April 22, 2011 - No. 66
Earth Day 2011
Political Empowerment -- A Necessity to
Protect the Natural Environment
Earth Day 2011
• Political Empowerment -- A Necessity to
Protect the Natural Environment
• U.S. Denies Climate Change -
Radio Havana Cuba
• UN Debates Bolivian Resolution on Rights of
Mother Earth
Wrecking of Social and Natural Environments by Canadian Mining Firms
• Mayan Women, Victims of Gang Rapes, Announce
Lawsuit Against Hudbay Minerals - Rights Action
• Human Rights Violation Complaint
Against HudBay Minerals
Libya
• UK Warned Against Military Ground Operations
• Civilian Casualties Continue Under Stepped Up
NATO "Humanitarian" Bombings
Earth Day 2011
Political Empowerment -- A Necessity to Protect the
Natural Environment
Today, April 22, marks Earth Day 2011. In Canada, First
Nations, workers, women and youth have long been concerned about the
protection of the natural environment for its own sake and as that
which sustains the social environment by providing the necessities of
life. They reject the "right" of monopolies
to exploit and despoil Mother Earth without taking any responsibility
for the consequences on society and the natural environment. Such
anti-environmental and anti-social practices take place because of
governments which abdicate their duty to uphold the public good and
instead serve the interests of the monopolies
and foreign powers.
The Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada in its policy on
the environment points out that "governments at all levels have a duty
to protect the natural environment and make sure measures are taken so
that it can flourish in the future as well. We have ample means at our
disposal to make sure this is done
but today governments do not recognize this duty, even in words. The
manner in which Canada played around with the Kyoto agreement, as part
of subservience to U.S. interests, makes a mockery of the very notion
of social responsibility towards the environment.
"The MLPC actively joins all those who are taking
stands on environmental issues. At the same time, it seeks to make a
contribution which it thinks is decisive which is to create the
conditions so that Canadians are empowered and their demands on these
issues are effective. Otherwise we are condemned
in perpetuity to beseech the gods of plague for salvation. In other
words, the most pressing issue when it comes to the environment, as on
every other question, is Who Decides? If Canadians were empowered, they
would enact laws to protect the natural environment. Science and
technology should be put in the service
of both the natural and social environments. If the self-serving aims
of the monopolies to make maximum profit off both society and the
environment were not behind all decisions taken, nature could be made
to serve the needs of society while at the same time it is protected
and made to flourish for the future. A
modern society such as Canada's, with one quarter of the planet's fresh
water, can provide safe drinking water for all Canadians. Problems such
as lack of safe water, pollution and clearcutting can be solved if the
profit motive is not the deciding factor.
"The same applies to all conservation issues, problems
of a safe food supply, genetic engineering, etc.
"The fact remains that the plight of the environment
and the concerns of Canadians are completely ignored by the so-called
major political parties and the monopoly media. They pay lip service to
concerns of collectives such as the farmers or fishers, the First
Nations, environmental activists or residents
in certain areas, to the extent they are considered significant as a
vote bank. The system of party government will never put the claims of
the environment on society at centre stage because its sole aim is to
serve the 'needs' of the rich. We think that this is the crucial matter
on which those concerned with the environment
have to take a stand if they are to build a bright future for the
generations to come."
MLPC party leader Anna Di Carlo points out, "Which
environmentalist does not know that the problem lies in the rule of the
banks, developers, resource and other monopolies, which control
everything? People know the kinds of measures which are required so
that the environment can thrive and be
sustainable, with its ecological integrity protected." She continues:
"The program of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada is
to end this rule by organizing Canadians to build Citizens' Committees
for Democratic Renewal (CCDRs). The aim of these committees is to renew
the political process. It is to make it truly democratic and
representative of the people's rights
and needs. We urge all environmentalists to contribute to building
CCDRs so that the full weight of the population can be mobilized behind
their concerns. In other words, while those with specific concerns and
expertise on environmental issues carry on bringing those issues to our
attention, we do our duty by supporting
them. At the same time, the political problem of lack of
decision-making power must also be addressed. Unless the political
issue is taken up, our concerns are marginalized. Those with expertise
in these fields, or who are interested are coming forward to spearhead
the work to build Citizens' Committees so that
space is created for everyone's 'issues.' We must end the
marginalization which the current political process imposes on us and
our concerns."
