FW: Mumia condemns war in Yugoslavia
Magne Haagen Flatval (magne@kvalito.no)
Thu, 15 Apr 1999 04:56:22 +0200
> Mumia Abu-Jamal: NATO/U.S. out of Yugoslavia!
>
> By Mumia Abu-Jamal
>
> As a deadly rain of high-tech bombs falls on Yugoslavia, a deadening
> rain of propaganda falls on Americans, media-manipulated lies designed
> to prime the populace into supporting harsher military measures
> against a sovereign nation, in the name of protecting human rights.
>
> NATO is but a fig leaf for American "interests," and the bombing of
> Yugoslavia is but a global demonstration of the ruthlessness of the
> American empire. A demonstration? The monstrous atomic bombing of
> Japan, after it was virtually beaten in World War II, was not a
> military necessity, but a political one, designed to demonstrate to
> the Russians that the U.S. was, and would ever be, boss. It was a
> massive, deadly demonstration.
>
> So too, the Yugoslavia bombing treats Serbs as the U.S. treated
> Japanese during the war--as props to demonstrate the power of the
> empire.
>
> Let us consider the claims that the U.S. is concerned about "human
> rights" or about the "rights of ethnic minorities," as the corporate
> press projects hourly. What of America's largest national
> minority--African Americans? The world-respected Amnesty International
> group, speaking through its secretary general, Pierre Sane, announced
> just days before the bombing, "Human-rights violations in the United
> States of America are persistent, widespread and appear to
> disproportionately affect people of racial or ethnic minority
> backgrounds."
>
> Sane was critical of police violence and executions in the U.S.
> Further, internationally, let's see how the U.S. responds to
> "liberation movements" of the oppressed. When fighters for Puerto
> Rican independence began to raise their voices, the U.S. didn't
> support this "ethnic minority," they sought (and continue) to crush,
> incarcerate and silence them.
>
> Consider the case of the Palestinians, the Kurds, the East Timorese,
> the Colombian rebels--who has the U.S. consistently supported, the
> oppressed or the U.S.-armed governments?
>
> This isn't about "human rights." It isn't about "ethnic minorities."
> And it also isn't about "genocide." It's about establishing who's
> "boss" in the next century. It's about keeping Russia in its place.
> It's about keeping the European Union under the thumb of Wall Street.
>
> The bombing of Serbia is an echo of the bombing of three other
> countries in the past six months--of Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan. And
> for precisely the same reason--to show that it can be done, no matter
> what so-called "international law" states. It is to instill terror
> throughout the world, in order for U.S. capital to institute what
> former president George Bush tried to do, but failed: to establish a
> New World Order.
>
> Days before the bombing, NATO signed up Poland, Hungary and the former
> Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic) as its newest members, thereby
> virtually isolating Russia. Only Serbia and the Yugoslav states have
> refused to join NATO--their bombing is their punishment.
>
> Our brilliant, revered nationalist leader, Malcolm X, taught us to
> examine history. If we look at history, the bombing of Yugoslavia
> becomes clear.
>
> Empires are maintained, not by reason, but by ruthless terror. It was
> so in Rome. It is so in the U.S. The brilliant revolutionary, Dr. Huey
> P. Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party, explained, "The United
> States was no longer a nation. We called it an empire. An empire is a
> nation-state that has transformed itself into a power controlling all
> the world's lands and people." (1973)
>
> Huey was right then, and our response then was to oppose the empire.
> We must do that now.
>
> Down with imperialism! Stop the bombing! NATO/U.S. out of Yugoslavia!
>
> --end--
>
> ********April 17 is an internationally coordinated day of protest
> against the U.S./NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Check the International
> Action Center web page--www.iacenter.org--for demonstrations in your
> area. Please email in any demonstrations not listed on the page.