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:10pt;" lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb">Warmest greetings<br /></span></font><font size="2" face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:10pt;" lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb">from</span></font></p>
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<font size="2" face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:10pt;" lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb">Barryl Biekman</span></font><p></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><font size="2" face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:10pt;" lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb">Secretariat Facilitators Working Group</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><font size="2" face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:10pt;" lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb">African Diaspora AU 6th Region Strategy</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><font size="2" face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:10pt;" lang="de" xml:lang="de">website: <a>www.AU6thRegionFWG.nl</a></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><font size="2" face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:10pt;" lang="de" xml:lang="de">e-mail: <a>secretariat@AU6thRegionFWG.nl</a></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><font size="2" face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:10pt;" lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb"><a>www.auads.info</a></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><font size="2" face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:10pt;" lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb">P.O.Box</span></font> <span lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb">139</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><font size="2" face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:10pt;" lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb">2501CC The Hague</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><font size="2" face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:10pt;" lang="en-gb" xml:lang="en-gb">The Netherlands</span></font></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><img width="534" alt="" src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828514799,original{{/staticFileLink}}" /></p></div>ROBERT KENNEDY SPEAKS OUT- GOV. COVER-UP DANGERS OF VACCINEShttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/robert-kennedy-speaks-out-gov2009-07-22T09:00:00.000Z2009-07-22T09:00:00.000ZNgone Awhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/NgoneAw<div><p style="text-align:left;"><img src="http://api.ning.com/files/UQcIV3KnF3yJKJ72vlfZZM4NDS6JGrsTPYgRoHDjWhlugF8GbAaUa*efOwwoeirV3fcD5yrNdOxtPS4SGRv8ztXql0tgpqmS/needle14475.jpg" alt="" width="143" height="107" /></p><br /><p style="text-align:left;"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828511203,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="" width="550" height="436" /></p><br />REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM?<br /><br />Famous World TrialsROBERT KENNEDY SPEAKS OUT ALARMING DATA ON THE DANGER OF VACCINES COVERED UP BY GOV.<br /><a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14510">www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14510</a><br /><a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14487">www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14487</a><br />Global Research Editor's noteWe bring to the attention of our readers this 2005 article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. published by Rollingstone.com.The article sheds light on the collusion between Big Parma and the US government and the dangers associated with vaccines produced by major pharmaceutical companies. This article is of particular relevance to the current debate on the H1N1 swine flu virus and plans by the WHO, The Obama Administration and Big Pharma to develop a swine flu vaccine.The article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. documented "the government's efforts to conceal alarming data about the dangers of vaccines."For a review of Global Research articles on the H1NI Swine Flu Pandemic, click here.Michel Chossudovsky, July 23, 2009--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Robert F. Kennedy Jr. investigates the government cover-up of a mercury/autism scandalIn June 2000, a group of top government scientists and health officials gathered for a meeting at the isolated Simpsonwood conference center in Norcross, Georgia. Convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the meeting was held at this Methodist retreat center, nestled in wooded farmland next to the Chattahoochee River, to ensure complete secrecy. The agency had issued no public announcement of the session -- only private invitations to fifty-two attendees. There were high-level officials from the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration, the top vaccine specialist from the World Health Organization in Geneva and representatives of every major vaccine manufacturer, including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Wyeth and Aventis Pasteur. All of the scientific data under discussion, CDC officials repeatedly reminded the participants, was strictly "embargoed." There would be no making photocopies of documents, no taking papers with them when they left.The federal officials and industry representatives had assembled to discuss a disturbing new study that raised alarming questions about the safety of a host of common childhood vaccines administered to infants and young children. According to a CDC epidemiologist named Tom Verstraeten, who had analyzed the agency's massive database containing the medical records of 100,000 children, a mercury-based preservative in the vaccines -- thimerosal -- appeared to be responsible for a dramatic increase in autism and a host of other neurological disorders among children. "I was actually stunned by what I saw," Verstraeten told those assembled at Simpsonwood, citing the staggering number of earlier studies that indicate a link between thimerosal and speech delays, attention-deficit disorder, hyperactivity and autism. Since 1991, when the CDC and the FDA had recommended that three additional vaccines laced with the preservative be given to extremely young infants -- in one case, within hours of birth -- the estimated number of cases of autism had increased fifteenfold, from one in every 2,500 children to one in 166 children.Even for scientists and doctors accustomed to confronting issues of life and death, the findings were frightening. "You can play with this all you want," Dr. Bill Weil, a consultant for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the group. The results "are statistically significant." Dr. Richard Johnston, an immunologist and pediatrician from the University of Colorado whose grandson had been born early on the morning of the meeting's first day, was even more alarmed. "My gut feeling?" he said. "Forgive this personal comment -- I do not want my grandson to get a thimerosal-containing vaccine until we know better what is going on."But instead of taking immediate steps to alert the public and rid the vaccine supply of thimerosal, the officials and executives at Simpsonwood spent most of the next two days discussing how to cover up the damaging data. According to transcripts obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, many at the meeting were concerned about how the damaging revelations about thimerosal would affect the vaccine industry's bottom line. "We are in a bad position from the standpoint of defending any lawsuits," said Dr. Robert Brent, a pediatrician at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware. "This will be a resource to our very busy plaintiff attorneys in this country." Dr. Bob Chen, head of vaccine safety for the CDC, expressed relief that "given the sensitivity of the information, we have been able to keep it out of the hands of, let's say, less responsible hands." Dr. John Clements, vaccines advisor at the World Health Organization, declared that "perhaps this study should not have been done at all." He added that "the research results have to be handled," warning that the study "will be taken by others and will be used in other ways beyond the