U.S. Denies Climate Change
- Radio Havana Cuba, April 8, 2011 -
The United States is responsible for 25% of the global
emissions of polluting gases that increase climate change. However,
there are still many people in that country who deny the problem and
its
risks to life on the planet.
The unfortunate thing is that they are not only
sceptical about this reality, but also block any initiative that may
lead to mitigating the problem, because it may cause losses to their
interests.
Scientists and international and environmental agencies
are tired of warning about the dangers that climate change may cause to
humanity today while many U.S. politicians are pleased with and boast
of ignoring the warnings.
In this regard, the Republicans' environmental stance is
very well known. Let's not forget that during the George W. Bush
administration, the United States -- the biggest polluter on Earth --
never signed the Kyoto Protocol promoting the reduction of greenhouse
gas emissions.
Now with a Democrat in the Oval Office, the Republicans
are boosting their anti-environmental crusade, and therefore, strive to
strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its control over
greenhouse gas emissions.
To conclude, in the last few hours the U.S. Senate --
controlled by a Democratic majority -- unbelievably voted against an
amendment calling for the recognition of the existence of climate
change and acknowledged the responsibility of human beings.
For scientist Wallace Broker, a critic of the Bush
administration's stance on this issue, the Barack Obama government has
done nothing to change it and said that Congress has tied Obama's hands.
The scientist said the oil industry is engaged in a
campaign to halt the development of renewable energy and that it's
spending a lot of money on advertisements to make people NOT believe in
climate change.
He also added that, in fact, they have achieved their
goals because half of the population in the U.S. does not believe in
global warming.
And while effective actions are delayed, a report
recently released by UN-Habitat shows that by 2050 climate change will
displace some 200 million people and, by 2080, people living in coastal
areas will be affected by the five-fold rise in sea level compared to
1990 due to climate change.
Studies do not lie and, though many people try to deny
the existence of climate change and even say it is part of a junk
science, the reality is that, as stated by UN-Habitat Executive
Director Joan Clos, every day we do nothing is a lost day.
"The next generations will live in a totally different
world and will pay the consequences for having wasted our time in terms
of acting to stop climate change," said Wallace Broker.
Unfortunately if these attitudes do not change, the
future of climate change will be grim.
UN Debates Bolivian Resolution on
Rights of Mother Earth
Bolivia has tabled a draft United Nations treaty aimed
at enshrining
rights for Mother Earth. Debates began at the General Assembly in New
York on April 20, two days before UN activities in recognition of the
second International Mother Earth Day on April 22, another initiative
led by Bolivia, agencies report.
The draft document calls for the recognition of the Earth as a living
entity that humans have sought to "dominate and exploit" -- to the
point that the "well-being and existence of many beings" is now
threatened.
The proposed global treaty says humans have caused
"severe
destruction that is offensive to the many faiths, wisdom traditions and
indigenous cultures for whom Mother Earth is sacred."
It also says that "Mother Earth has the right to exist,
to persist
and to continue the vital cycles, structures, functions and processes
that sustain all human beings."
"If you want to have balance, and you think that the
only [entities]
who have rights are humans or companies, then how can you reach
balance?" said Pablo Salon, Bolivia's ambassador to the UN. "But if you
recognize that nature too has rights, and [if you provide] legal forms
to protect and preserve those rights,
then you can achieve balance."
The draft UN resolution is modeled on Bolivia's Law of
the Rights of
Mother Earth, enacted this past January. It grants the Earth a series
of specific rights that include rights to life, water and clean air;
the right to repair livelihoods affected by human activities, and the
right to be free from pollution. It also established
a Ministry of Mother Earth and an ombudsman whose job is to hear
nature's complaints as voiced by activist and other groups, including
the state.
