Voice of Revolution

International Tribunal on Katrina and Rita

Tribunal Ensures Collective Memory of Government Crimes and Peoples' Resistance Can Not be Erased

The historic International Tribunal on Katrina and Rita concluded in New Orleans with the judges providing initial findings that government at all levels are guilty of crimes against humanity. The powerful testimonies of survivors exposing government organized racism and brutality, with families and innocent people gunned down by police and soldiers, deeply angered all present. Complete impunity was unleashed by top government officials, as the governor issued "shoot to kill" orders and the army used "drop or die" orders, shooting people who did not drop to the ground on command. The government's efforts to literally wipe out the African American and poor people of New Orleans, its forceable removal and separation of families, its continued efforts to keep families from returning by eliminating public education, keeping public hospitals and public housing closed, all were repeatedly documented. The serious medical trauma and difficulties faced by survivors is such that an estimated 400 people are now dying every month from Katrina-related causes.

Many people gave examples of the refusal of government to do even the most basic things, like providing clean water and electricity. Survivors spoke of being repeatedly moved and now living in government trailers that are contaminated with formaldehyde, a cancer-causing toxin. Fact upon fact and example upon example showed that the racism and terrorism, and deadly conditions imposed on all before, during and after Katrina are government organized. These are crimes that must be punished was the conclusion drawn by all.

Testimony of the heroic efforts of many people during and after Katrina were also brought forward. People withstood police efforts to block and intimidate them and under very difficult conditions organized to rescue those left stranded by the government, provide food, water and shelter. After Katrina, collective efforts were organized to set-up medical clinics, provide counseling, reunite families, to gut and rebuild homes, to block bulldozers from destroying homes, to safeguard the cultural heritage of New Orleans, including museum materials, Mardi Gras Indian costumes and much more. People relied on their own efforts and continue to do so.

The conclusion that stood out was the complete and repeated failure of the state to do its duty and provide for the people — and that this still continues. At the same time, the people, relying on their own forces, organizing collectively, continue to have successes. The Tribunal itself was yet another example. It was a great success in enabling so many survivors to speak out and, with their testimony and evidence from the lawyers, in systematically documenting the government crimes, against the survivors, all those they represent and against humanity itself. It played a vital role in ensuring that the collective memory of the government crimes and the peoples' resistance cannot be erased — not by floods, not by disinformation, not by visits and promises by President George W. Bush, not by any means. The record of the crimes and the resistance, before, during and after has been firmly implanted in the peoples’ collective memory — in New Orleans, across the country and worldwide. Judges, prosecutors, and delegations from nine countries showed this reality by affirming their commitment to continue this vital work by popularizing the record and taking demands to the U.S. government, United Nation organizations, the International Criminal Court, and embassies worldwide. Together they are affirming the right to return and rebuild with justice and dignity, designation of Katrina and Rita survivors as Internally Displaced Persons and all the rights this entails, and that the government crimes be punished, reparations paid, and all the just demands of the people be met, and met now.

Salute the International Tribunal!
Defend the Right to Return and Rebuild!

[TOP]

New Orleans March: August 29, 2007

Fighting for the Right to Return

People of New Orleans, surrounded by activists from across the country and worldwide, marched, chanted and danced their way through the streets of the city, demanding the right to return and rebuild. Under the banner, “Two Years Later and Still Fighting,” participants started in the lower ninth ward, where the levee broke, flooding the entire area. Despite pouring rain and oppressive heat, hundreds assembled and then were joined by many hundreds more along the way. As one they represented the spirit of New Orleans and the world’s peoples to stand up and resist by defending the rights of all.

Families from the area came to the march, including members of a family of seven brothers and sisters who have all returned to the area determined to rebuild. They represented the many who have returned as well as the hundreds of thousands still displaced. They set up their table with food and water on the cement slab that was the front porch of one brother’s home. They spoke with many of the activists from out of town about the devastation faced by their family, neighbors and friends. While the lower 9th before the storm was largely African American homeowners, and even last year many homes still remained, now they have been bulldozed and the area has been turned into a large field overgrown with weeds. They spoke of their determination to rebuild, despite all the government efforts to keep them out. Like many, they also told of the repeated moves imposed by the government after Katrina and their current situation of living in FEMA trailers that are contaminated with cancer-causing formaldehyde. And again representing the spirit of New Orleans, they said they are survivors, they are here to stay and no one will keep them away! They are demanding government support for rebuilding and are working with the people’s organizations fighting for the right to return and rebuild, for public housing, education and healthcare.