control of this group."In fact, the government has proved to be far more adept at handling the damage than at protecting children's health. The CDC paid the Institute of Medicine to conduct a new study to whitewash the risks of thimerosal, ordering researchers to "rule out" the chemical's link to autism. It withheld Verstraeten's findings, even though they had been slated for immediate publication, and told other scientists that his original data had been "lost" and could not be replicated. And to thwart the Freedom of Information Act, it handed its giant database of vaccine records over to a private company, declaring it off-limits to researchers. By the time Verstraeten finally published his study in 2003, he had gone to work for GlaxoSmithKline and reworked his data to bury the link between thimerosal and autism.Vaccine manufacturers had already begun to phase thimerosal out of injections given to American infants -- but they continued to sell off their mercury-based supplies of vaccines until last year. The CDC and FDA gave them a hand, buying up the tainted vaccines for export to developing countries and allowing drug companies to continue using the preservative in some American vaccines -- including several pediatric flu shots as well as tetanus boosters routinely given to eleven-year-olds.The drug companies are also getting help from powerful lawmakers in Washington. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who has received $873,000 in contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, has been working to immunize vaccine makers from liability in 4,200 lawsuits that have been filed by the parents of injured children. On five separate occasions, Frist has tried to seal all of the government's vaccine-related documents -- including the Simpsonwood transcripts -- and shield Eli Lilly, the developer of thimerosal, from subpoenas. In 2002, the day after Frist quietly slipped a rider known as the "Eli Lilly Protection Act" into a homeland security bill, the company contributed $10,000 to his campaign and bought 5,000 copies of his book on bioterrorism. The measure was repealed by Congress in 2003 -- but earlier this year, Frist slipped another provision into an anti-terrorism bill that would deny compensation to children suffering from vaccine-related brain disorders. "The lawsuits are of such magnitude that they could put vaccine producers out of business and limit our capacity to deal with a biological attack by terrorists," says Dean Rosen, health policy adviser to Frist.Even many conservatives are shocked by the government's effort to cover up the dangers of thimerosal. Rep. Dan Burton, a Republican from Indiana, oversaw a three-year investigation of thimerosal after his grandson was diagnosed with autism. "Thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines is directly related to the autism epidemic," his House Government Reform Committee concluded in its final report. "This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding a lack of safety data regarding injected thimerosal, a known neurotoxin." The FDA and other public-health agencies failed to act, the committee added, out of "institutional malfeasance for self protection" and "misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry."The story of how government health agencies colluded with Big Pharma to hide the risks of thimerosal from the public is a chilling case study of institutional arrogance, power and greed. I was drawn into the controversy only reluctantly. As an attorney and environmentalist who has spent years working on issues of mercury toxicity, I frequently met mothers of autistic children who were absolutely convinced that their kids had been injured by vaccines. Privately, I was skeptical.I doubted that autism could be blamed on a single source, and I certainly understood the government's need to reassure parents that vaccinations are safe; the eradication of deadly childhood diseases depends on it. I tended to agree with skeptics like Rep. Henry Waxman, a Democrat from California, who criticized his colleagues on the House Government Reform Committee for leaping to conclusions about autism and vaccinations. "Why should we scare people about immunization," Waxman pointed out at one hearing, "until we know the facts?"It was only after reading the Simpsonwood transcripts, studying the leading scientific research and talking with many of the nation's pre-eminent authorities on mercury that I became convinced that the link between thimerosal and the epidemic of childhood neurological disorders is real. Five of my own children are members of the Thimerosal Generation -- those born between 1989 and 2003 -- who received heavy doses of mercury from vaccines. "The elementary grades are overwhelmed with children who have symptoms of neurological or immune-system damage," Patti White, a school nurse, told the House Government Reform Committee in 1999. "Vaccines are supposed to be making us healthier; however, in twenty-five years of nursing I have never seen so many damaged, sick kids. Something very, very wrong is happening to our children."More than 500,000 kids currently suffer from autism, and pediatricians diagnose more than 40,000 new cases every year. The disease was unknown until 1943, when it was identified and diagnosed among eleven children born in the months after thimerosal was first added to baby vaccines in 1931.Some skeptics dispute that the rise in autism is caused by thimerosal-tainted vaccinations. They argue that the increase is a result of better diagnosis -- a theory that seems questionable at best, given that most of the new cases of autism are clustered within a single generation of children. "If the epidemic is truly an artifact of poor diagnosis," scoffs Dr. Boyd Haley, one of the world's authorities on mercury toxicity, "then where are all the twenty-year-old autistics?" Other researchers point out that Americans are exposed to a greater cumulative "load" of mercury than ever before, from contaminated fish to dental fillings, and suggest that thimerosal in vaccines may be only part of a much larger problem. It's a concern that certainly deserves far more attention than it has received -- but it overlooks the fact that the mercury concentrations in vaccines dwarf other sources of exposure to our children.What is most striking is the lengths to which many of the leading detectives have gone to ignore -- and cover up -- the evidence against thimerosal. From the very beginning, the scientific case against the mercury additive has been overwhelming. The preservative, which is used to stem fungi and bacterial growth in vaccines, contains ethylmercury, a potent neurotoxin. Truckloads of studies have shown that mercury tends to accumulate in the brains of primates and other animals after they are injected with vaccines -- and that the developing brains of infants are particularly susceptible. In 1977, a Russian study found that adults exposed to much lower concentrations of ethylmercury than those given to American children still suffered brain damage years later. Russia banned thimerosal from children's vaccines twenty years ago, and Denmark, Austria, Japan, Great Britain and all the Scandinavian countries have since followed suit."You couldn't even construct a study that shows thimerosal is safe," says Haley, who heads the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky. "It's just too darn toxic. If you inject thimerosal into an animal, its brain will sicken. If you apply it to living tissue, the cells die. If you put it in a petri dish, the culture dies. Knowing these things, it would be shocking if one could inject it into an infant without causing damage."Internal documents reveal that Eli Lilly, which first developed thimerosal, knew from the start that its product could cause damage -- and even death -- in both animals and humans. In 1930, the company tested thimerosal by administering it to twenty-two patients with terminal meningitis, all of whom died within weeks of being injected -- a fact Lilly didn't bother to report in its study declaring thimerosal safe. In 1935, researchers at another vaccine manufacturer, Pittman-Moore, warned Lilly that its claims about thimerosal's safety "did not check with ours." Half the dogs Pittman injected with thimerosal-based vaccines became sick, leading researchers there to declare the preservative "unsatisfactory as a serum intended for use on dogs."In the decades that followed, the