The Bolivian law restricts the activities of companies
operating in
Bolivia's resource sectors, and will also assist the country in its
efforts to gain control over this aspect of its economy.
Salon explained that Bolivia's approach is not a
dogmatic one:
"We're not saying, for example, you cannot eat meat because you know
you are going to go against the rights of a cow. But when human
activity develops at a certain scale that causes species to disappear,
then you are really altering the vital cycles
of nature or of Mother Earth. Of course, you need a mine to extract
iron or zinc, but there are limits."
The law also reflects Bolivia's large indigenous
population, of
which President Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian, is a member, and the
work by the Morales' administration to empower the indigenous nations
which make up Bolivia, officially known as the Plurinational State of
Bolivia, through constitutional and
other reforms.
President Morales has also emphasized on several
occasions,
including last year's World People's Conference on Climate Change and
the Rights of Mother Earth, that capitalism and its rampant
exploitation of the natural world must be ended as part of parcel of
saving the planet and that an alternative economic
model must be found. At that time, the Bolivian president spoke about
what he
termed a socialist communitarian system as a mechanism to eradicate
colonialism and imperialism and to assure peace between the peoples and
Mother Earth.
Wrecking of Social and Natural
Environments by Canadian Mining Firms
Mayan Women, Victims of Gang Rapes, Announce Lawsuit
Against Hudbay Minerals
- Rights Action, April 5, 2011 -
TML is posting below two items by the
organization Rights Action, which detail the wrecking activities of
Canadian mining firm HudBay in Guatemala. A subsidiary of the firm is
not only carrying out its mining activities with impunity, violently
evicting indigenous Mayan communities and destroying
the natural environment on which the people rely for the livelihood
and well-being, but has responded with brutal violence against the
people who want an end to such activities, including the assassination
of a community leader and the use of gang-rape against women. On March
28, these women filed a lawsuit in the Canadian courts
against HudBay for its use of violence to surpress their resistance to
its exploitive mining.
***
In response to the filing of this lawsuit, HudBay
claims, surprisingly, it knew nothing about allegations of gang rapes.
The March 28, 2011, filing of this gang-rape lawsuit
against HudBay Minerals, by 11 Mayan Q'eqchi' women from the remote
village of Lote 8, follows upon the December 1, 2010 lawsuit filed
against HudBay for the killing (wrongful death) of Adolfo Ich.
Klippensteins is the law firm representing both the Lote
8 rape victims and Angelica Choc, widow of Adolfo Ich. Rights Action is
funding and working directly with Mayan-Q'eqchi' families and
communities in the nickel-mining affected region of El Estor,
Guatemala, including the families and communities
involved in these two lawsuits.
In response, HudBay has claimed "This Canadian legal
action is the first and only account of these shocking accusations
received to date by HudBay or its subsidiaries."
Rights Action, Dr. Catherine Nolin and the student
signatories are surprised at this response, given that the Human Rights
Complaint was sent to HudBay by email on October 19, 2010, as was the
original Complaint, sent July 5, 2010.
We submit this information, again, to the Canadian
government and elected officials and to HudBay Minerals.
Even as these two lawsuits proceed in Canadian courts,
none of the underlying problems, that have lead to and resulted in so
much violence, forced evictions, killings and even gang rapes, have
been resolved in the Mayan Qeqchi regions of eastern Guatemala where
HudBay seeks to mine for nickel.
The underlying problems include: historic land-claim
issues on behalf of the Mayan Q'eqchi' people; historic and on-going
use of repression by wealthy business owners (supported by police and
army forces), including miners and producers of sugar and African palm
trees; and the impunity with which the wealthy
business owners commit acts of violence and repression against local
Mayan populations.
Our demands of the Canadian government and elected
politicians remain the same, as set out below.
