Peace For Earth
News
August 22, 2008
- Deep Green: The dispossessed of Diego Garcia
Here's the latest in the Deep Green column from Rex Weyler -author, journalist, ecologist and long-time Greenpeace trouble-maker. The opinions here are his own, and you can sign up to get the column by email every month.
The dispossessed
In 1969, Marie Aimee took her two children for medical treatment, a six-day voyage across the Indian Ocean from their home on Diego Garcia island to Port Louis, Mauritius. Her husband, Dervillie Permal, stayed behind to work at a coconut oil factory and tend the family garden and animals.
After visiting the doctor and picking up supplies in Port Louis, Marie and her children arrived at the quay for the trip home. However, a British Government agent refused to allow them onto the boat, stranding Marie and her children in Mauritius. Throughout the following weeks, other marooned islanders appeared, congregating in a local slum, living in boxes or tin shacks. Two years later, Marie's husband arrived in Port Louis with one small bag and a chilling story.
Environmentalists are sometimes accused of caring more about animals than people, an idea refuted by countless actions protecting human victims of industrial and military disasters. The 1970s Greenpeace campaign to stop nuclear testing in the South Pacific, for example, included support for the displaced and irradiated innocents of Rongelap Island. More recently, in March 2008, two former Greenpeace skippers - Jon Castle and Peter Bouquet, both from the original Rainbow Warrior crew - sailed into the lagoon of Diego Garcia, to protest the treatment of dispossessed islanders, including Marie Aimee and her descendants.
Real estate, ocean view
Diego Garcia island sits in the Chagos Archipelago, east of the Seychelles, 1000 nautical miles south of India. In the eighteenth century, French Navy ships marooned lepers on the island and later established coconut plantations worked by slaves.
The British seized the islands in 1815, eventually converted the slaves to indentured labourers, and imported peasant workers from India and Mauritius. Marie and her husband are descendants of these workers. They are the Chagossians.
By the twentieth century, around 2000 Chagossians lived modest but pleasant lives on Diego Garcia, under the dominion of British colonists and military officers. The islanders worked on the coconut plantations, maintained family gardens, raised chickens, and ate lobster and fish from the bountiful lagoon. Their children grew healthy on the rich diet, attended schools, and played in the marine paradise.
In 1961, American military officers arrived, looking for a suitable US bomber base in the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia, with its protected coral lagoon and clear, long-range radio reception appeared perfect. One problem, however, persisted. The Americans desired privacy, and did not want indigenous inhabitants near their base.
Britain paid its own colony of Mauritius £3 million for unrestricted rights to the Chagos Archipelago and formed the "British Indian Ocean Territory" (BIOT) among the islands. Their first legal act, "BIOT Ordinance No. 1: Compulsory Acquisition of Land," presumed the authority to confiscate land deemed necessary for British or American security.
In 1966, Britain granted the US a 50-year lease on the island, for US$1 per year, plus a one-off payment of US$14 million (£5 million at the time, a neat profit on their real estate investment). The US delivered the payment in trade, in the form of Polaris nuclear submarine missiles.
Pet cemetery
Documents later released under court order by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) described islanders as "Tarzans and Men Fridays" with "little aptitude for anything except growing coconuts." The FCO promised Americans that deportations could be "timed to attract the least attention," leaving "no indigenous population except seagulls."
When Richard Nixon became US president in 1969 he handed the Diego Garcia portfolio to his protégé, 32-year-old law school dropout Donald Rumsfeld. British officers, on behalf of their American clients, closed coconut plantations, putting people out of work. They lured families to Mauritius with free holidays, barred them from returning, and made no provisions for stranded islanders such as Marie Aimee and her children.
In 1971, armed soldiers seized the island. They ordered Marie's husband, Dervillie Permal, to leave immediately allowing him to take only the possessions he carried on his way home from work. British troops burned homes, killed livestock, and corralled some 800 dogs, including family pets, into an abandoned coconut oil plantation building. They converted the building into a gas chamber by attaching vehicle exhaust pipes and executed the dogs in full view of weeping families.
The soldiers herded distraught islanders, traumatized men and women, onto ships. Marie Therese Mein, now 68, suffered a miscarriage on the six-day slave-ship style voyage, and Christian Simon, 28, overcome by despair, threw himself into the sea.
In Port Louis, Permal met his wife Marie in the city slum, where they begged for food and menial jobs. Many Chagossians fell victim to alcoholism, drugs, and prostitution. Their children were mocked and humiliated at local schools. Meanwhile, on Diego Garcia, British officers handed the depopulated island paradise to Mr. Rumsfeld and the American generals.
Footprint Freedom
Diego Garcia island is now the largest US military base outside the United States, with arsenals, bunkers, and hangers for B2 stealth bombers. The once-rich lagoon is now an oily harbour for some 30 warships. B52 Bombing raids depart from Diego Garcia for Iraq and Afghanistan, bombing more peasant people to secure America's access to oil fields and pipeline routes.
The 1450 US soldiers, 2000 civilian contractors, and 50 British soldiers entertain themselves with a windsurfer club, yacht club, fishing tours, and an annual "Miss Diego Garcia" beauty contest. US military personnel refer to their 6,000 global bases as America's "footprint," and Diego Garcia has been branded "Footprint Freedom."