evidence against thimerosal continued to mount. During the Second World War, when the Department of Defense used the preservative in vaccines on soldiers, it required Lilly to label it "poison." In 1967, a study in Applied Microbiology found that thimerosal killed mice when added to injected vaccines. Four years later, Lilly's own studies discerned that thimerosal was "toxic to tissue cells" in concentrations as low as one part per million -- 100 times weaker than the concentration in a typical vaccine. Even so, the company continued to promote thimerosal as "nontoxic" and also incorporated it into topical disinfectants. In 1977, ten babies at a Toronto hospital died when an antiseptic preserved with thimerosal was dabbed onto their umbilical cords.In 1982, the FDA proposed a ban on over-the-counter products that contained thimerosal, and in 1991 the agency considered banning it from animal vaccines. But tragically, that same year, the CDC recommended that infants be injected with a series of mercury-laced vaccines. Newborns would be vaccinated for hepatitis B within twenty-four hours of birth, and two-month-old infants would be immunized for haemophilus influenzae B and diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis.The drug industry knew the additional vaccines posed a danger. The same year that the CDC approved the new vaccines, Dr. Maurice Hilleman, one of the fathers of Merck's vaccine programs, warned the company that six-month-olds who were administered the shots would suffer dangerous exposure to mercury. He recommended that thimerosal be discontinued, "especially when used on infants and children," noting that the industry knew of nontoxic alternatives. "The best way to go," he added, "is to switch to dispensing the actual vaccines without adding preservatives."For Merck and other drug companies, however, the obstacle was money. Thimerosal enables the pharmaceutical industry to package vaccines in vials that contain multiple doses, which require additional protection because they are more easily contaminated by multiple needle entries. The larger vials cost half as much to produce as smaller, single-dose vials, making it cheaper for international agencies to distribute them to impoverished regions at risk of epidemics. Faced with this "cost consideration," Merck ignored Hilleman's warnings, and government officials continued to push more and more thimerosal-based vaccines for children. Before 1989, American preschoolers received eleven vaccinations -- for polio, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis and measles-mumps-rubella. A decade later, thanks to federal recommendations, children were receiving a total of twenty-two immunizations by the time they reached first grade.As the number of vaccines increased, the rate of autism among children exploded. During the 1990s, 40 million children were injected with thimerosal-based vaccines, receiving unprecedented levels of mercury during a period critical for brain development. Despite the well-documented dangers of thimerosal, it appears that no one bothered to add up the cumulative dose of mercury that children would receive from the mandated vaccines. "What took the FDA so long to do the calculations?" Peter Patriarca, director of viral products for the agency, asked in an e-mail to the CDC in 1999. "Why didn't CDC and the advisory bodies do these calculations when they rapidly expanded the childhood immunization schedule?"But by that time, the damage was done. At two months, when the infant brain is still at a critical stage of development, infants routinely received three inoculations that contained a total of 62.5 micrograms of ethylmercury -- a level 99 times greater than the EPA's limit for daily exposure to methylmercury, a related neurotoxin. Although the vaccine industry insists that ethylmercury poses little danger because it breaks down rapidly and is removed by the body, several studies -- including one published in April by the National Institutes of Health -- suggest that ethylmercury is actually more toxic to developing brains and stays in the brain longer than methylmercury.Officials responsible for childhood immunizations insist that the additional vaccines were necessary to protect infants from disease and that thimerosal is still essential in developing nations, which, they often claim, cannot afford the single-dose vials that don't require a preservative. Dr. Paul Offit, one of CDC's top vaccine advisers, told me, "I think if we really have an influenza pandemic -- and certainly we will in the next twenty years, because we always do -- there's no way on God's earth that we immunize 280 million people with single-dose vials. There has to be multidose vials."But while public-health officials may have been well-intentioned, many of those on the CDC advisory committee who backed the additional vaccines had close ties to the industry. Dr. Sam Katz, the committee's chair, was a paid consultant for most of the major vaccine makers and was part of a team that developed the measles vaccine and brought it to licensure in 1963. Dr. Neal Halsey, another committee member, worked as a researcher for the vaccine companies and received honoraria from Abbott Labs for his research on the hepatitis B vaccine.Indeed, in the tight circle of scientists who work on vaccines, such conflicts of interest are common. Rep. Burton says that the CDC "routinely allows scientists with blatant conflicts of interest to serve on intellectual advisory committees that make recommendations on new vaccines," even though they have "interests in the products and companies for which they are supposed to be providing unbiased oversight." The House Government Reform Committee discovered that four of the eight CDC advisers who approved guidelines for a rotavirus vaccine "had financial ties to the pharmaceutical companies that were developing different versions of the vaccine."Offit, who shares a patent on one of the vaccines, acknowledged to me that he "would make money" if his vote eventually leads to a marketable product. But he dismissed my suggestion that a scientist's direct financial stake in CDC approval might bias his judgment. "It provides no conflict for me," he insists. "I have simply been informed by the process, not corrupted by it. When I sat around that table, my sole intent was trying to make recommendations that best benefited the children in this country. It's offensive to say that physicians and public-health people are in the pocket of industry and thus are making decisions that they know are unsafe for children. It's just not the way it works."Other vaccine scientists and regulators gave me similar assurances. Like Offit, they view themselves as enlightened guardians of children's health, proud of their "partnerships" with pharmaceutical companies, immune to the seductions of personal profit, besieged by irrational activists whose anti-vaccine campaigns are endangering children's health. They are often resentful of questioning. "Science," says Offit, "is best left to scientists."Still, some government officials were alarmed by the apparent conflicts of interest. In his e-mail to CDC administrators in 1999, Paul Patriarca of the FDA blasted federal regulators for failing to adequately scrutinize the danger posed by the added baby vaccines. "I'm not sure there will be an easy way out of the potential perception that the FDA, CDC and immunization-policy bodies may have been asleep at the switch re: thimerosal until now," Patriarca wrote. The close ties between regulatory officials and the pharmaceutical industry, he added, "will also raise questions about various advisory bodies regarding aggressive recommendations for use" of thimerosal in child vaccines.If federal regulators and government scientists failed to grasp the potential risks of thimerosal over the years, no one could claim ignorance after the secret meeting at Simpsonwood. But rather than conduct more studies to test the link to autism and other forms of brain damage, the CDC placed politics over science. The agency turned its database on childhood vaccines -- which had been developed largely at taxpayer expense -- over to a private agency, America's Health Insurance Plans, ensuring that it could not be used for additional research. It also instructed the Institute of Medicine, an advisory organization that is part of the National Academy of Sciences, to produce a study debunking the link between thimerosal