[News] Report: Int'l Tribunal on Katrina (Part 1 of a Series)
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Wed Sep 12 17:35:52 EDT 2007
International Liaison Committee of Workers & Peoples (ILC)
P.O. Box 40009, San Francisco, CA 94140.
Tel. (415) 641-8616; fax: (415) 824-1072.
website: ILC section in www.owcinfo.org
--------------------
First in Multi-Part Series of Reports:
IN THIS MESSAGE:
1) Press Release from PHRF: International Tribunal Issues Preliminary
Findings -- Bush, Blanco, Nagin Committed Crimes against Humanity
2) Statement by PHRF: How to Support the International Tribunal
3) Message from ILC Coordinator Daniel Gluckstein to International
Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
4) Statement by Tribunal Co-Convener Cynthia McKinney
5) Statement by Tribunal Co-Convener Louisa Hanoune
********************
1) PRESS RELEASE
International Tribunal Issues Preliminary Findings
Bush, Blanco, Nagin Committed Crimes against Humanity
People's Hurricane Relief Fund-Oversight Committee
1418 North Claiborne #2
New Orleans, LA 70116
(504) tel. 301-0215 fax 301-0306
tribunal at peopleshurricane.org
Contact: Monifa Bandele (917) 407- 3018
New Orleans-
Between August 29, 2007 and September 2, 2007, a Tribunal of 16
esteemed jurists from nine countries, including Algeria, Brazil,
France, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mexico, South Africa, Venezuela, and
the United States, convened in New Orleans to hear testimony by
experts and survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
After hearing nearly 30 hours of testimony by hurricane survivors and
experts -- covering government neglect and negligence in 15 areas,
ranging from police brutality to environmental racism, from
misappropriation of relief to gentrification -- the jurists announced
their preliminary findings.
Jill Soffiyah Elijah, the Deputy Director of the Criminal Justice
Institute at Harvard Law School and Chief Judge for the International
Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, announced the Tribunal's
preliminary findings "It is our view that the U.S. government has
committed crimes against humanity particularly in relation to its
failure to maintain functional levees that should have protected the
City of New Orleans from flooding; ... it was the reckless disregard
and, in some instances, negligence of the U.S. government, the state
of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans that created the devastation
we continue to see today."
Elijah also announced that the Tribunal made preliminary findings
that the federal, state and local governments are guilty of violating
the human rights to life, dignity and recognition of personhood; the
right to be free from racial discrimination -- especially as it
pertains to the actions of law enforcement personnel and vigilantes;
the right to return, resettlement and reintegration of internally
displaced persons; the right to be free from degrading treatment and
punishment; the right to freedom of movement; the right to adequate
housing and education; the right to vote and participate in
governance and the right to a fair trial; the right to liberty and
security of person and the right to equal protection under the law.
Both actions and failure to act by the governments had
disproportionate devastating impact with respect to race and gender.
The jurists announced that they would deliver their final verdict on
December 8, 2007 -- the second anniversary of the Katrina Survivors'
Assembly. In the meantime, prosecutors will be submitting additional
evidence and videotaped affidavits from an additional 25 survivors.
The prosecution team included experienced attorneys from respected
legal associations around the country: the ACLU of New York, National
Economic and Social Rights Initiative, the US Human Rights Network,
the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the Center for
Constitutional Rights, National Lawyers Guild, the Center for Law and
Social Justice at Medgar Evers College, the NAACP Legal Defense and
Education Fund, Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights,
Washington DC Legal Defender, Mississippi Disaster Relief Coalition,
International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Legal Empowerment
Center and the Louisiana Justice Initiative.
The Tribunal Conveners -- representing movements for justice on four
continents -- reminded Tribunal participants and witnesses of the
solemnity of their task. Lybon Mabasa, a founding member with Stephen
Biko of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa, insisted,
"We must hold these criminal governments to account in order to stop
the world from sinking into barbarism and to make the world one where
life is worth living."
#
For samples of videotaped testimony, contact Monifa Bandele at 917 407-3018
************************
2) HOW TO SUPPORT THE INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL
People's Hurricane Relief Fund and
Oversight Coalition (PHRF)
1418 North Claiborne Avenue, Suite 2
New Orleans, LA 70116
Telephone: 504 301 0215
Email: phrfoc at gmail.com
International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita adjourns
Preliminary Findings: US Federal, State, and Local governments
committed crimes against humanity.
