[HNA] Occasional notes- requests for sign ons +
Tom Loudon
toml at quixote.org
Fri Jan 22 07:54:14 PST 2010
I have recently gotten several requests to circulate sign-ons, for
Haiti, El Salvador, Bases in Colombia- and have a couple of notices
regarding Honduras which I have been asked to circulate.
It seemed best to put them all in one email.
*Both Haiti and El Salvador sign ons have a deadline of today-*
Re the Haiti letter: there will be a meeting of international funders on
Monday where they hope to present the letter:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
*Haiti-*
Greetings -
We trust that the HSA and its members organizations and networks will be
able to support this initiative quickly.
On Monday, January 25, there will be a ministerial meeting in Montreal
to lay the groundwork for the donor's conference on Haiti being convened
in March. Time is short to make a detailed denunciation, with the
necessary international force by then, but together with the World March
of Women we have drafted the attached letter to be presented there on
Monday. WE ASK THAT YOU CONFIRM THE SIGNATURE OF YOUR
ORGANIZATION/NETWORK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, and if possible, your capacity
either to support the presentation in Montreal on Monday, or in your own
capital.
In Montréal, we have been in touch with the RQIC and Pierre=Yves is
helping, together with the women at the march, to prepare the presentation.
In short, we hope to be able to share further updates from Camille and
others in Haiti, about their efforts to regroup, contribute in the
daunting humanitarian emergency, confront the new invasion and
strengthen coordination among sister organizations in Haiti, in support
of the rights and needs of the Haitian people.
Look forward to hearing form you
Beverly Keene (Jubilee South)
(Letter in English below)
*
/Please send endorsements to //jubileo at wamani.apc.org
<mailto:jubileo at wamani.apc.org>//, no later than January 22/ *
T*o the governments and organizations gathered in Montreal on the
situation in Haiti*
The recent tragedy in Haiti shocked the people of the world for its
destructive impact, the environmental and social consequences, and
especially for the loss of human lives. Unfortunately, natural disasters
are not new in that Caribbean country, which was impacted in 2008 by
hurricanes Hanna and Ike.
Nor is it the first time we have watched the international community
make pledges of cooperation and assistance to Haiti. We are concerned,
as organizations and social movements, that the international response
be coordinated on the basis of respect for their sovereignty and in full
accordance with the needs and demands of the Haitian people.
Now is the moment for the governments that form part of the United
Nations Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti (MINUSTAH), the United
Nations, and especially the U.S., Canada, and France, to reassess the
many mistaken policies they have implemented in Haiti. The country's
condition of vulnerability to natural disasters - in large part caused
by the devastation of the environment, the lack of basic infrastructure
and the weak capacity of state social action - is not unrelated to these
policies, which have historically undermined the sovereignty of the
people and their country, thus generating a historical, social,
environmental, and cultural debt in which these same countries and
institutions have a major share of responsibility. Reparations must be
made to the Haitian people for these debts, and all the more so in the
face of the present situation affecting the country.
In this regard, *we reject the militarization of the country* as a false
response to the recent disaster, including in particular U.S. unilateral
action to send an additional 10,000 troops to safeguard its economic and
geopolitical interests. The occupation troops of the MINUSTAH, over the
past six years, did not contribute effectively to the stabilization or
the provision of infrastructure and public goods, and nothing indicates
that maintaining this policy would be effective from now on.
We call on governments and international organizations to *immediately
and unconditionally cancel the external debt claimed of Haiti*, the
servicing of which affects millions of lives. We also demand that the
resources allocated for relief and reconstruction do not create new
debt, or conditionalities that are imposed or any other form of external
imposition which vitiates this goal, as is the practice of international
financial institutions like the World Bank, the Interamerican
Development Bank, the IMF, and the so-called donor countries. We also
reject the intervention of private multinational companies who seek to
take advantage of this tragedy to reap multi billion dollar profits in
the reconstruction of Haiti, as happened in Iraq, or to exploit cheap
labor and continue to plunder the country's natural resources.
Haitian society, its organizations, social movements and state
representatives should be the protagonists of the international effort
to rebuild their country: the first to be heard and the final and
sovereign decision over their destiny. The Haitian people have lifted
themselves up many times on the basis of their own will, with the
strength and conviction of their historical example of having been the
first people to free themselves in America. Any cooperation can be
effective only if it is based in this commitment and full popular
participation.