and brain disorders. The CDC "wants us to declare, well, that these things are pretty safe," Dr. Marie McCormick, who chaired the IOM's Immunization Safety Review Committee, told her fellow researchers when they first met in January 2001. "We are not ever going to come down that [autism] is a true side effect" of thimerosal exposure. According to transcripts of the meeting, the committee's chief staffer, Kathleen Stratton, predicted that the IOM would conclude that the evidence was "inadequate to accept or reject a causal relation" between thimerosal and autism. That, she added, was the result "Walt wants" -- a reference to Dr. Walter Orenstein, director of the National Immunization Program for the CDC.For those who had devoted their lives to promoting vaccination, the revelations about thimerosal threatened to undermine everything they had worked for. "We've got a dragon by the tail here," said Dr. Michael Kaback, another committee member. "The more negative that [our] presentation is, the less likely people are to use vaccination, immunization -- and we know what the results of that will be. We are kind of caught in a trap. How we work our way out of the trap, I think is the charge."Even in public, federal officials made it clear that their primary goal in studying thimerosal was to dispel doubts about vaccines. "Four current studies are taking place to rule out the proposed link between autism and thimerosal," Dr. Gordon Douglas, then-director of strategic planning for vaccine research at the National Institutes of Health, assured a Princeton University gathering in May 2001. "In order to undo the harmful effects of research claiming to link the [measles] vaccine to an elevated risk of autism, we need to conduct and publicize additional studies to assure parents of safety." Douglas formerly served as president of vaccinations for Merck, where he ignored warnings about thimerosal's risks.In May of last year, the Institute of Medicine issued its final report. Its conclusion: There is no proven link between autism and thimerosal in vaccines. Rather than reviewing the large body of literature describing the toxicity of thimerosal, the report relied on four disastrously flawed epidemiological studies examining European countries, where children received much smaller doses of thimerosal than American kids. It also cited a new version of the Verstraeten study, published in the journal Pediatrics, that had been reworked to reduce the link between thimerosal and autism. The new study included children too young to have been diagnosed with autism and overlooked others who showed signs of the disease. The IOM declared the case closed and -- in a startling position for a scientific body -- recommended that no further research be conducted.The report may have satisfied the CDC, but it convinced no one. Rep. David Weldon, a Republican physician from Florida who serves on the House Government Reform Committee, attacked the Institute of Medicine, saying it relied on a handful of studies that were "fatally flawed" by "poor design" and failed to represent "all the available scientific and medical research." CDC officials are not interested in an honest search for the truth, Weldon told me, because "an association between vaccines and autism would force them to admit that their policies irreparably damaged thousands of children. Who would want to make that conclusion about themselves?"Under pressure from Congress and parents, the Institute of Medicine convened another panel to address continuing concerns about the Vaccine Safety Datalink Data Sharing program. In February, the new panel, composed of different scientists, criticized the way the VSD had been used in the Verstraeten study, and urged the CDC to make its vaccine database available to the public.So far, though, only two scientists have managed to gain access. Dr. Mark Geier, president of the Genetics Center of America, and his son, David, spent a year battling to obtain the medical records from the CDC. Since August 2002, when members of Congress pressured the agency to turn over the data, the Geiers have completed six studies that demonstrate a powerful correlation between thimerosal and neurological damage in children. One study, which compares the cumulative dose of mercury received by children born between 1981 and 1985 with those born between 1990 and 1996, found a "very significant relationship" between autism and vaccines. Another study of educational performance found that kids who received higher doses of thimerosal in vaccines were nearly three times as likely to be diagnosed with autism and more than three times as likely to suffer from speech disorders and mental retardation. Another soon-to-be published study shows that autism rates are in decline following the recent elimination of thimerosal from most vaccines.As the federal government worked to prevent scientists from studying vaccines, others have stepped in to study the link to autism. In April, reporter Dan Olmsted of UPI undertook one of the more interesting studies himself. Searching for children who had not been exposed to mercury in vaccines -- the kind of population that scientists typically use as a "control" in experiments -- Olmsted scoured the Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who refuse to immunize their infants. Given the national rate of autism, Olmsted calculated that there should be 130 autistics among the Amish. He found only four. One had been exposed to high levels of mercury from a power plant. The other three -- including one child adopted from outside the Amish community -- had received their vaccines.At the state level, many officials have also conducted in-depth reviews of thimerosal. While the Institute of Medicine was busy whitewashing the risks, the Iowa legislature was carefully combing through all of the available scientific and biological data. "After three years of review, I became convinced there was sufficient credible research to show a link between mercury and the increased incidences in autism," says state Sen. Ken Veenstra, a Republican who oversaw the investigation. "The fact that Iowa's 700 percent increase in autism began in the 1990s, right after more and more vaccines were added to the children's vaccine schedules, is solid evidence alone." Last year, Iowa became the first state to ban mercury in vaccines, followed by California. Similar bans are now under consideration in thirty-two other states.But instead of following suit, the FDA continues to allow manufacturers to include thimerosal in scores of over-the-counter medications as well as steroids and injected collagen. Even more alarming, the government continues to ship vaccines preserved with thimerosal to developing countries -- some of which are now experiencing a sudden explosion in autism rates. In China, where the disease was virtually unknown prior to the introduction of thimerosal by U.S. drug manufacturers in 1999, news reports indicate that there are now more than 1.8 million autistics. Although reliable numbers are hard to come by, autistic disorders also appear to be soaring in India, Argentina, Nicaragua and other developing countries that are now using thimerosal-laced vaccines. The World Health Organization continues to insist thimerosal is safe, but it promises to keep the possibility that it is linked to neurological disorders "under review."I devoted time to study this issue because I believe that this is a moral crisis that must be addressed. If, as the evidence suggests, our public-health authorities knowingly allowed the pharmaceutical industry to poison an entire generation of American children, their actions arguably constitute one of the biggest scandals in the annals of American medicine. "The CDC is guilty of incompetence and gross negligence," says Mark Blaxill, vice president of Safe Minds, a nonprofit organization concerned about the role of mercury in medicines. "The damage caused by vaccine exposure is massive. It's bigger than asbestos, bigger than tobacco, bigger than anything you've ever seen."It's hard to calculate the damage to our country -- and to the international efforts to eradicate epidemic diseases -- if Third World nations come to believe that America's most heralded foreign-aid initiative is poisoning their children. It's not difficult to predict how this scenario will be interpreted by America's enemies abroad. The scientists and researchers -- many of them sincere, even idealistic -- who are participating in efforts to hide the science on thimerosal claim that they are trying to advance the lofty goal of protecting children in developing nations from disease pandemics. They are badly misguided. Their failure to come clean on thimerosal will come back horribly to haunt our country and the world's poorest populations.NOTE: This story has been updated to correct several inaccuracies in the original, published version. As originally reported, American preschoolers received only three vaccinations before 1989, but the article failed to note that they were innoculated a total of eleven times with those vaccines, including boosters. The article also misstated the level of ethylmercury received by infants injected with all their shots by the age of six months. It was 187 micrograms - an amount forty percent, not 187 times, greater than the EPA's limit for daily exposure to methylmercury. Finally, because of an editing error, the article misstated the contents of the rotavirus vaccine approved by the CDC. It did not contain thimerosal. Salon and Rolling Stone regret the errors.An earlier version of this story stated that the Institute of Medicine convened a second panel to review the work of the Immunization Safety Review Committee that had found no evidence of a link between thimerosal and autism. In fact, the IOM convened the second panel to address continuing concerns about the Vaccine Safety Datalink Data Sharing program, including those raised by critics of the IOM's earlier work. But the panel was not charged with reviewing the committee's findings. The story also inadvertently omitted a word and transposed two sentences in a quote by Dr. John Clements, and incorrectly stated that Dr. Sam Katz held a patent with Merck on the measles vaccine. In fact, Dr. Katz was part of a team that developed the vaccine and brought it to licensure, but he never held the patent. Salon and Rolling Stone regret the errors.CLARIFICATION: After publication of this story, Salon and Rolling Stone corrected an error that misstated the level of ethylmercury received by infants injected with all their shots by the age of six months. It was 187 micrograms ? an amount forty percent, not 187 times, greater than the EPA's limit for daily exposure to methylmercury. At the time of the correction, we were aware that the comparison itself was flawed, but as journalists we considered it more appropriate to state the correct figure rather than replace it with another number entirely.Since that earlier correction, however, it has become clear from responses to the article that the forty-percent number, while accurate, is misleading. It measures the total mercury load an infant received from vaccines during the first six months, calculates the daily average received based on average body weight, and then compares that number to the EPA daily limit. But infants did not receive the vaccines as a ?daily average? ? they received massive doses on a single day, through multiple shots. As the story states, these single-day doses exceeded the EPA limit by as much as 99 times. Based on the misunderstanding, and to avoid further confusion, we have amended the story to eliminate the forty-percent figure.Correction: The story misattributed a quote to Andy Olson, former legislative counsel to Senator Bill Frist. The comment was made by Dean Rosen, health policy adviser to the senator. Rolling Stone and Salon.com regret the error.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Kennedy Report Sparks Controversy"Deadly Immunity," our story about the link between mercury in vaccines and the dramatic rise in autism among children [RS 977/978], sparked intense reaction from the medical establishment and several leading news organizations. The story, by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. -- part of an ongoing collaboration with Salon.com -- documented the government's efforts to conceal alarming data about the dangers of vaccines.What is most striking is the lengths to which major media outlets have gone to disparage the story and to calm public fears -- even in the face of the questionable science on the subject. In a segment on World News Tonight titled "A Closer Look," ABC pointed out that Kennedy is "not a scientist or a doctor" and dismissed his extensive evidence as nothing more than "a few scientific studies." The network also trotted out its medical editor, Dr. Timothy Johnson, to praise the "impeccably impartial Institute of Medicine" and to again state that Kennedy is not a scientist.The New York Times, in a front-page story on the subject, devoted only one line to Kennedy's article, which it said accused public-health officials and drugmakers of "conspiring" to hide the data on autism -- a word that our story neither used nor implied. (The Wall Street Journal, in an op-ed attacking the article, was even more misleading, using the word "conspiracy" four times.) The Times then went on, for more than a full page, to portray concerns over vaccines as nothing more than the misguided fears of parents who suffer from "scientific illiteracy," unable to understand the medical studies that prove immunizations to be safe. It depicted studies reviewed by the Institute of Medicine as definitive without even bothering to address the host of serious questions raised about their validity: conflicting diagnoses of autism, mixed-up data from HMOs and research skewed to exclude many sick kids.Rolling Stone and Salon fact-checked the article thoroughly before publication, insisting on primary documentation for every statement in the story, and posted links to the most significant materials online to enable readers to judge for themselves. The final article contained six errors. These ranged from inadvertently transposing a quote and confusing a drug license for a patent to relying on a figure that incorrectly calculated an infant's exposure to mercury over six months, rather than citing the even more dangerous amount injected on a single day. (The mistakes were corrected online as soon as they were discovered and can be viewed in detail at both RollingStone.com and Salon.com.)It is important to note, however, that none of the mistakes weaken the primary point of the story. The government's own records show that it has failed to do the science necessary to put to rest reasonable concerns about vaccines. If the scientists had simply done their job rather than covering their tracks, there would be no controversy today. Instead, the government cannot even provide a definitive figure of the number of cases of autism among American children -- a number obviously critical to any serious scientific investigation -- and yet expects the public to believe that it has ruled out any link between vaccines and an illness it does not even track."Science," as one doctor in our story insisted, "is best left to scientists." But when the scientists fail to do their job, resorting to closed-door meetings and rigged studies, others in society have not only a right but a moral obligation to question their work. In the coming years, further research may indeed demonstrate that mercury in vaccines is not responsible for the rise in autism. For now, though, we can only raise a very real and legitimate alarm -- and hope that the government's well-documented mishandling of its own research did not needlessly jeopardize the health of hundreds of thousands of children.Global Research Articles by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<br /><br />NUREMBURG TRIAL.1945 - 1949Meet the Major War Criminals Trial DefendantsCharter, Indictments & SentencesThe Major War Criminals Trial:Transcript ExcerptsThe Major War Criminals Trial:Assorted ImagesChief U. S. Prosecutor Robert Jackson and Uri Pokrovski,Assistant Soviet Prosecutor, listen to a defense summationin the Major War Figures Trial.Courtroom Diagram with ImagesThe Subsequent Nuremberg Trials:An Overview & ImagesThe Medical ("Nazi Doctors") Trial(Case No. 1)The Justice ("Nazi Judges") Trial(Case No. 3) A Trial Accountby Douglas O. Linder------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />We must face the horrible facts, that we are living with the same demons that gave small pox to the indians in blankets., gave us the Tuskegee Experiment, AIDS and so much more..<br />H1N1, Swine flu, Obama, flu shots, Baxter International, Chicago IL ...... few weeks as Baxter (based out of Chicago and BO owns stock in this company)was ... purchase of the biotech stock that Feb. 22, Mr. Obama initiated what he has ...