The government once again tried to disrupt the demonstration, using the excuse of a visit to New Orleans by President George W. Bush. The roads and bridge to the area were blocked right when the march was to assemble. Bush and the federal government were condemned and booed, with chants of “George Bush You Can’t Hide, We Charge You with Genocide” heard during the march.

The march got underway in the pouring rain and also concluded in pouring rain. Even so, participants marched through the community, then down major streets, four miles to Congo Square. First they chanted as they marched and then they danced to two brass bands. The many chants and banners denounced the government, charging them with crimes and demanding funding now to meet the needs of the people. "No Justice, No Peace!" and others rejecting the government efforts at humiliation and enslavement were repeatedly heard. The Red Cross and similar agencies were also exposed for their refusal to make funds collected for Katrina survivors available to the survivors. Government at all levels was targeted by the demands made, including, Right to Return, Unionization and Living Wages for All Workers, Re-Open Public Hospitals and Schools, Open Public Housing and Rent Control Now, No to Imperialist War and many others.

The determined spirit of all was perhaps best represented in Congo Square when the march concluded. Standing together, in the downpours, lightning and thunder, everyone joined those on stage in saying, New Orleans, with her spirit of resistance and unity of all is here to stay! We shall not be moved!

[TOP]

UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement

Below we reprint sections of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. More information is available at un.org.

Introduction: Scope And Purpose

1. These Guiding Principles address the specific needs of internally displaced persons worldwide. They identify rights and guarantees relevant to the protection of persons from forced displacement and to their protection and assistance during displacement as well as during return or resettlement and reintegration.

2. For the purposes of these Principles, internally displaced persons are persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border.

Section I — General Principles

Principle 1

1. Internally displaced persons shall enjoy, in full equality, the same rights and freedoms under international and domestic law as do other persons in their country. They shall not be discriminated against in the enjoyment of any rights and freedoms on the ground that they are internally displaced.

Principle 3

1. National authorities have the primary duty and responsibility to provide protection and humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons within their jurisdiction.

2. Internally displaced persons have the right to request and to receive protection and humanitarian assistance from these authorities. They shall not be persecuted or punished for making such a request.

Principle 4

1. These Principles shall be applied without discrimination of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion or belief, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, legal or social status, age, disability, property, birth, or on any other similar criteria.

2. Certain internally displaced persons, such as children, especially unaccompanied minors, expectant mothers, mothers with young children, female heads of household, persons with disabilities and elderly persons, shall be entitled to protection and assistance required by their condition and to treatment which takes into account their special needs.

Section II — Principles Relating To Protection From Displacement

Principle 6

1. Every human being shall have the right to be protected against being arbitrarily displaced from his or her home or place of habitual residence.

2. Displacement shall last no longer than required by the circumstances.

Principle 7

1. Prior to any decision requiring the displacement of persons, the authorities concerned shall ensure that all feasible alternatives are explored in order to avoid displacement altogether.

2. The authorities undertaking such displacement shall ensure, to the greatest practicable extent, that proper accommodation is provided to the displaced persons, that such displacements are effected in satisfactory conditions of safety, nutrition, health and hygiene, and that members of the same family are not separated.

Principle 8

Displacement shall not be carried out in a manner that violates the rights to life, dignity, liberty and security of those affected.

Section III — Principles Relating To Protection During Displacement

Principle 10

1. Every human being has the inherent right to life, which shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his or her life. Internally displaced persons shall be protected in particular against:

(a) Genocide;
(b) Murder;
(c) Summary or arbitrary executions;
(d) Enforced disappearances, including abduction or unacknowledged detention, threatening or resulting in death.

Threats and incitement to commit any of the foregoing acts shall be prohibited.

Principle 12

1. Every human being has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention.

2. To give effect to this right for internally displaced persons, they shall not be interned in or confined to a camp. If in exceptional circumstances such internment or confinement is absolutely necessary, it shall not last longer than required by the circumstances.

3. Internally displaced persons shall be protected from discriminatory arrest and detention as a result of their displacement.