Final Verdict: Due December 8th, 2007.
Greetings family, friends, neighbors and comrades!
Thank you all for supporting the International Tribunal on Hurricanes
Katrina and Rita. Your participation, along with delegations from
nine countries, made the Tribunal a success. For the first time, the
public -- both in the U.S. and the world -- had the opportunity to
hear a comprehensive account of the crimes committed against the
people of New Orleans and the Gulf. And, for the first time, an
esteemed panel of international jurists gave careful consideration to
charges of crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, genocide and
other violations committed by the U.S. government.
However, if we are to gain restitution, justice and the right of
return for all those displaced and forcibly removed, a tremendous
amount of work remains. Join us in spreading the word about the
Tribunal demands and building a strong reconstruction movement
grounded in human rights principles to win the right to return. Below
are a few suggestions offered by Tribunal organizers -- including the
attached petition -- to advance the reconstruction movement.
As Lybon Mabasa, Tribunal Convener from South Africa, advised as he
closed the proceedings, "We adjourn the Tribunal for today, but even
greater work lies ahead. Only by committing ourselves to this
struggle will we save ourselves from sinking into barbarism."
-----
How to Support the International Tribunal
1. Build a Solidarity Committee in your city, region or state to
continue the struggle for a just reconstruction and against ethnic
cleansing in the Gulf Coast.
2. Join the PHRF action alert network at
<http://www.peopleshurricane.org/register/>http://www.peopleshurricane.org/register/.
3. Conduct a report back about the Tribunal and the Gulf Coast
Reconstruction Movement with your members and supporters. Call
504.301.0215 for speakers and video.
4. Organize a teach-in or community forum in your city, region, or
state with members of the Tribunal organizing committee to aid with
the national mobilization effort for the Tribunal and Survivors Assembly.
5. Agitate on the demands and recommendations stemming from the
Tribunal by asking civic, labor, political, and religious
organizations in your area to sign on as endorsers. The prosecution called for:
- Reparations
- Prosecution of Bush, Blanco, Barbour, Nagin, FEMA, the Army Corps
of Engineers, and Homeland Security for crimes against humanity
- International and national support for the right of return and
reconstruction with justice and dignity
6. Support the Tribunal Petition Drive to demand the right of
return, adherence to the IDP principles, and federal works project by
asking your members and supporters to gather signatures in your area.
Petitions are available at either
<http://www.katrinatribunal.org>www.katrinatribunal.org or
<http://www.peopleshurricane.org>www.peopleshurricane.org.
7. Contact the various government officials in your city, region,
and state and demand that they support legislation that recognizes
the IDP status of Hurricane Survivors, provides restitution for
Hurricane Survivors, supports the Gulf Coast Civic Works project, and
holds all parties responsible for crimes against humanity liable for
their actions.
8. Support the calls for censures, boycotts, and direct action
issued by the Tribunal organizers and Survivors Assembly to pressure
the U.S. government to accept the demands and recommendations of the Tribunal.
9. Support the International mobilization for the Tribunal by
promoting its findings, verdict, and demands to your international
contacts and allied organizations. Encourage them to start resolution
initiatives, petition drives, and calls for international solidarity
and action.
10. Demand that all Presidential candidates take a stand in support
of the findings of the Tribunal, reparations, a just reconstruction,
and the right of return for all Gulf Coast IDPs.
11. Raise funds to provide ongoing financial support to the Tribunal
organizers to publish and distribute the findings, continuing raising
awareness, and pursue national and international litigation.
In Unity and Struggle,
Kali Akuno
PHRF Executive Director
Tuesday, September 4th, 2007
Stay tuned to <http://www.katrinatribunal.org>www.katrinatribunal.org
for updates. Also please send pictures for thorough documentation.
********************
3) Message from ILC Coordinator Daniel Gluckstein to the
International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
Introductory Note: The following message was sent by Daniel
Gluckstein, coordinator of the International Liaison Committee of
Workers and Peoples (ILC), to the International Tribunal on Katrina.
It was read to the Tribunal plenary session by Prosecution Team
coordinator Kwame Kalimara and submitted to the Tribunal Judges for
the record of the Tribunal proceedings. This message was also
submitted to the national and international media that were covering
the Tribunal.
-----
MESSAGE
Dear Friends, Dear Sisters and Brothers.