At the heart of Footprint Freedom sits a detention and interrogation centre that the local soldiers refer to as "Camp Justice," exposed by Scottish MP Alex Salmon and confirmed by US general Barry McCaffrey and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. Donald Rumsfield - architect of the final solution to the island's indigenous problem and Iraq War planner - admits that the US holds "ghost detainees" at these "extraordinary rendition" camps.
In 2002, during the planning of the Iraq War, the US brought prisoner Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi to Diego Garcia on the USS Bataan. According to the London human rights group, Reprieve, Al-Libi was tortured into "admitting" that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and worked with al-Qaida, the two erroneous pretenses that Rumsfeld and George Bush used to launch the oil wars. According to a Council of Europe investigation, Diego Garcia's "Camp Justice" is a primary interrogation centre for "high-value detainees."
The Rule of Law
The story of Diego Garcia Island is the story of industrialized, militarized western world gone mad, the rich and powerful subjugating the landscape and the most defenseless people on Earth. The dispossessed Chagossian people, however, struggle back.
In 2003, they filed a lawsuit in the United States against Rumsfeld and others instrumental in seizing Diego Garcia, including US Vice President Dick Cheney, US ambassador Anne Armstrong, Lawrence Eagleburger, and Halliburton, the corporation they run that held the construction contract for the base. These defendants faced charges of kidnapping, genocide, torture, and degrading treatment of innocent people. The US Supreme Court refused to hear the case, and the US media virtually ignored the story.
In Britain, however, the Chagossian people have won three High Court decisions against the British Government, confirming that the expulsions were unlawful and that the right to a homeland represents a "fundamental liberty" under British and International law. The Governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have appealed these rulings, but the case now stands before the British House of Lords, with a decision expected in October.
In July of this year a committee of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland ruled that Britain "should ensure that the Chagos islanders can exercise their right to return to their territory [and] should investigate allegations related to transit through its territory of rendition flights."
British authorities arrested Jon Castle and Peter Bouquet in the Diego Garcia lagoon and seized their boat, Musichana. Another former Greenpeace activist from the 1970s peace vessel Fri and the Rainbow Warrior, Martini Gotje, provides updates at The People's Navy. The UK Chagos Support Association posts legal updates. On 21 August an open International Conference, "The Fate of the Chagossians," commenced at VU University Amsterdam, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology.
The case of the Chagossians exposes the pretense of industrial civilization. Leaders of rich nations proclaim freedom and democracy, yet most peasant people and all environments in the world remain under relentless assault. Indigenous people in India, Africa, China, Tibet, Canada, the US, Brazil, Argentina, and throughout the western hemisphere, have been dispossessed from sustainable lives in forests, prairies, or islands and driven into urban slums in the name of economic progress. There exists an eternal link between the industrial and military destruction of the environment and the assault on the poorest people of the world.
You may respond to "Deep Green" columns at my Ecolog, where I post portions of this column and dialogue with readers.
- 10 months
source: (Greenpeace UK - Peace) - Deep Green: The dispossessed of Diego Garcia
Here's the latest in the Deep Green column from Rex Weyler -author, journalist, ecologist and long-time Greenpeace trouble-maker. The opinions here are his own, and you can sign up to get the column by email every month.
The dispossessed
In 1969, Marie Aimee took her two children for medical treatment, a six-day voyage across the Indian Ocean from their home on Diego Garcia island to Port Louis, Mauritius. Her husband, Dervillie Permal, stayed behind to work at a coconut oil factory and tend the family garden and animals.
After visiting the doctor and picking up supplies in Port Louis, Marie and her children arrived at the quay for the trip home. However, a British Government agent refused to allow them onto the boat, stranding Marie and her children in Mauritius. Throughout the following weeks, other marooned islanders appeared, congregating in a local slum, living in boxes or tin shacks. Two years later, Marie's husband arrived in Port Louis with one small bag and a chilling story.
Environmentalists are sometimes accused of caring more about animals than people, an idea refuted by countless actions protecting human victims of industrial and military disasters. The 1970s Greenpeace campaign to stop nuclear testing in the South Pacific, for example, included support for the displaced and irradiated innocents of Rongelap Island. More recently, in March 2008, two former Greenpeace skippers - Jon Castle and Peter Bouquet, both from the original Rainbow Warrior crew - sailed into the lagoon of Diego Garcia, to protest the treatment of dispossessed islanders, including Marie Aimee and her descendants.
Real estate, ocean view
Diego Garcia island sits in the Chagos Archipelago, east of the Seychelles, 1000 nautical miles south of India. In the eighteenth century, French Navy ships marooned lepers on the island and later established coconut plantations worked by slaves.
The British seized the islands in 1815, eventually converted the slaves to indentured labourers, and imported peasant workers from India and Mauritius. Marie and her husband are descendants of these workers. They are the Chagossians.
By the twentieth century, around 2000 Chagossians lived modest but pleasant lives on Diego Garcia, under the dominion of British colonists and military officers. The islanders worked on the coconut plantations, maintained family gardens, raised chickens, and ate lobster and fish from the bountiful lagoon. Their children grew healthy on the rich diet, attended schools, and played in the marine paradise.
In 1961, American military officers arrived, looking for a suitable US bomber base in the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia, with its protected coral lagoon and clear, long-range radio reception appeared perfect. One problem, however, persisted. The Americans desired privacy, and did not want indigenous inhabitants near their base.