<a href="http://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/h1n1-swine-flu-obama-flu-shots-baxter-in">http://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/h1n1-swine-flu-obama-flu-shots-baxter-in</a>...<br /><br /><object width="445" height="364" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/5neYLYydsl8&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never" ></param><param name="allowNetworking" value="internal" ></param><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5neYLYydsl8&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" ></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="false" ></param><embed wmode="opaque" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5neYLYydsl8&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="never" width="445" height="364" allownetworking="internal"></embed></object> <br /><br />NUREMBURG TRIALS AFTER THE WAR IN US<br /><object width="445" height="364" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/vZN4cHgs7tk&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never" ></param><param name="allowNetworking" value="internal" ></param><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vZN4cHgs7tk&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" ></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="false" ></param><embed wmode="opaque" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vZN4cHgs7tk&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="never" width="445" height="364" allownetworking="internal"></embed></object> <br /> <br />No trial provides a better basis for understanding the nature and causes of evil than do the Nuremberg trials from 1945 to 1949. Those who come to the trials expecting to find sadistic monsters are generally disappointed. What is shocking about Nuremberg is the ordinariness of the defendants: men who may be good fathers, kind to animals, even unassuming--yet committed unspeakable crimes. Years later, reporting on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, Hannah Arendt wrote of "the banality of evil." Like Eichmann, most Nuremberg defendants never aspired to be villains. Rather, they either overidentified with an ideological cause or suffered from a lack of imagination: they couldn't fully appreciate the human consequences of their career-motivated decisions....(CONTINUED)<br />.Nuremberg Trials: 1945-1949Extensive site featuring a chronology, accounts of the trials, transcripts, images, and links.<br /><a href="http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/nuremberg.htm">www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/nuremberg.htm</a><br />Famous TrialsThe Einsatzgruppen Trial (Case No. 9)The Movie: Judgment at NurembergLinks & BibliographyWILL WE ALLOW HISTORY TO REPEAT ITSELF?<br /><br /><object width="445" height="364" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/RHpZvv5wRyE&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never" ></param><param name="allowNetworking" value="internal" ></param><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RHpZvv5wRyE&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" ></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="false" ></param><embed wmode="opaque" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RHpZvv5wRyE&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="never" width="445" height="364" allownetworking="internal"></embed></object> <br />IN LIES WE TRUST<br /><br /><object width="445" height="364" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/8R2hmC6uav8&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never" ></param><param name="allowNetworking" value="internal" ></param><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8R2hmC6uav8&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" ></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="false" ></param><embed wmode="opaque" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8R2hmC6uav8&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="never" width="445" height="364" allownetworking="internal"></embed></object> <br /><p style="text-align:left;"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828511115,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="" width="208" height="169" /></p><br />The Late, Dr. Boyd Graves<br /><br />DR . BOYD GRAVES, THE ORIGIN OF A.I.D.S. (adult language)<br /><object width="445" height="364" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/xtvKK8tl_pM&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never" ></param><param name="allowNetworking" value="internal" ></param><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xtvKK8tl_pM&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" ></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="false" ></param><embed wmode="opaque" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xtvKK8tl_pM&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="never" width="445" height="364" allownetworking="internal"></embed></object> <br />CHECK INTO COLODIAL SILVER TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND FAMILY (health food store)<br /><br /></div>OUR IDENTITY - WHY IT'S IMPORTANThttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/our-identity-why-its2009-06-29T03:30:00.000Z2009-06-29T03:30:00.000ZNgone Awhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/NgoneAw<div><p style="text-align:left;"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828510635,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="" width="640" height="480" /></p><br /> THE HONORABLE SILLAS MUHAMMAD<br />Thank you for sharing this powerful message, when I signed my immigrations papers in Ghana to get residency I signed AFRODESCENDENT, even though I did not really like it,I understand the need for us to embrace a collective identity..I wish to thank the Lost Found Nation of Islam, Sillas Muhammad, & Chief Elder Osirus, and others for their years of work and leadership on our behalf....So we have 250 Million AFRODESCENDENTS in our Diasporan Nation!Much Repsect,AfroDescendent, Ngone-Ada: Aw<br />OUR IDENTITY - WHY IT IS IMPORTANTTHE HONORABLE SILIS MUHAMMADWE, THE LOST-FOUND NATION OF ISLAM, HAVE SPENT CLOSE TO SEVENTEEN YEARS AT THE UNITED NATIONS. During these years, our fight has been to establish an identity. The identity we have chosen for ourselves is not just for us here in America, but also for Blacks from many nations. Following the prophecies of the Holy Quran and Bible, God said He would gather His people out of every nation where they are scattered. We, the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, were instrumental in accomplishing that. We have gathered together the scattered children of former slaves in the entire Slavery Diaspora: North America, Central America, South America and the Islands. We had progressed to the point that we had the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights supporting us.For an entire week in Chincha, Peru, during aNovember 2005 UN regional seminar, ALL YOU COULD HEAR FROM EVERY UN OFFICIAL SPEAKING, AND EVERY NATION, WAS THE TERM FRODESCENDANTS.That was just one seminar - the culmination, or some say the birth, of Afrodescendants. There were several seminars, and each time we had a seminar there were some countries that did not show up. But we, the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, have always been there at every seminar. We saw all of those who came and went. We made a substantial donation towards the expenses of the seminar in Chincha, Peru, and we were sponsors for smaller countries who attented that seminar, all for the purpose of establishing a global identity - not reparations, but an identity. While reparation is one our plights, we were not in Peru to gain reparations. We were in Peru to gain an identity. What identity? Afrodescendants. The UN has the name, Afrodescendants, on their records.Chief Osiris Akkebala, in his intervention at the United Nations, said we want reparations, we demand reparations; we demand that you pay us reparations. After he spoke, we waited for a little while and said "We understand that you, the UN, cannot pay reparations." Our point to the officers of the UN and to Chief Osiris was that the UN does not pay reparations. People do not come to the UN to get reparations. The UN does not pay reparations. We went tothe UN to be reinstated into