We are alert, and following developments in dialogue with Haitian
organizations, in order to ensure that international cooperation takes
place on the basis of this kind of solidarity and that the errors of
past policies are not repeated. For a free and sovereign Haiti!
- January 25, 2010
-
Jubilee South -- World March of Women -- Haiti Support Group U.K. -
other signatures to be confirmed
/_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________/
*El Salvador-
*
Dear allies of El Salvador,
We are sure that many of you heard about and were very concerned and
outraged by the murders of Salvadoran anti-mining activists *Ramiro
Rivera* and *Felicita Echeverria* (December 20, 2009) and *Dora Alicia
Sorto Rodriguez* (December 26, 2009) and the *continued threats *against
community journalists and activists in *Cabañas, El Salvador*, the
region where Pacific Rim mining company holds gold mining exploration
concessions.
Pacific Rim is a Canadian company that is currently suing the government
of El Salvador at the arbitration "court" of the World Bank for not
granting them gold mining permits. Community members and local
organizations report that the presence of the company in the area has
created an environment of violence and intimidation, and company
"educators", or promoters, have been linked to creating social tensions
in the local communities.
International Salvadoran organizations and international solidarity
organizations are requesting *organizations to sign on to the letter*
(below) condemning both the murders and shortfalls in the investigation,
and calling for an improved and through investigation that seeks to find
the 'intellectual authors' of the crimes.
/Thanks to those who have already signed and apologies if you have
already received this email!/
We would like to collect *as many signatures as possible before 5 pm
(EST) on Friday, January 22*, so they can be referenced in a San
Salvador press conference by the Salvadoran National Coalition Against
Metal Mining. (However, we will continue collecting signatures the
following week.) Please send sign-ons to Meredith DeFrancesco at
*firmarcarta at yahoo.com <mailto:firmarcarta at yahoo.com>*.
For more information, see: http://esnomineria.blogspot.com,
www.cispes.org <http://www.cispes.org>, www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org
<http://www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org>, www.salvaide.ca/mining.html
<http://www.salvaide.ca/mining.html>,
http://www.miningwatch.ca/en/category/4315/4318/4321/4324/4498/4762.
Thank you.
In solidarity,
Alexis Stoumbelis
CISPES Executive Director
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
*Honduras-*
*1. * Last week I made an unexpected trip to Nicaragua, to help set up
an office for Honduran refugees. One of the people who will be working
in the office had to flee Honduras after being captured and tortured for
30 hours. The reason he had been captured is that he had produced and
was showing a video documenting the repression which has been happening
since the coup. His partner in the project was not so fortunate. He
was murdered in December in his own apartment. We are trying to find a
site where we can upload this video- which is 23 minutes long, and we
are also looking for help in translating/subtitling the video. We
should have the Spanish version up on the quixote.org site before the
end of the day today.
*2. * Witness for Peace has also recently released a video on Honduras
which they produced. You can see it at:
http://www.witnessforpeace.org/article.php?id=877.
They are asking people to call Obama after watching it, to call for
continued suspension of military aid.
*3.* In addition to the two delegations traveling to Honduras this
week-end, from Rights Action and Voz de los de Abajo, there is a call to
be a part of an international brigade which will be rebuilding the
Garifuna Community Radio station which was burnt down on January 6th.
The brigade will be in Triunfo de la Cruz from February 1-7th. For more
information on how to participate in or otherwise support this effort,
go to: encuentro at radioscomunitarias.info
<mailto:encuentro at radioscomunitarias.info>,
http://www.radioscomunitarias.info, http://www.comppa.org/wordpress
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
***Colombia- bases
1. *From John Lindsay-Poland
Friends,
After some dialogue about the content, we will be sending the following
letter in support of the proposed continental campaign to end foreign
military bases and presence in Latin America. The campaign will be
considered at a meeting of the Hemispheric Social Alliance in Porto
Alegre on January 27. We want those present at the meeting to be aware
of support for this campaign in the United States. So please communicate
your organization's endorsement with *contact name, position/title (if
applicable), organization, location (if not national)*, to John
Lindsay-Poland at *johnlp at igc.org, by end of the day on Monday, January
25. *(You'll receive an email saying I'm on leave, but I am checking mail.)