Britain paid its own colony of Mauritius ??3 million for unrestricted rights to the Chagos Archipelago and formed the "British Indian Ocean Territory" (BIOT) among the islands. Their first legal act, "BIOT Ordinance No. 1: Compulsory Acquisition of Land," presumed the authority to confiscate land deemed necessary for British or American security.
In 1966, Britain granted the US a 50-year lease on the island, for US$1 per year, plus a one-off payment of US$14 million (??5 million at the time, a neat profit on their real estate investment). The US delivered the payment in trade, in the form of Polaris nuclear submarine missiles.??
Pet cemetery
Documents later released under court order by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) described islanders as "Tarzans and Men Fridays" with "little aptitude for anything except growing coconuts." The FCO promised Americans that deportations could be "timed to attract the least attention," leaving "no indigenous population except seagulls."??
When Richard Nixon became US president in 1969 he handed the Diego Garcia portfolio to his prot??g??, 32-year-old law school dropout Donald Rumsfeld. British officers, on behalf of their American clients, closed coconut plantations, putting people out of work. They lured families to Mauritius with free holidays, barred them from returning, and made no provisions for stranded islanders such as Marie Aimee and her children.
In 1971, armed soldiers seized the island. They ordered Marie's husband, Dervillie Permal, to leave immediately allowing him to take only the possessions he carried on his way home from work. British troops burned homes, killed livestock, and corralled some 800 dogs, including family pets, into an abandoned coconut oil plantation building. They converted the building into a gas chamber by attaching vehicle exhaust pipes and executed the dogs in full view of weeping families.
The soldiers herded distraught islanders, traumatized men and women, onto ships. Marie Therese Mein, now 68, suffered a miscarriage on the six-day slave-ship style voyage, and Christian Simon, 28, overcome by despair, threw himself into the sea.
In Port Louis, Permal met his wife Marie in the city slum, where they begged for food and menial jobs. Many Chagossians fell victim to alcoholism, drugs, and prostitution. Their children were mocked and humiliated at local schools. Meanwhile, on Diego Garcia, British officers handed the depopulated island paradise to Mr. Rumsfeld and the American generals.
Footprint Freedom
Diego Garcia island is now the largest US military base outside the United States, with arsenals, bunkers, and hangers for B2 stealth bombers. The once-rich lagoon is now an oily harbour for some 30 warships. B52 Bombing raids depart from Diego Garcia for Iraq and Afghanistan, bombing more peasant people to secure America's access to oil fields and pipeline routes.
The 1450 US soldiers, 2000 civilian contractors, and 50 British soldiers entertain themselves with a windsurfer club, yacht club, fishing tours, and an annual "Miss Diego Garcia" beauty contest. US military personnel refer to their 6,000 global bases as America's "footprint," and Diego Garcia has been branded "Footprint Freedom."
At the heart of Footprint Freedom sits a detention and interrogation centre that the local soldiers refer to as "Camp Justice," exposed by Scottish MP Alex Salmon and confirmed by US general Barry McCaffrey and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. Donald Rumsfield - architect of the final solution to the island's indigenous problem and Iraq War planner - admits that the US holds "ghost detainees" at these "extraordinary rendition" camps.
In 2002, during the planning of the Iraq War, the US brought prisoner Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi to Diego Garcia on the USS Bataan. According to the London human rights group, Reprieve, Al-Libi was tortured into "admitting" that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and worked with al-Qaida, the two erroneous pretenses that Rumsfeld and George Bush used to launch the oil wars. According to a Council of Europe investigation, Diego Garcia's "Camp Justice" is a primary interrogation centre for "high-value detainees."
The Rule of Law
The story of Diego Garcia Island is the story of industrialized, militarized western world gone mad, the rich and powerful subjugating the landscape and the most defenseless people on Earth. The dispossessed Chagossian people, however, struggle back.
In 2003, they filed a lawsuit in the United States against Rumsfeld and others instrumental in seizing Diego Garcia, including US Vice President Dick Cheney, US ambassador Anne Armstrong, Lawrence Eagleburger, and Halliburton, the corporation they run that held the construction contract for the base. These defendants faced charges of kidnapping, genocide, torture, and degrading treatment of innocent people. The US Supreme Court refused to hear the case, and the US media virtually ignored the story.
In Britain, however, the Chagossian people have won three High Court decisions against the British Government, confirming that the expulsions were unlawful and that the right to a homeland represents a "fundamental liberty" under British and International law. The Governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have appealed these rulings, but the case now stands before the British House of Lords, with a decision expected in October.
In July of this year a committee of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland ruled that Britain "should ensure that the Chagos islanders can exercise their right to return to their territory [and] should investigate allegations related to transit through its territory of rendition flights."
British authorities arrested Jon Castle and Peter Bouquet in the Diego Garcia lagoon and seized their boat, Musichana. Another former Greenpeace activist from the 1970s peace vessel Fri and the Rainbow Warrior, Martini Gotje, provides updates at The People's Navy.?? The UK Chagos Support Association?? posts legal updates. On 21 August an open International Conference, "The Fate of the Chagossians," commenced at VU University Amsterdam, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology.