We strongly urge HudBay Minerals (and its subsidiary the
CGN) to ensure that no violence is committed against the plaintiffs in
these lawsuits. Anyone familiar with racism, repression and impunity in
Guatemala -- as HudBay and CGN are -- will know that threats and
repression regularly occur against people
who seek justice for human rights violations and politically related
struggles.
Thank-you. We would be happy to provide more information
about these issues.
Grahame Russell,
co-director, Rights Action
info@rightsaction.org, 1-860-352-2448,
www.rightsaction.org,
Dr. Catherine Nolin,
Associate Professor of Geography,
University of Northern British Colombia, nolin@unbc.ca, 1-250-961-5875
(& the undersigned students)
Mayan-Q’eqchi’ women
of Lote 8 & La Paz communities, El Estor,
Izabal. The 12 women of Lote 8 were gang-raped by Guatemalan
soldiers,
police and private security guards hired by the Guatemala Nickel
Company, wholly owned subsidiary of then Skye Resources, now HudBay
Minerals. Photo: James Rodriguez, www.mimundo.org, August 2010. |
Hudbay Response to
Allegations in Statement of Claim
- March 29, 2011 -
HudBay Minerals has been advised by legal counsel that a
Statement of Claim has been brought against the company and its
subsidiary HMI Nickel related to events alleged to have taken place
prior to HudBay's acquisition of the Fenix nickel project in Guatemala.
This Canadian legal action is the first and only account
of these shocking accusations received to date by HudBay or its
subsidiaries. The alleged events predate HudBay Minerals' business
interests and operations in Guatemala, and we are not aware that they
have ever been reported to Guatemala law enforcement
or other authorities.
Based on reports from government sources, we understand
that a legal eviction was conducted by the Guatemalan government in the
area on the date in question. Official government accounts indicate
that substantial effort was made to keep the evictions nonviolent, and
in accordance with Guatemalan law the
evictions were carried out by unarmed police officers.
Since acquiring an interest in the Fenix nickel project
in late 2008, HudBay and its subsidiaries have been committed to
resolving the ongoing issue of illegal land occupations through
peaceful and constructive dialogue. HudBay and its subsidiaries are
dedicated to promoting and respecting human rights, including
through adherence to the UN Voluntary Principles on Security and Human
Rights.
HudBay and its subsidiaries are disturbed by the serious
nature of the allegations, which run counter to our values and the
manner in which we operate. We will investigate the allegations, but
they are counter to all of the available information we have regarding
the events of January 2007 and as such we intend
to defend ourselves vigorously against them.
Updated Human Rights Violation Complaint
Against HudBay Minerals Submitted to Canadian Government
Canadian Nickel Mining Companies Involved in Violent,
Illegal Forced Evictions of Mayan-q'eqchi' Communities, Gang Rape of
Women Villagers & Assassination of Community Leader
- October 19, 2010 -
To:
Mr. Lawrence Cannon
Minister of Foreign Affairs
509-S Centre Block, House of Commons,
Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6, Canada
cannol@parl.gc.ca
& other government officials and politicians
To: the Canada Pension Plan and other investors
To: HudBay Minerals & CGN (Guatemala Nickel Company)
From:
Grahame Russell, co-director, Rights Action,
info@rightsaction.org, 860-352-2448, www.rightsaction.org,
Dr. Catherine Nolin, Associate Professor of Geography,
University of Northern British Colombia, nolin@unbc.ca, (250) 961-5875,
&
the undersigned
TO ALL CONCERNED PARTIES,
On behalf of the University of Northern British
Columbia's Guatemala Delegation & Rights Action, we submit this
updated human rights violation complaint to the Canadian Government.
As you know, we submitted earlier versions of this
complaint to Mr. Lawrence Cannon, other government representatives and
politicians, and investors. To date we have not received a reply from
anyone, except (October 13) from Mr. Cannon, who sent us a letter that
responds to almost none of the points we
raise in this complaint.