the human families of the earth because the UN, prior to then, did not recognize us. We did not have human rights. the UN had grouped us with the English, Spanish and Portuguese speaking Caucasians in the countries in which we live. We were subsumed in the Americas, and we sought to bring a wedge between us and Caucasians: to let the world know we are not Caucasian and that we have a different identity from them. But, what is that identity?We are no longer Africans only. Because of the Mediterranean and trasns-Atlantic slave trades, we are, today, scattered into many lands and cultures. Our ancestors, stolen from their homeland, Africa,were forcibly bred and raped and severed from original identity until we, the descendants, no longer viewed ourselves as Africans only. Neither are we viewed as Africans by continental Africans, who themselves suffered colonization. So, we were a lost people, a question mark - until we self-identified as Afrodescendants. WE DID THAT. THE LOST-FOUND NATION OF ISLAM, HAITI, CUBA,COSTA RICA, PANAMA, NICARAGUA, JAMAICA, URUGUAY, BRAZIL, COLOMBIA, PERU, MEXICO, CANADA and all. All nations where we have been scattered should have been there; they were welcomed there. The major nations in which we were scattered were present. We verbally gave name to ourselves under the umbrella and protection of the United Nations, which is what we first went to the UN to do. We asked for a forum.In the first oral statement to the UN, in 1998, we asked the UN to do that: to recognize us as a people separate from the countries in which we live, and the UN has done this. From 2001 to 2006, the UN allowed and helped us to self-identify and then began calling us by our new, self-chosen name. There were seminars in Honduras, Canada, Switzerland, South Africa, Peru, and Chile. While we were in Durban, South Africa, to take part in the World Conference Against Racism(WCAR) (and we did take part in the WCAR), we had a separate seminar with Professors Jose Bengoa and Asbjorn Eide.It was in Santiago, Chile where the term, Afrodescendants, was first heard and Ajani Mukarram, President of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, was present-before 2001 and before Durban.With that said, we offer to the various groups, or organizations, among us the following: for accounting and global census purposes, will you, brethen (Pan-Africanists, Nationalists, Bi-racials, Blacks, Americans, Africans, African-Americans, Bilians, New Africans and other self-declared nations among our people), step forward to the global identity, "Afrodescendants", as did the Lost-Found Nation of Islam and our brothers and sisters in Brazil. Most Latin-American countries had already accepted the global identity, Afrodescendants, when the Lost-Found Nation of Islam was objecting to it.During the UN sponsored regional seminar in La Ceiba, Honduras, the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, for a second time, objected to this new global identity, Afrodescendants. During the seminar, a representative from Brazil, who has the largest Afrodescendant population in the slavery Diaspora, stated that they, too, did not agree with the name, Afrodescendants, that was already in use by Latin- Americans but acquiesced to establish unity with the manyBlacks already using the term. We were proposing Lost-Found People. Professor Jose Bengoa arranged for a special meeeting between Cuba and the Lost-Found Nation of Islam. After hearing the Brazilian delegate's comments, and being asked to meet with Cuba, we began to think about the term Afrodescendants.The feel and weight of the term Afrodescendants, in the atmosphere among the Latin delegates was so great, that we, the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, decided to concur and use the term like the Brazilians had done. We quickly sketched out a rough definitions of Afrodescendants within the fifteen minute time frame we had before the meeting with Cuba was to get started. A representative from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights translated the meeting between us. The representative of Cuba asked us, in Spanish, if we had anything to say to her. After her statement was translated, we replied with a definition for Afrodescendants, showing our agreement, to which the reprensative showed surprise, or so it seemed from her countenance. So, we offer to you, African-Americans, a just people, the global identity, Afrodescendant. The term, African-American, is not favored by Latin countries. The measurements of us all is some 250 million Afrodescendants in the slavery Diaspora. In no way does your national identity change, unless you change it. We are speaking of global identity.In Durban, South Africa in 2001, we were still working on our identity; we were not working to define it yet. We did not have a clear-cut identity although the term, Afrodescendants, was in the air. We had not decided, collectively, on an identity. In Durban, the December 12th Movement, headed by Roger Wareham, was attending meetings in one room while we, the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, were in another room. The December 12th Movement, Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover and many others were campaigning for reparations. It is reported that some 400 Black attendees were present along with the December 12th Movement, including Jessie Jackson. The transatlantic slave trade and reparations was the language spoken in that room in Durban at WCAR, which caused, we believe, the US Government to boycott this conference. The World Conference Against Racism was about racism. I cannot knock what Roger Wareham is doing, because the Lost-Found Nation of Islam will benefit from the results of the reparationsadvocates' language, too. and, while they were in that room and we were in another room, we did come contact with one another. But, we all know that the UN cannot pay us reparations.We well know that we were not recognized in 2001 by the UN as a people - we were just hollering, making noise. The UN did not recognize us. We had no voice, no human rights. Our fight in the UN has been to re-established (reconnected) to the human families of the earth and be recognized by the UN.Once the UN recognizes us, then we can call upon the UN for assistance, as like any other nation can call upon the UN for assistance, as like any other nation can call upon the UN when human rights of their citizens are trepassed upon. But, first, we needed recognition. In order to gain recognition, we needed an identity. In order to gain an identity, we gathered the scattered children from every nation and self-identified ourselves. We asked for recognition of our human rights - which is our own culture, language, religion and so on. While we asked for that, simuntaneously, members of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam were functioning as a just government (in its early stages) for Black people, a government that we invite and encourage all Afrodescendants to become part of or an ally with.Governments of nations that are members of the UN have to sign on to, and ratify, the covenant or law for which they wish to be held liable. If they do not wish to be liable for it, they do not sign it and they do not ratify it.Thus, if a violation comes up, they are not held responsible. In Durban, at the WCAR, the committee that made up the final draft of the Declaration and Program of Action of the 2001 WCAR did say that the transatlantic slave trade should be considered a crime against humanity. There is a law in the UN about crimes against humanity. It is referred to as the Convention on the Non- Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. That is already a law in the UN. But the US has refused to sign and ratify it. So, even if this committe that wrote the final document said transatlantic slave trade was a crime against humanity and should have been so, it is just language in the conference documents. It is not law. It is not mandated by any offical body of the UN. It has not been haggled over for 12 months, or 4 years, or 10 years.In one week, they make a decision that this, the transatlantic slave trade, was a crime against humanity - in their hearts. But the UN law on the non-appicability of statutory limitations to crimes against humanity is not binding on the US because the US did not sign and ratify it. Thus, they cannot be held liable for it.We understand and know that the UN does not