The case of the Chagossians exposes the pretense of industrial civilization. Leaders of rich nations proclaim freedom and democracy, yet most peasant people and all environments in the world remain under relentless assault. Indigenous people in India, Africa, China, Tibet, Canada, the US, Brazil, Argentina, and throughout the western hemisphere, have been dispossessed from sustainable lives in forests, prairies, or islands and driven into urban slums in the name of economic progress. There exists an eternal link between the industrial and military destruction of the environment and the assault on the poorest people of the world.
You may respond to "Deep Green" columns at my Ecolog, where I post portions of this column and dialogue with readers.
- 10 months
source: (Greenpeace UK - Peace) - Deep Green: The dispossessed of Diego Garcia
Here's the latest in the Deep Green column from Rex Weyler -author, journalist, ecologist and long-time Greenpeace trouble-maker. The opinions here are his own, and you can sign up to get the column by email every month.
The dispossessed
In 1969, Marie Aimee took her two children for medical treatment, a six-day voyage across the Indian Ocean from their home on Diego Garcia island to Port Louis, Mauritius. Her husband, Dervillie Permal, stayed behind to work at a coconut oil factory and tend the family garden and animals.
After visiting the doctor and picking up supplies in Port Louis, Marie and her children arrived at the quay for the trip home. However, a British Government agent refused to allow them onto the boat, stranding Marie and her children in Mauritius. Throughout the following weeks, other marooned islanders appeared, congregating in a local slum, living in boxes or tin shacks. Two years later, Marie's husband arrived in Port Louis with one small bag and a chilling story.
Environmentalists are sometimes accused of caring more about animals than people, an idea refuted by countless actions protecting human victims of industrial and military disasters. The 1970s Greenpeace campaign to stop nuclear testing in the South Pacific, for example, included support for the displaced and irradiated innocents of Rongelap Island. More recently, in March 2008, two former Greenpeace skippers - Jon Castle and Peter Bouquet, both from the original Rainbow Warrior crew - sailed into the lagoon of Diego Garcia, to protest the treatment of dispossessed islanders, including Marie Aimee and her descendants.
Real estate, ocean view
Diego Garcia island sits in the Chagos Archipelago, east of the Seychelles, 1000 nautical miles south of India. In the eighteenth century, French Navy ships marooned lepers on the island and later established coconut plantations worked by slaves.
The British seized the islands in 1815, eventually converted the slaves to indentured labourers, and imported peasant workers from India and Mauritius. Marie and her husband are descendants of these workers. They are the Chagossians.
By the twentieth century, around 2000 Chagossians lived modest but pleasant lives on Diego Garcia, under the dominion of British colonists and military officers. The islanders worked on the coconut plantations, maintained family gardens, raised chickens, and ate lobster and fish from the bountiful lagoon. Their children grew healthy on the rich diet, attended schools, and played in the marine paradise.
In 1961, American military officers arrived, looking for a suitable US bomber base in the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia, with its protected coral lagoon and clear, long-range radio reception appeared perfect. One problem, however, persisted. The Americans desired privacy, and did not want indigenous inhabitants near their base.
Britain paid its own colony of Mauritius £3 million for unrestricted rights to the Chagos Archipelago and formed the "British Indian Ocean Territory" (BIOT) among the islands. Their first legal act, "BIOT Ordinance No. 1: Compulsory Acquisition of Land," presumed the authority to confiscate land deemed necessary for British or American security.
In 1966, Britain granted the US a 50-year lease on the island, for US$1 per year, plus a one-off payment of US$14 million (£5 million at the time, a neat profit on their real estate investment). The US delivered the payment in trade, in the form of Polaris nuclear submarine missiles.
Pet cemetery
Documents later released under court order by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) described islanders as "Tarzans and Men Fridays" with "little aptitude for anything except growing coconuts." The FCO promised Americans that deportations could be "timed to attract the least attention," leaving "no indigenous population except seagulls."
When Richard Nixon became US president in 1969 he handed the Diego Garcia portfolio to his protégé, 32-year-old law school dropout Donald Rumsfeld. British officers, on behalf of their American clients, closed coconut plantations, putting people out of work. They lured families to Mauritius with free holidays, barred them from returning, and made no provisions for stranded islanders such as Marie Aimee and her children.
In 1971, armed soldiers seized the island. They ordered Marie's husband, Dervillie Permal, to leave immediately allowing him to take only the possessions he carried on his way home from work. British troops burned homes, killed livestock, and corralled some 800 dogs, including family pets, into an abandoned coconut oil plantation building. They converted the building into a gas chamber by attaching vehicle exhaust pipes and executed the dogs in full view of weeping families.
The soldiers herded distraught islanders, traumatized men and women, onto ships. Marie Therese Mein, now 68, suffered a miscarriage on the six-day slave-ship style voyage, and Christian Simon, 28, overcome by despair, threw himself into the sea.
In Port Louis, Permal met his wife Marie in the city slum, where they begged for food and menial jobs. Many Chagossians fell victim to alcoholism, drugs, and prostitution. Their children were mocked and humiliated at local schools. Meanwhile, on Diego Garcia, British officers handed the depopulated island paradise to Mr. Rumsfeld and the American generals.
Footprint Freedom
Diego Garcia island is now the largest US military base outside the United States, with arsenals, bunkers, and hangers for B2 stealth bombers. The once-rich lagoon is now an oily harbour for some 30 warships. B52 Bombing raids depart from Diego Garcia for Iraq and Afghanistan, bombing more peasant people to secure America's access to oil fields and pipeline routes.