The violations we have investigated and reported on have
not been addressed or remedied. The underlying issues that led to this
nickel-mining related repression have not been addressed and the harmed
Mayan Q'eqchi' (Kek-chi, phonetically) communities may suffer more
repression in the future, at the behest
of Canadian (and other) nickel mining companies.
A Canadian Government
Request for Complaints
In May 2008, after a previous delegation of UNBC
students (and their professor Dr. Catherine Nolin) and Rights Action
visited the nickel mining harmed communities of El Estor, the UNBC
delegation met with then Ambassador Kenneth Cook in the Canadian
Embassy. At that meeting, the delegation informed
him -- and other staffers -- of serious violations that Mayan Q'eqchi'
communities of El Estor had recently suffered at the behest of Skye
Resources and CGN (Guatemala Nickel Company, subsidiary of Skye
Resources).
Ambassador Cook told the UNBC delegation that the
Canadian government -- via the Embassy in Guatemala -- was "open to
receiving human rights complaints related to Canadian mining in
Guatemala," though they had never received one.
A Canadian Problem: Nickel
Mining & Forced Evictions,
Gang Rape & Assassination
As Canadian citizens, we demand the immediate attention
of the Canadian government. This is a Canadian problem.
All of the major decisions affecting this mining
operation are taken by then Skye Resources, now HudBay Minerals, in
Canada. Canadian shareholders and investors (including the Canada
Pension Plan) benefit from this and many similar mining operations.
Additionally, the Canadian government is promoting,
as policy, a largely unfettered expansion of Canadian mining companies
in Guatemala.
The Violations
Over the past few years, UNBC's Dr. Catherine Nolin has
organized a number of delegations to visit, along with Rights Action,
the mining affected communities of El Estor. These commitments include
two more visits in May and August of 2010.
We have visited the mining affected communities of La
Unión, La Revolución, Lote 8, La Paz and Lote 9. We have
received testimonies from eye-witnesses to, and victims of, the forced
evictions; eye-witnesses to, and victims of, gang rapes; we have spoken
with eye-witnesses (including family members) to
the assassination of community leader and teacher Adolfo Ich.
The Violators
These human rights violations were committed by the
Guatemalan army and police, and private security guards employed by
Skye Resources and HudBay Minerals via their Guatemalan subsidiary
company -- CGN.
Lote 8
An example: One of the most attacked and harmed
communities is that of Lote 8, an isolated Mayan Q'eqchi' community on
the mountain ridge north of El Estor (where much of the nickel ore is
apparently located). After hiking into the Lote 8 community in May
2010, and meeting with
community members elsewhere in El Estor (in August 2010), the UNBC
delegation and Rights Action received substantial testimonies from the
community members. The community members told us that these testimonies
were one of the first public recounting of their shared experiences:
January 9th 2007: Hundreds of police, soldiers and Skye
Resources/CGN private security agents arrived in at least 80 police
pickup trucks, 2 army trucks and 3 nickel company trucks. They arrived
with the intent of illegally and forcibly evicting the inhabitants.
Community members were given 5 minutes to
retrieve belongings from their small homes; they were offered 300
Quetzales to destroy their own homes.
Upon the community's peaceful refusal, the police,
soldiers and private security forces started shooting teargas; they
robbed the villager's homes and then set them on fire with gasoline. In
total, 100 small homes were destroyed. The villagers -- from
grandparents to newborns -- were forced to flee into the forests.
All of their belongings, including clothes, bedding, food, cooking
implements, etc, were either destroyed or stolen.
With absolutely nowhere to go, the 100 families of Lote
8 spent the next week re-building minimal shelter, attaching plastic
sheeting to poles (for shelter), while scrounging for food and trying
to recover some of the subsistence crops.
During this week, Skye Resources/CGN helicopters
regularly flew over their remote community.
January 17th 2007: Hundreds of police, soldiers and
private security agents returned to Lote 8 to again illegally and
forcibly evict the community, this time while male residents were away
from the community. They carried out the same plan of destruction as on
January 9th.