Principle 14

1. Every internally displaced person has the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his or her residence.

2. In particular, internally displaced persons have the right to move freely in and out of camps or other settlements.

Principle 16

1. All internally displaced persons have the right to know the fate and whereabouts of missing relatives.

2. The authorities concerned shall endeavor to establish the fate and whereabouts of internally displaced persons reported missing, and cooperate with relevant international organizations engaged in this task. They shall inform the next of kin on the progress of the investigation and notify them of any result.

3. The authorities concerned shall endeavor to collect and identify the mortal remains of hose deceased, prevent their despoliation or mutilation, and facilitate the return of those remains to the next of kin or dispose of them respectfully.

4. Grave sites of internally displaced persons should be protected and respected in all circumstances. Internally displaced persons should have the right of access to the grave sites of their relatives.

Principle 17

1. Every human being has the right to respect of his or her family life. 2. To give effect to this right for internally displaced persons, family members who wish to remain together shall be allowed to do so.

2. Families that are separated by displacement should be reunited as quickly as possible. All appropriate steps shall be taken to expedite the reunion of such families, particularly when children are involved. The responsible authorities shall facilitate inquiries made by family members and encourage and cooperate with the work of humanitarian organizations engaged in the task of family reunification.

Principle 18

1. All internally displaced persons have the right to an adequate standard of living.

2. At the minimum, regardless of the circumstances, and without -discrimination, competent authorities shall provide internally displaced persons with and ensure safe access to:

(a) Essential food and potable water;
(b) Basic shelter and housing;
(c) Appropriate clothing; and
(d) Essential medical services and sanitation.

3. Special efforts should be made to ensure the full participation of women in the planning and distribution of these basic supplies.

Principle 19

1. All wounded and sick internally displaced persons as well as those with disabilities shall receive to the fullest extent practicable and with the least possible delay, the medical care and attention they require, without distinction on any grounds other than medical ones. When necessary, internally displaced persons shall have access to psychological and social services.

2. Special attention should be paid to the health needs of women, including access to female health care providers and services, such as reproductive health care, as well as appropriate counseling for victims of sexual and other abuses.

3. Special attention should also be given to the prevention of contagious and infectious diseases, including AIDS, among internally displaced persons.

Principle 20

1. Every human being has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

2. To give effect to this right for internally displaced persons, the authorities concerned shall issue to them all documents necessary for the enjoyment and exercise of their legal rights, such as passports, personal identification documents, birth -certificates and marriage certificates. In particular, the authorities shall facilitate the issuance of new documents or the replacement of documents lost in the course of displacement, without imposing unreasonable conditions, such as requiring the return to one’s area of habitual residence in order to obtain these or other required documents.

3. Women and men shall have equal rights to obtain such necessary documents and shall have the right to have such documentation issued in their own names.

Principle 21

1. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of property and possessions.

Principle 22

1. Internally displaced persons, whether or not they are living in camps, shall not be discriminated against as a result of their displacement in the enjoyment of the following rights:

(a) The rights to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, opinion and expression;
(b) The right to seek freely opportunities for employment and to participate in economic activities;
(c) The right to associate freely and participate equally in community affairs;
(d) The right to vote and to participate in governmental and public affairs, including the right to have access to the means necessary to exercise this right; and
(e) The right to communicate in a language they understand.

2. Every human being has the right to education.

Section IV — Principles Relating To Humanitarian Assistance

1. Humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons shall not be diverted, in particular for political or military reasons.

2. The primary duty and responsibility for providing humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons lies with national authorities.

3. All authorities concerned shall grant and facilitate the free passage of humanitarian assistance and grant persons engaged in the provision of such assistance rapid and unimpeded access to the internally displaced.

Persons engaged in humanitarian assistance, their transport and supplies shall be respected and protected. They shall not be the object of attack or other acts of violence.

Section V — Principles Relating To Return, Resettlement & Reintegration

1. Competent authorities have the primary duty and responsibility to establish conditions, as well as provide the means, which allow internally displaced persons to return voluntarily, in safety and with dignity, to their homes or places of habitual residence, or to resettle voluntarily in another part of the country.

2. Special efforts should be made to ensure the full participation of internally displaced persons in the planning and management of their return or resettlement and reintegration.

3. Competent authorities have the duty and responsibility to assist returned and/or resettled internally displaced persons to recover, to the extent possible, their property and possessions that they left behind or were dispossessed of upon their displacement. When recovery of such property and possessions is not possible, competent authorities shall provide or assist these persons in obtaining appropriate compensation or another form of just reparation.