The 1450 US soldiers, 2000 civilian contractors, and 50 British soldiers entertain themselves with a windsurfer club, yacht club, fishing tours, and an annual "Miss Diego Garcia" beauty contest. US military personnel refer to their 6,000 global bases as America's "footprint," and Diego Garcia has been branded "Footprint Freedom."
At the heart of Footprint Freedom sits a detention and interrogation centre that the local soldiers refer to as "Camp Justice," exposed by Scottish MP Alex Salmon and confirmed by US general Barry McCaffrey and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. Donald Rumsfield - architect of the final solution to the island's indigenous problem and Iraq War planner - admits that the US holds "ghost detainees" at these "extraordinary rendition" camps.
In 2002, during the planning of the Iraq War, the US brought prisoner Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi to Diego Garcia on the USS Bataan. According to the London human rights group, Reprieve, Al-Libi was tortured into "admitting" that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and worked with al-Qaida, the two erroneous pretenses that Rumsfeld and George Bush used to launch the oil wars. According to a Council of Europe investigation, Diego Garcia's "Camp Justice" is a primary interrogation centre for "high-value detainees."
The Rule of Law
The story of Diego Garcia Island is the story of industrialized, militarized western world gone mad, the rich and powerful subjugating the landscape and the most defenseless people on Earth. The dispossessed Chagossian people, however, struggle back.
In 2003, they filed a lawsuit in the United States against Rumsfeld and others instrumental in seizing Diego Garcia, including US Vice President Dick Cheney, US ambassador Anne Armstrong, Lawrence Eagleburger, and Halliburton, the corporation they run that held the construction contract for the base. These defendants faced charges of kidnapping, genocide, torture, and degrading treatment of innocent people. The US Supreme Court refused to hear the case, and the US media virtually ignored the story.
In Britain, however, the Chagossian people have won three High Court decisions against the British Government, confirming that the expulsions were unlawful and that the right to a homeland represents a "fundamental liberty" under British and International law. The Governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have appealed these rulings, but the case now stands before the British House of Lords, with a decision expected in October.
In July of this year a committee of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland ruled that Britain "should ensure that the Chagos islanders can exercise their right to return to their territory [and] should investigate allegations related to transit through its territory of rendition flights."
British authorities arrested Jon Castle and Peter Bouquet in the Diego Garcia lagoon and seized their boat, Musichana. Another former Greenpeace activist from the 1970s peace vessel Fri and the Rainbow Warrior, Martini Gotje, provides updates at The People's Navy. The UK Chagos Support Association posts legal updates. On 21 August an open International Conference, "The Fate of the Chagossians," commenced at VU University Amsterdam, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology.
The case of the Chagossians exposes the pretense of industrial civilization. Leaders of rich nations proclaim freedom and democracy, yet most peasant people and all environments in the world remain under relentless assault. Indigenous people in India, Africa, China, Tibet, Canada, the US, Brazil, Argentina, and throughout the western hemisphere, have been dispossessed from sustainable lives in forests, prairies, or islands and driven into urban slums in the name of economic progress. There exists an eternal link between the industrial and military destruction of the environment and the assault on the poorest people of the world.
You may respond to "Deep Green" columns at my Ecolog, where I post portions of this column and dialogue with readers.
- 10 months
source: (Greenpeace UK - Peace)
August 06, 2008
- 63 years today since the US nuked Hiroshima
There are few things that change history as much as war. Ask anyone who's lived through one and they'll tell you what it was like surviving it. But what if there are no survivors? Over 140,000 people perished within seconds of the United States dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima 63 years ago today. This morning, Japan marked the bomb drop at a ceremony in Hiroshima, and called for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
The nuclear attack subsequently killed many more through radiation and some of those who suffered attended today's ceremony. I think it would've been a perfect moment for George Bush to call off his government's nuclear programme and publicly apologise for his country's past role in mass killing 140,000 civilians. But that wasn't to be as Bush was engaged in pressuring North Korea into giving up its nuclear weapons.
Mayor of Hiroshima Tadatoshi Akiba is trying to bring together mayors from around the world in a ‘Mayors for Peace' network calling for an end to nuclear weapons. Our own London mayor Boris Johnson has pulled out of this group despite leading the capital of a country capable of mass destruction if it were to use its nuclear weapons. Britain, as a nuclear power, has a responsibility never to cause destruction like the Hiroshima bombing in 1945. Pulling out of ‘Mayors for Peace' (which already has 2,368 member cities in 131 countries) is definitely not a step in that direction.
The US government is a worse culprit as it was one of only three nations to counter a UN resolution for the abolition of nuclear arms that was initiated by Japan. And with a few weeks still to go until the US gets a new president, it is difficult to predict what they'll do to Iran as the Bush administration deceitfully tries to pick a fight. If Hiroshima's 63rd anniversary isn't enough to make the US see the light, then you only have to wait two days until Nagasaki's.
Video, via Making Waves:
- 11 months
source: (Greenpeace UK - Peace) - 63 years today since the US nuked Hiroshima
There are few things that change history as much as war. Ask anyone who's lived through one and they'll tell you what it was like surviving it. But what if there are no survivors? Over 140,000 people perished within seconds of the United States dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima 63 years ago today. This morning, Japan marked the bomb drop at a ceremony in Hiroshima, and called for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
The nuclear attack subsequently killed many more through radiation and some of those who suffered attended today's ceremony. I think it would've been a perfect moment for George Bush to call off his government's nuclear programme and publicly apologise for his country's past role in mass killing 140,000 civilians. But that wasn't to be as Bush was engaged in pressuring North Korea into giving up its nuclear weapons.