*Message to groups convoking a continental campaign to end foreign
military bases in Latin America :
*
Enrique Daza, Coordinator
Hemispheric Social Alliance
Bogotá, Colombia
Dear Enrique,
We have read with great appreciation the "Llamamiento a Campaña
Continental" issued from the gathering in Buenos Aires on December 1-2,
2009, and wish to communicate our readiness to support the campaign in
all ways within our capacity that are useful to the campaign you are
developing.
The agreement to establish at least seven U.S. military bases in
Colombia, and the broader militarism of U.S. actions in Latin America,
contradict the aspirations of many people in the United States, and we
are committed to opposing these ills. We believe that Latin American
grass-roots organizations committed to a just peace are protagonists in
a civil, democratic, and massive mobilization to make Latin America free
of foreign military bases and enclaves, and at the same time we in the
United States can play a strategic support role in that struggle.
We represent organizations, networks and individual activists with
diverse experiences, capacities and constituencies, who embrace the
pursuit of political change through nonviolent means.
While we cannot commit all our organizations to carry out any particular
kind of action, among us we have experience and readiness to organize
the following kinds of support of the campaign's goal of eliminating
foreign military bases in Latin America (not limited to this list):
* speaking tours of the US;
* delegations to Latin America to educate targeted constituencies about
issues involved
* obtaining endorsements and other support from major religious groups;
* conducting advocacy in Washington;
* write and translate material for publication in US media;
* conduct research useful to the campaign;
* Participate in hemispheric strategy meetings
* organizing events at gatherings such as US Social Forum, SOA vigil, etc.
* connecting with other networks (solidarity, human rights, No Bases,
peace, etc.) in the U.S.
We are supporting the letter uninitiated by Mingas, as well as plans for
an event focused on the bases at the US Social Forum, June 22-26. School
of the Americas Watch is convoking a gathering in Venezuela to coincide
with the US Social Forum, and we anticipate this gathering will give
serious attention to how to respond to the bases in Colombia. In
addition, several groups are considering activities in Washington in the
third week of April, to coincide with the SOA Watch annual strategy
meeting and lobby day. It would be helpful if a representative of the
continental campaign were able to be present at that gathering.
We hope to continue communication with those developing the continental
campaign, individually and/or collectively. We hope you will let us know
both what would be of use, as well as ways we may engage each other
further in pursuit of the campaign's goals.
We hope you will share this message at the January 27 meeting in Porto
Alegre and with others who have convoked the continental campaign.
In solidarity,
[names of persons, names of groups, with contact info]
*
2. The group Mingas is collecting signatures for a letter regarding the
bases in Colombia which will be sent to President Obama and others.
*Dear friends:
We of the Mingas network are deeply concerned about the recently signed
military agreement between the governments of Colombia and the United
States. Under its terms, the U.S. is permitted to upgrade, expand and
use seven Colombian military bases for the purpose of increasing the
operational capabilities of U.S. armed forces throughout South America.
We believe the agreement will further exacerbate tensions across the
entire region and aggravate armed conflict within Colombia.
The Mingas network opposes war and the exercise of violence as an
instrument of political action. We believe that today the path of social
transformation is democratic and peaceful mass struggle. We repudiate
all forms of terror and State terrorism, including targeted killings,
kidnapping, extortion, and armed attacks on the civilian population;
none of these are legitimate expressions of the struggle of the people,
and thus we condemn all such acts.
We call on faith communities, solidarity groups, students, academics,
and other organizations in agreement with the above basic principles of
nonviolence to come together in alliance to reject the U.S.-Colombia
military base agreement -- and we invite you to take action immediately.
Join us in signing the letter posted at:
http://www.formspring.com/forms/noUSbases-Obama .
You can sign by filling out the online form at the foot of the letter.
Note that the current letter is a sign-on for organizations only.
Signatures must be received by February 1, 2010. After collecting
signatures, we will send the letter to President Obama and other key
government officials.
Thank you for your support.
Cordially,
The Mingas network
http://mingas.info
<http://mingas.info/>*_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
*Please excuse any errors or omissions
Tom Loudon
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