Moreover, police, soldiers and Skye Resources/CGN
private security guards gang-raped 12 female community members. At
least two of the victims were pregnant at the time, and lost their
babies due to the rapes. Another victim, a newlywed, has been told that
she can not have children due to the violent rape.
(In an earlier version of this Complaint, we referred to
a smaller number of women. Based on our August 2010 visit, we now have
testimony that 12 women were raped, who also described to us their fear
of coming forward, publicly.)
***
In 2008, soon after the execution of these illegal and
brutal evictions and gang rapes, Skye Resources sold its nickel mining
interests (including CGN) to HudBay Minerals.
Assassination of Adolfo Ich
On September 27, 2009,
well-known Mayan Q'eqchi'
community leader and teacher Adolfo Ich was captured and then killed by
CGN (now owned by HudBay Minerals) security guards under the direct
orders chief of CGN security forces Mynor Padilla. This event took
place in the community of La Unión, in the town of El Estor.
Under orders of Mynor Padilla, heavily armed security guards came on
the La Unión property, grabbed Adolfo Ich in front of other
villagers, and took him back onto adjacent company properties -- firing
live rounds at community members who tried to
follow them. A couple of hours later, after all the security guards
were ordered to leave the premises, family and community members found
Adolfo Ich dead inside CGN company buildings, with bullet wounds and
machete cuts.
Deeply Entrenched Impunity
Because of Guatemala's deeply entrenched and
well-documented impunity for the government and powerful sectors, no
criminal legal proceedings were even initiated for these illegal forced
evictions and gang rapes. A capture order is out for HudBay/CGN
security forces
chief Mynor Padilla, though that order has not been acted upon. Mr.
Padilla is often seen in the El Estor region driving in HudBay/CGN
vehicles and on CGN property.
Not surprisingly, HudBay Minerals/CGN deny all of the
above.
***
The UNBC group and Rights Action have photographic,
video and audio testimonies of all of the violations and repression
summarized above.
Though we concentrated our recent efforts on the most
remote community of Lote 8 and the killing of Adolfo Ich, similar
serious charges -- including rape -- have been made against the police,
army, and CGN private security guards that were carrying out violent
and illegal forced evictions in at least four other
nearby communities in 2006 and early 2007.
As Canadian citizens, we demand concrete actions from
the Canadian Government:
* That the Canadian Government carry out a full and
impartial investigation into these allegations;
* That the Canadian Government notify the appropriate
Guatemalan authorities of these extremely serious charges and of the
Canadian Government's investigation;
* That, with the community's consent, international
accompaniers are provided to ensure that the mining affected
communities are not subject to retribution for making these accusations
and claims;
* That the findings of the Canadian government's
investigation be made known publicly;
* That the investigation provide a complete summary of
the human rights violations and property destruction and loss suffered
by the Lote 8 community, as well as the other five Mayan Q'eqchi'
communities that suffered similar illegal and forced evictions around
the same time;
* That the investigation provide conclusions and
recommendations with respect to the actions and/or omissions of the
Governments of Guatemala and Canada, and the Guatemalan security
forces, and with respect to Skye Resources (now HudBay Minerals) and
the company's security forces; and
* That the investigation set out what reparations and
compensation ought to be paid and made to the victims.
We believe the Canadian Government must carry out this
investigation, based on the facts that:
1. the very authorities responsible for ensuring justice
and security in Guatemala -- the police and the military -- were the
perpetrators, along with CGN private security guards;
2. that the owners of the Guatemalan Nickel Company --
then Skye Resources, now HudBay Minerals -- are Canadian companies; and
3. that the Canadian government is playing a proactive
role in supporting the expansion of Canadian companies into Guatemala.
We insist that this human rights violation complaint be
taken seriously and trust the Canadian Government will take every means
necessary to ensure that the perpetrators of these human rights
violations be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and that
full reparations and compensation be made to the victims
of these crimes.