Mayor of Hiroshima Tadatoshi Akiba is trying to bring together mayors from around the world in a ???Mayors for Peace' network calling for an end to nuclear weapons. Our own London mayor Boris Johnson has pulled out of this group despite leading the capital of a country capable of mass destruction if it were to use its nuclear weapons. Britain, as a nuclear power, has a responsibility never to cause destruction like the Hiroshima bombing in 1945. Pulling out of ???Mayors for Peace' (which already has 2,368 member cities in 131 countries) is definitely not a step in that direction.
The US government is a worse culprit as it was one of only three nations to counter a UN resolution for the abolition of nuclear arms that was initiated by Japan. And with a few weeks still to go until the US gets a new president, it is difficult to predict what they'll do to Iran as the Bush administration deceitfully tries to pick a fight. If Hiroshima's 63rd anniversary isn't enough to make the US see the light, then you only have to wait two days until Nagasaki's.
Video, via Making Waves:??
- 11 months
source: (Greenpeace UK - Peace) - 63 years today since the US nuked Hiroshima
There are few things that change history as much as war. Ask anyone who's lived through one and they'll tell you what it was like surviving it. But what if there are no survivors? Over 140,000 people perished within seconds of the United States dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima 63 years ago today. This morning, Japan marked the bomb drop at a ceremony in Hiroshima, and called for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
The nuclear attack subsequently killed many more through radiation and some of those who suffered attended today's ceremony. I think it would've been a perfect moment for George Bush to call off his government's nuclear programme and publicly apologise for his country's past role in mass killing 140,000 civilians. But that wasn't to be as Bush was engaged in pressuring North Korea into giving up its nuclear weapons.
Mayor of Hiroshima Tadatoshi Akiba is trying to bring together mayors from around the world in a ‘Mayors for Peace' network calling for an end to nuclear weapons. Our own London mayor Boris Johnson has pulled out of this group despite leading the capital of a country capable of mass destruction if it were to use its nuclear weapons. Britain, as a nuclear power, has a responsibility never to cause destruction like the Hiroshima bombing in 1945. Pulling out of ‘Mayors for Peace' (which already has 2,368 member cities in 131 countries) is definitely not a step in that direction.
The US government is a worse culprit as it was one of only three nations to counter a UN resolution for the abolition of nuclear arms that was initiated by Japan. And with a few weeks still to go until the US gets a new president, it is difficult to predict what they'll do to Iran as the Bush administration deceitfully tries to pick a fight. If Hiroshima's 63rd anniversary isn't enough to make the US see the light, then you only have to wait two days until Nagasaki's.
Video, via Making Waves:
- 11 months
source: (Greenpeace UK - Peace)
August 04, 2008
- Fake triggers to start real wars
We're called Greenpeace for a reason. Not only do we defend the natural world but also promote world peace. Hence, the Bush administration is a major cause for concern; it clashes with both of our objectives by trashing the environment and warmongering.
As if the wars on Afghanistan and invasion of Iraq weren't enough, the bloodthirsty US government looks desperate to wage war on Iran - even if that means staging an incident to start it, as you'll see from this video.
Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh reveals one disturbing proposal, discussed in Vice President Dick Cheney's office, that might make you question the Bush administration's credibility (if you haven't already).
With only a few weeks left to go, you'd think that the Bush administration would be wrapping up and planning a low key exit in the face of global infamy over the two wars. But they seem to want to top it up with a third one against Iran, likely done not directly by US forces, but via political and military support for an Israeli strike against Iran. A repeated theme emerging from analysts is any strike would be likely to occur in November or December this year.
What if they don't find any reason to support war against Iran until it's time to go? Well, one suggestion put before Dick Cheney was to recreate the Strait of Hormuz incident but with American boats disguised as Iranian ones, to cook up a fight and trigger a war against Iran. The proposal was only discarded because it would mean Americans killing Americans, which would, apparently, be unacceptable.
Still more disturbing was an observation made by Hersh that, given the right incident, the American public would give consent for their government to attack Iran.
If you’re getting a sense of déjà vu (remember the dirty dossier? Iraq getting ‘uranium from the Congo’?) and want to keep abreast of the spin about Iran check out http://dontbombiran.info.
- 11 months
source: (Greenpeace UK - Peace) - Fake triggers to start real wars
We're called Greenpeace for a reason. Not only do we defend the natural world but also promote world peace. Hence, the Bush administration is a major cause for concern; it clashes with both of our objectives by trashing the environment and warmongering.
As if the wars on Afghanistan and invasion of Iraq weren't enough, the bloodthirsty US government looks desperate to wage war on Iran - even if that means staging an incident to start it, as you'll see from this video.
Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh reveals one disturbing proposal, discussed in Vice President Dick Cheney's office, that might make you question the Bush administration's credibility (if you haven't already).
With only a few weeks left to go, you'd think that the Bush administration would be wrapping up and planning a low key exit in the face of global infamy over the two wars. But they seem to want to top it up with a third one against Iran, likely done not directly by US forces, but via political and military support for an Israeli strike against Iran. A repeated theme emerging from analysts is any strike would be likely to occur in November or December this year.