It's with great regret that, for reasons totally beyond my control, I
was prevented at the last minute from attending the International
Tribunal on Katrina at which I was given the honor of sitting as a
judge. As you know from the start, the International Liaison
Committee of Workers and Peoples, of which I am coordinator, and the
Workers Party of France, of which I am general secretary, have
brought their unconditional support to the proposal to build this tribunal.
For the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples the
appalling situation inflicted upon the Black population of New
Orleans and the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina is an irrefutable
indictment of all those who decided to leave the New Orleans and Gulf
Coast people stranded, to submit them to wholesale devastation, to
repression and then to an unmitigated operation of ethnic cleansing.
This recent persecution of the New Orleans Black population is but
one more link in the chain -- in that long chain of oppression,
genocide and persecutions aimed against the Black population.
The International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples upholds
the inalienable right of the oppressed and the exploited to organize
independently for their own defense. This is why the ILC recognizes
the New Orleans Black population's absolute right to judge those
responsible for Katrina. It's their absolute right to hold those
accountable in government at all levels -- federal, state and local
-- for they all joined, to varying degrees, to forsake the New
Orleans Black population, to leave them stranded to endure an appalling fate.
Likewise, it is the inalienable right of all the oppressed and
exploited, and particularly the U.S. population's Black component, to
build their own forms of political representation, to build if they
so desire their own Reconstruction Party. Who is in a better position
than the Black population to determine how best to organize
independently to save and defend itself? The International Liaison
Committee of Workers and Peoples, because it stands on the ground of
the independence of the workers' movement, has supported and will
support any step forward toward building an authentic party for the
liberation of the Black people in the United States, a party which
would represent the interests of the oppressed and exploited,
included those of immigrants from Mexico, the rest of Latin America
and beyond. This party would necessarily converge with the actions
under way to build an authentic Labor Party, a part which itself
defends the independent interests of all workers in the United States.
Likewise, the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
supports all those fighting back against the atrocious fate reserved
for the populations of Africa. From Darfur to Rwanda, the fate
reserved by imperialism for the African peoples shows the future that
imperialism holds for them: one of plunder, of destruction of
nations, a future of so-called ethnic wars that are artificially
provoked from abroad. The International Liaison Committee of Workers
and Peoples supports the African peoples' struggles for their
sovereignty, for their authentic independence. It supports in
particular the fightback of the South African workers who brought
down the regime of apartheid and who are bound to continue their
struggle today for South Africa to become, in reality and not just in
appearance, an authentic Black Republic where the majority, the Black
majority, holds all elements of power.
The International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples supports
the efforts of the Black population in the Caribbean to unite in the
anti-imperialist fightback against French, British and all other
colonialisms, which claim the right to annex certain Caribbean
islands within the framework or what they call "Tropical Europe."
The International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples supports
the fightback of the poor people in Brazil, and in particular the
Black people, to break with debt policies, to break with the U.S.
government's dictate and to oppose the sending of French, Brazilian
and other troops to occupy Haiti against the will of this country's people.
From South Africa to the United States, to the Caribbean, to Rwanda,
the plight afflicted upon Black people does not come from any
malediction. It derives from the regime of exploitation and
oppression which assails all the peoples, all the workers, all the oppressed.
This is why the charges the Katrina Survivors have put forward,
supported by a worldwide campaign, will judge those responsible; they
will not be allowed to go unpunished for the appalling assault
imposed upon the peoples of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast two years ago.
This Tribunal is a first step toward the judgment of all those
responsible for crimes against the peoples. It's an encouragement for
the oppressed and exploited the world over who are organizing to do
away with the regime of exploitation founded upon the private
ownership of the means of production, for the liberation of workers,
youth and peoples of all continents from the chains of exploitation,
war and oppression.
On behalf of the International Liaison Committee of Workers and
Peoples, of the Workers Party of France, and in my own name, I send
you wishes for the full success of the Katrina Tribunal proceedings.
In solidarity,
Daniel Gluckstein,
Coordinator of International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
General Secretary of Workers Party
France
********************
4) STATEMENT BY TRIBUNAL CO-CONVENER CYNTHIA MCKINNEY TO OPENING
RALLY OF THE INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL
The New Orleans Times Picayune reported recently that Nancy Pelosi
and other Democrats toured New Orleans, including the Lower Ninth
Ward. They "signaled that the federal largesse would have
limits." One Louisiana Democratic Representative indicated that they
were "here to differentiate the needs from the wants."