pay reparations out of its treasury, but we also know that the UN, in all of its glory, can be asked to be an abjudicator. The only way to bring the US to justice is to turn the world pressure against it. Going to an impartial abjudicator, the UN, for justice - to be awarded compensation - instead of going to the one who injured us, is accomplishing that. This is the reason why we went to the UN. However, we foundthat we did not exist as a people in the UN, and an identity had to be established before we could ask for justice.My point is that our fight is for reparations. But part of this fight is our fight for an identity - to be recognizied by the UN as belonging to the human families of the earth again (ethnogenesis). We did speak on identity in Durban at the WCAR before the plenary, which was the entire body of government representatives. Our message was about identity. Reparation is on the back of our minds, but we know (because we have a legal background, too), that the USdid not sign that document and cannot be held liable for that document. UN officials were under the illusion, when they hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. saying that white children and Black children will walk hand in hand, that we were all the same. They apparently concluded that we were happy with our plight and satisfied that we were being identified as Caucasian, since no BlackPERSONS HAD PENTRATED THE WALL PUT UP BY THE US IN THE UN UNTIL THE LOST-NATION OF ISLAM CAME AND TOLD THE UN OTHERWISE. OTHER BLACKS HAD GONE TO THE UN, BUT NONE HAD PENETRATED THIS VENEER. THEY THOUGHT WE WERE HAPPY AND SATISFIED HERE IN AMERICA, BASED UPON MARTIN LUTHER KING'S DREAM.The Afrodescendants government should approach the UN on reparations. For when a government speaks, it has more power. It would have more weight than an individual speaking. It could galvanize world pressure. The government ofAfrodescendants could declare a national emergency. The efforts of an individual are just futile. The UN hears you, but they cannot do anything about it because you are not a government entity. About eleven years ago, we established a government. so, we would say that when our government stops dragging its feet and takes care of the people's needs and business, then it would be heard.<br /><br /></div>CHICAGO SLAVERY DISCLOSURE LAWSUIT GOES TO UNITED NATONS PANEL AND IOChttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/chicago-slavery-disclosure2009-01-16T01:11:53.000Z2009-01-16T01:11:53.000ZTheBlackListhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackList<div>January 15, 2009
GENEVA---Bob Brown, co-director of Pan-African Roots, arrived in Geneva, Switzerland on January 13, 2009, to attend the Eighth Session of the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent which meets from January 12 to January 16, 2009. He is attending this Session as a representative of the International Indian Treaty Council, an NGO with ECOSOC Consultative Status.
Hosted by the UN Human Rights Council, the Eighth Session focused on an assessment of the work of the Working Group since its creation, evaluated what has been done, and how, and determining where to go from here, as well as developed its programme of work for the future, including its meetings, country visits and participation in the build-up process for the Durban Review Conference which will be held in Geneva in April 2009.
The Session devoted a day of analysis of the situation of children of African descent. It identified and shared best practices in the struggle against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, made suggestions about the Working Group's future programme of work, and made recommendations to be included in the Outcome Document which will be discussed and approved at the April 2009 Durban Review Conference.
Mr. Brown informed the Working Group about the Slavery Disclosure Ordinance in Chicago and other cities and about his historic and precedent-setting lawsuit to enforce them. He recommended that cities, counties, states/provinces, nations, regional and international organizations, and non-governmental organizations in every corner of Africa, the African Diaspora, and the World pass similar laws, resolutions, policies and regulations demanding the full disclosure of any and all slavery era records of any and all entities whom they do business with.
The 3rd World Conference against Racism declared that "slavery and the slave trade are crimes against humanity, and should have always been so." Mr. Brown informed the Working Group, that the majority of African People in the United States, and other corners of the world, do not agree with the latter part of this declaration.
He informed the Working Group that the UN Human Rights Council and they have an obligation to explain to World Humanity when, where, how and why slavery and the slave trade were prohibited and abolished in every country in the world; when and how they where declared crimes against humanity, and why this did not apply to African People.
The Regional Preparatory Meeting for Africa for the Durban Review Conference which met in Abuja, Nigeria from 24-26 August 2008, requested that the Human Rights Council organize a seminar or panel discussion on all aspects of the transatlantic slave trade provisions of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and the UN General Assembly resolutions 61/19 and 62/122, taking into consideration African Union initiatives on this issue, and include its findings and recommendations in the Preparatory Process and the Durban Review Conference.
The Representative of the South African Delegation to the Working Group's Eighth Session, on South Africa's and the Africa Group's behalf, requested yesterday, that grass-roots meetings be held in every corner of Africa and the African Diaspora.
Mr. Brown suggested that "The Evolution of the Global Prohibition Regime against the Slave Trade and Slavery" be included as a theme or issue in these seminars, panels and/or meetings.
Mr. Brown suggested that Chicago be one of these venues, during the week of March 25, 2009--the "International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Slave Trade and Slavery."
Chicago is the capital of black economics and politics in the United States. It is the only city in the United States which has produced 20 out of 50 Aldermen, 3 of 7 Congressmen, 1 Senator and a President-elect of African Descent. It is also the legal and political center of the Reparations Movement, and the struggle to disclose slavery era records. Mr. Brown believes that the African Community in Chicago is well positioned to host such a historic gathering.
A panel discussion titled "Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Challenges for the Durban Review Conference: Remembrance, Apologies, and Remedies" was held on Wednesday, January 14, 2009, from 13:00 to 15:00 hours, in Room XXIV of the Palais de Nations.
Participants included: Malaak Shabazz, (daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz); Joe Frans, chairperson of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent; Professor Rex Nettleson, chair of the International Scientific Committee to the UNESCO Slave Route Project, Dr. Barryl Biekman, National Platform Dutch Slavery Past; and Jon Lonn, Swedish Centre Against Racism. Mrs. Margaret Parsons, Afro-Canadian Legal Clinic will moderate the discussion.
The panel was organized by the World Against Racism Network, Afro-Canadian Legal Clinic, Swedish Centre Against Racism, Afro-Swedish National Association, International Youth and Student Movement for the United Nations and National Dutch Slavery Past.
Mr. Brown also took the occasion of his visit to Switzerland to raise similar concerns with the International Olympics Committee. He informed the IOC that the Chicago Slavery Era Disclosure Ordinance applies to any and all stakeholders in the Chicago 2016 bid, including but not limited to any and all of the National Olympic Committees and Teams.
Simply put, they cannot receive any services, benefits, support or guarantees from the City of Chicago unless and until their Governments search and disclose any and all of their and any and all of their Royal and Leading Families' slavery era records.
<b>For more information contact:</b>
Pan-African Roots
1247 E Street SE
Washington, DC 20003
(292) 544-9355
or <a href="paroots02@yahoo.com">paroots02@yahoo.com</a>
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