What if they don't find any reason to support war against Iran until it's time to go? Well, one suggestion put before Dick Cheney was to recreate the Strait of Hormuz incident but with American boats disguised as Iranian ones, to cook up a fight and trigger a war against Iran. The proposal was only discarded because it would mean Americans killing Americans, which would, apparently, be unacceptable.
Still more disturbing was an observation made by Hersh that, given the right incident, the American public would give consent for their government to attack Iran.
If you???re getting a sense of d??j?? vu (remember the dirty dossier? Iraq getting ???uranium from the Congo????) and want to keep abreast of the spin about Iran check out http://dontbombiran.info.
- 11 months
source: (Greenpeace UK - Peace) - Fake triggers to start real wars
We're called Greenpeace for a reason. Not only do we defend the natural world but also promote world peace. Hence, the Bush administration is a major cause for concern; it clashes with both of our objectives by trashing the environment and warmongering.
As if the wars on Afghanistan and invasion of Iraq weren't enough, the bloodthirsty US government looks desperate to wage war on Iran - even if that means staging an incident to start it, as you'll see from this video.
Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh reveals one disturbing proposal, discussed in Vice President Dick Cheney's office, that might make you question the Bush administration's credibility (if you haven't already).
With only a few weeks left to go, you'd think that the Bush administration would be wrapping up and planning a low key exit in the face of global infamy over the two wars. But they seem to want to top it up with a third one against Iran, likely done not directly by US forces, but via political and military support for an Israeli strike against Iran. A repeated theme emerging from analysts is any strike would be likely to occur in November or December this year.
What if they don't find any reason to support war against Iran until it's time to go? Well, one suggestion put before Dick Cheney was to recreate the Strait of Hormuz incident but with American boats disguised as Iranian ones, to cook up a fight and trigger a war against Iran. The proposal was only discarded because it would mean Americans killing Americans, which would, apparently, be unacceptable.
Still more disturbing was an observation made by Hersh that, given the right incident, the American public would give consent for their government to attack Iran.
If you’re getting a sense of déjà vu (remember the dirty dossier? Iraq getting ‘uranium from the Congo’?) and want to keep abreast of the spin about Iran check out http://dontbombiran.info.
- 11 months
source: (Greenpeace UK - Peace)
July 30, 2008
- Iraqi Minister of Interior, Jawad al-Bolani
Jawad al-Bolani became Iraqi Interior Minister in June 2006. In the two years since, Iraq's internal security forces have grown dramatically and Iraqi security has substantially improved. Challenges remain, as the Ministry struggles to combat militia infiltration and assumes greater responsibility for Iraqi security. - 11 months
source: (United States Institute of Peace)
July 29, 2008
- Thwarting Afghanistan's Insurgency: A Pragmatic Approach to Peace and Reconciliation
Please join us for a presentation by Senior Fellow Mohammad Stanekzai, Advisor to Afghan President Karzai and Vice Chair of the Demobilization and Reintegration Commission of Illegal Armed Groups. Mr. Stanekzai's presentation will examine current approaches to the insurgency in Afghanistan, including efforts at reconciliation. Security remains one of the top priorities among the multifaceted challenges Afghanistan is facing today. Mr. Stanekzai will propose a comprehensive framework for reconciliation intended to affect all levels of Afghan society as well as relations with key neighboring countries. - 11 months
source: (United States Institute of Peace)
July 25, 2008
- The Future of the U.S. Military Presence in Iraq
Armed groups—tribal and ex-insurgent Awakenings and Shi'a militias—have laid down arms for now, but are demanding inclusion in the state and representation in the government. The Iraqi state, despite improvement, is uneven. The Iraqi security forces, though much strengthened, will remain dependent on the US for years to come. In light of these developments and other developments in the region and the world, what should US military strategy be toward Iraq? - 11 months
source: (United States Institute of Peace)
July 14, 2008
- Israel's Airstrike on Syria's Nuclear Reactor: Preventive War and the Nonproliferation Regime
Leonard Spector and Avner Cohen, authors of "Israel's Airstrike Against the Syrian Nuclear Reactor: Implications for the Nonproliferation Regime," in Arms Control Today (July/August), discuss the September 6, 2007 Israeli airstrike on a Syrian nuclear reactor and the international community's possible loss of confidence in the ability of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the UN Security Council to enforce nonproliferation regime rules. - 11 months
source: (United States Institute of Peace)
June 27, 2008
- Mullahs, Money, and Militias: How Iran Exerts its Influence in the Middle East
Senior Fellow Barbara Slavin discusses the release of her new USIP Special Report, "Mullahs, Money, and Militias: How Iran Exerts its Influence in the Middle East." Slavin's report analyzes Iran's growing influence in the Middle East and the ways in which it is manifested through clerical links, financial aid and military support. - about 1 year
source: (United States Institute of Peace)
June 24, 2008
- His Excellency, Dr. Abdul Jabbar Sabit, Attorney General of Afghanistan
His Excellency Dr. Abdul Jabbar Sabit, attorney general of Afghanistan, spoke at USIP on June 25. He discussed corruption, the illegal drug trade, insecurity and impunity for past and current crimes, among other themes. - about 1 year
source: (United States Institute of Peace) - Foreign Policy and the Next U.S. Administration
The next U.S. president will face crucial and complex foreign policy challenges including: international terrorism, weapons proliferation, weak and failing states, climate change, and global poverty. How these issues are addressed will have important implications for the U.S. and the world. What instruments are available to deal with these problems? What are the constraints on U.S. capacity to formulate and implement an effective foreign policy in a dangerous world? Will foreign policy change in any meaningful way? - about 1 year
source: (United States Institute of Peace)
June 18, 2008
- Nepal: En Route to Peace and Democracy
Nepal has undergone a series of transformative events over the past two years as it has traversed the rocky road toward peace and democracy. Panelists discuss what happens next and the challenges and opportunities facing Nepal as it strives to become a peaceful and democratic nation. - about 1 year
source: (United States Institute of Peace) - Sudan: What's Happening, What Needs to Happen Now?