However, the Democratic Congress has failed to differentiate Bush
Administration needs from its wants and has granted the
Administration legalized spying on the American people; funding for
the surge and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and maneuvering room
to do all this and more by taking impeachment "off the table."
Katrina survivors, through their People's Hurricane Relief Fund, are
no longer willing to wait for justice; they have formed the
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita International Tribunal to hold all levels
of the government accountable for massive failures.
I have joined their call for justice and am proud to serve as a
Convener of the Tribunal -- a huge undertaking with significant
implications for an unresponsive government. Perhaps it will be the
Katrina and Rita survivors who will finally put brakes on a
government that is out of control in its utter disregard of the
American people.
The world's generosity toward Katrina and Rita survivors was shunned
even as today's needs go unfilled and under-funded. It is to that
same international community that survivors now turn. I believe their
cries for justice will be heard.
********************
5) STATEMENT BY TRIBUNAL CO-CONVENER LOUIS HANOUNE, Deputy in the
National Assembly of Algeria for the Workers Party, at closing of
International Tribunal
[Note: This statement was delivered on Sept. 2 as an amicus
solidarity statement to the Tribunal after the final witnesses had
presented their testimonies and before the chief prosecutor's closing
statement.]
I would like to express all my gratitude to the Tribunal organizers
for allowing me to participate in these proceedings. Reality
surpasses fiction in all we have seen and heard. Yesterday, we
visited a ghost town, a city where most of the houses are empty. This
has only added salt to the horrific wound inflicted since August 2005
upon the Survivors and upon that part of humanity that resides in all of us.
I stand in solidarity with you today because two years after the
hurricane struck, it is unacceptable that the Survivors should go on
enduring this nightmare.
I come from a country in Africa. I have seen the effects of
catastrophes, earthquakes, and floods. But I have never seen anything
like this. What we are witnessing here is ethnic cleansing!
So, yes, I stand in solidarity with you because I come from Africa, a
continent that is sinking into chaos and whose survival requires the
united efforts of all women and men of good will.
I stand in solidarity with you because throughout the testimonies
presented to this Tribunal we heard war cries and words that recall
the plight of the Palestinian people. They, like their counterparts
here in the Gulf Coast, have the inalienable Right to Return.
I stand in solidarity with you because I come from the labor
movement, where we learned to come to the immediate rescue of the
most vulnerable among us.
As a women's rights activist, I am in solidarity with the Black women
because they are, like their counterparts in Palestine, among the
most vulnerable. They have been deprived of all they possess in life,
even their role in binding their families together.
I will go back to sound the alarm against the oppression of the women
in New Orleans, which is no less heinous than the oppression and
double discrimination faced by the Palestinian women.
I am very proud and honored to have been here among you, and I give
heart-felt thanks to those who allowed me to meet and hear the
Survivors and witnesses who today, as the proud heirs of their
ancestors, are waging a momentous fightback against the assaults they
face day after day.
If you agree, I will be your spokesperson in my country and beyond --
in the Maghreb and the Middle East. I will report the facts that were
delivered here, the testimonies presented, and the disaster that we
witnessed first hand.
The Workers Party Parliamentary Group will organize parliamentary
hearings on the Katrina Tribunal in Algeria.
I also stand here to support the proposal made by my Brazilian
colleague earlier in our proceedings when he called on us to get more
elected officials around the world to support the Tribunal verdict
and its demands. I would thus like to make a proposal: Would it be
possible to convene an International Parliamentary Conference on
Katrina? It could take place in Brazil -- but if that were not
possible, it could be held in my country.
To conclude, I would like to quote the Lebanese thinker and writer
Jibran Khalil Jibran who wrote the following at the beginning of the
last century: "Woe be it to any nation where one single component
claims to represent the entire nation."
Of course, we do not wish misfortune on any nation! That is why I
join Tunisian poet Abu Kacem Chaabi in affirming the following in
relation to our struggles for national independence: "When the
people decide to live, the night must disappear, the dawn will rise
and the chains will be broken."
Yes, hand in hand, we will join our efforts to break the chains of
oppression and exploitation, to champion the right of the Black
people to live, the right of all to live in dignity, to live from
their work, and to proclaim that the future belongs to us!
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org
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