We look forward to hearing back from you about this
serious human rights matter. We have extensive knowledge about the
violations and harms caused by nickel mining interests in the El Estor
region and look forward to sharing it with you.
(For list of
signatories to this complaint, visit www.rightsaction.org)
Libya
UK Warned Against Military Ground Operations
Libya warned Britain on April 20 that it would be futile
to send military advisers to Benghazi with the alleged interest of
helping the armed rebellion to become organized, describing it as "an
impossible mission," Prensa Latina reports.
Deputy Foreign Minister Khled Kaim said the decision
announced by Britain exceeded the mandate granted by the UN Security
Council Resolution, already criticized by Libya, which imposed a no-fly
zone but excluded a land occupation.
"This is an impossible mission. Organize who? They [the
so-called rebels] are different groups; there is no leader; they are
not well-organized, and I am sure it will be a failure," Kaim said in a
conference press broadcast by state-run Al Jamahiriya television.
According to British Foreign Minister William Hague,
his country will send up to 20 military advisers to Benghazi, Libya's
second-largest city, which has become the capital of the opposition
which has been fighting against the government of Muammar Gadhafi since
February 15.
The British military advisers will join a group of
British diplomats who are already conspiring with the Transitional
National Council there, advising them on how to improve their military
organization and communications.
Civilian Casualties Continue Under Stepped Up NATO
"Humanitarian" Bombings
News agencies report that the U.S.-led NATO alliance has
stepped up
its bombing of the Libyan capital Tripoli and other parts of the
country. NATO officials have undertaken a new phase in operations April
19 with "deliberate, multiple strikes" by British aircraft on
communications infrastructure and the headquarters
of the Libya's 32nd Brigade located six miles south of Tripoli, it is
reported. These attacks are ostensibly under the auspices of UN
Security Council Resolution 1973, which states that the aim of the
military mission is to enforce a no-fly zone for purposes of protecting
civilians.
Libyan state television reported seven civilian deaths
as a result
of the attacks on Tripoli that were aimed at civilian and military
targets and which destroyed several houses. In addition, the Libyan
state information agency JANA said NATO planes attacked the town of Bir
al-Ghanam to the south of Tripoli,
killing four more civilians there.
Brigadier-General Mark van Uhm, NATO's chief of allied
operations,
claimed the attacks on Tripoli, which is outside the major combat
zones, were justified, saying "What we are doing is attacking the
regime's ability to supply and sustain [its] attacks [...] across the
country."
Uhm also said that NATO aircraft had destroyed
significant numbers
of tanks, armoured vehicles and rocket launchers besieging the Libyan
city of Misurata, 200 kilometres east of Tripoli on April 18.
Reports cite NATO sources saying the number of NATO
airstrikes has
doubled over the last two weeks.
Michel Chossodovsky, writing for Global Research,
provides information on the scope of the NATO military intervention:
"NATO data confirms the magnitude and destructive
nature of the Libya military operation.
"'Since the beginning of the NATO operation (31 March
2011,
08.00GMT) a total of 2,771 sorties and 1,110 strike sorties have been
conducted.
"'A total of 18 ships under NATO command are actively
patrolling the
Central Mediterranean. 22 Vessels were hailed on 17 April to determine
destination and cargo. 1 boarding was conducted (no diversion).
"'A total of 384 vessels have been hailed, 10 boardings
and 3
diversions have been conducted since the beginning of arms embargo
operations.' [NATO website]
"The above number of sorties includes only those
tabulated since
NATO took command of Operation Odyssey Dawn. It does not include the
sorties between March 19 and March 30
"The coalition is currently running more than a hundred
sorties a day.
"We are dealing with a formidable military force, a
deployment of
naval power and air force bombers directed against a country of less
than 7 million people, less than the population of Switzerland.
"Let us be under no illusions. There is evidence of mass
civilian
casualties. These are war crimes (using advanced weapons systems)
directed against a defenceless population."
Read The Marxist-Leninist
Daily
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|