Speakers discuss Sudan's contentious political history and stress the need to provide security and joint UN/African Union support in Darfur. - about 1 year
source: (United States Institute of Peace)
June 13, 2008
- Czech police attack Peaceland protest camp
Our peaceful efforts to keep the nuclear arms race at bay were crushed by Czech military police this week. Peaceland, a newly formed state sits on a site earmarked for a radar station for US anti-missile defence on Czech soil. Dubbed as part of the ‘Son of Star Wars' project, this American anti-missile circuit is apparently intended to destroy enemy rockets headed for the US, and Greenpeace activists responded to this ludicrous plan by inhabiting the proposed site and declaring independence, thus forming the new country.
But the peace didn't last for long as on Monday, Czech military police stormed the region and arrested all citizens including those high up in the trees. Greenpeace activists put up a passive resistance and didn't leave, even though they had known of the imminent attack. The fact that Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, is visiting Prague in July to sign treaties on the planned radar base may have prompted the Czech government to round up our activists.
We believe in defending the natural world and promoting peace, both of which the 'Son of Star Wars' project denies as it promotes aggression and US military dominance. This will lead to the development of increasingly advanced weapons to overcome the defence thus sparking an arms race. It will also make the Czech Republic a potential target if an 'enemy' decides to take out the proposed radar based in the Brdy region. Incredibly, there isn't even an existing threat to justify building the radar station as no missile has the range to reach the US from its supposed enemies.
Greenpeace activists created Peaceland in response to global safety concerns and the Czech government buckling under US pressure. Greenpeace Czech boss Jiří Tutter, who is also a citizen of Peaceland, said, "We are convinced that the whole project of national missile defense, including locating one of the components on Czech territory, brings with it serious risks like global imbalance, rising international tension and the start of new nuclear arms race. We don't consider this missile defense project the right tool to solve the serious problem before us."
After the crackdown this week on Peaceland citizens, Jan Freidinger, Greenpeace coordinator of the Radar project said: "We are strongly protesting against the intervention of the Czech military police. They had no authority to arrest within the borders of Peaceland. The Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolánek, whom we officially informed of the new state's establishment and invited to Peaceland, said he had known about the attack in advance. He must be crazy if he thinks of this attack as a friendly visit."
- about 1 year
source: (Greenpeace UK - Peace) - Czech police attack Peaceland protest camp
Our peaceful efforts to keep the nuclear arms race at bay were crushed by Czech military police this week. Peaceland, a newly formed state sits on a site earmarked for a radar station for US anti-missile defence on Czech soil. Dubbed as part of the ???Son of Star Wars' project, this American anti-missile circuit is apparently intended to destroy enemy rockets headed for the US, and Greenpeace activists responded to this ludicrous plan by inhabiting the proposed site and declaring independence, thus forming the new country.
But the peace didn't last for long as on Monday, Czech military police stormed the region and arrested all citizens including those high up in the trees. Greenpeace activists put up a passive resistance and didn't leave, even though they had known of the imminent attack. The fact that Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, is visiting Prague in July to sign treaties on the planned radar base may have prompted the Czech government to round up our activists.
We believe in defending the natural world and promoting peace, both of which the 'Son of Star Wars' project denies as it promotes aggression and US military dominance. This will lead to the development of increasingly advanced weapons to overcome the defence thus sparking an arms race. It will also make the Czech Republic a potential target if an 'enemy' decides to take out the proposed radar based in the Brdy region. Incredibly, there isn't even an existing threat to justify building the radar station as no missile has the range to reach the US from its supposed enemies.
Greenpeace activists created Peaceland in response to global safety concerns and the Czech government buckling under US pressure. Greenpeace Czech boss Ji???? Tutter, who is also a citizen of Peaceland, said, "We are convinced that the whole project of national missile defense, including locating one of the components on Czech territory, brings with it serious risks like global imbalance, rising international tension and the start of new nuclear arms race. We don't consider this missile defense project the right tool to solve the serious problem before us."
After the crackdown this week on Peaceland citizens, Jan Freidinger, Greenpeace coordinator of the Radar project said: "We are strongly protesting against the intervention of the Czech military police. They had no authority to arrest within the borders of Peaceland. The Czech prime minister, Mirek Topol??nek, whom we officially informed of the new state's establishment and invited to Peaceland, said he had known about the attack in advance. He must be crazy if he thinks of this attack as a friendly visit."
- about 1 year
source: (Greenpeace UK - Peace)