All authorities concerned shall grant and facilitate for international humanitarian organizations and other appropriate actors, in the exercise of their respective mandates, rapid and unimpeded access to internally displaced persons to assist in their return or resettlement and reintegration.

Taken from the UN document E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2, February 11, 1998.

[TOP]

Definitions of Reparations and Genocide

Reparation

A reconciliation, the action of restoring to a proper state; restoration or renewal (of a thing or part); upholding, maintenance; the action of making amends for a wrong done; amends, compensation; repair of an injury; compensation for war damage owed by the aggressor; the act of restoring to a sound or unimpaired condition; the process by which this is accomplished; the result attained; remedy of wrong; to mend; to heal or cure; to renew, renovate (some thing or part); to restore to a fresh or sound condition by making up in some way for previous loss, waste, decay, or exhaustion. (Oxford English Dictionary)

UN Definition of Genocide

From the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Article 2: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Article 3: The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d ) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide.

Article 4: Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.

[TOP]

State Racism, Incarceration and Apologies

The government regularly claims that it is opposed to racism. But its actions before, during and after Katrina, its on-going genocide of mass incarceration of African Americans, its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, all demonstrate that racism is in the bones of U.S.-style democracy, part of its very being. The stand on government responsibility for lynching also makes this clear. The Senate, for example, notorious for refusing to make lynching a federal crime when it was occurring, decided in 2005 to finally make an apology. It was an empty apology, given its past deeds — its criminal record in supporting and defending the widespread lynching used to kill and terrorize African Americans and all those who fought for rights. The apology remains empty of any meaning no action was taken then or since to rectify the government crimes of the present and past, such as through paying reparations and bringing criminal charges against the government and police officials responsible.

In particular, the Senate resolution, and Congress more generally have said nothing about the continuing genocide of African Americans. One way this genocide is expressed is in the unequal and racist imprisonment of African Americans, including the disproportionate number given the death penalty. African American men in jail make up 1 in every eight prisoners on the planet. That in itself is a condemnation of the government and the conditions of life imposed on African Americans.

Indeed, the whole history of using the law against African Americans combined with impunity for the lawlessness of government, especially at the federal level, needs to be targeted for government to even begin to hold itself accountable. Far from doing this, Congress has passed legislation targeting youth, especially African Americans. A gathering of three youth on an “informal” basis is considered “gang” activity. Mandatory sentences, beginning with 10 years, are being applied, including for juveniles.

The “gang” laws are yet another example of state organized racism and terrorism. The mandatory sentencing can be considered a modern-day form of lynching, as it targets youth and imposes sentences of 10, 20 and thirty years for actions that are not criminal. This reality only further shows that state-organized racism and terrorism are integral to the existing political system and no apology can hide that.

We demand reparations now and criminal charges against the government officials responsible, starting at the top. We reject the “gang” laws that are clearly designed to stop resistance and organizing among the youth for their rights. African Americans are particularly being targeted because today, as in the past, they are in the front ranks of the struggles of all for rights. Today, as in the past, it is this resistance that will triumph.

[TOP]

Oppose Mass Incarceration of African Americans

According to the U.S. Justice Department, the American prison system — by far the largest in the world, housing one of every four prison inmates on the planet — keeps a total of seven percent of U.S. residents behind bars, or on parole or probation at any given time. This is about 3 percent of the nation’s adult population, or one out of every 32 adults.

According to a recent report by the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were 2.2 million people held in federal or state prisons in December 2005, a 2.7 percent increase. The average annual increase of the U.S. prisoner population has been 3.5 percent since 1995.

Up until the 1960s the majority of inmates were white. But since that time, as a means to crush African American resistance and block them from political participation in society, about half the nation’s inmates — one-eighth of the globe’s total — are African Americans. African Americans are now only about 10 percent of the population, but half of those are locked down. One out of three black men in their twenties are out on bail, probation, court supervision, community service, parole, or behind bars. The vast majority are for non-violent crimes, and, with mandatory sentencing, many are imprisoned for their first offense. With three-strike laws, life sentences are being imposed for non-violent drug offenses and petty offenses like shoplifting.

According to a 2006 report by the American Civil Liberties Union, African Americans make up an estimated 15 percent of drug users, but they account for 37 percent of those arrested on drug charges, 59 percent of those convicted and 74 percent of all drug offenders sentenced to prison. An estimated 80 percent of sentenced crack users are black, even though they are less than 15 percent of drug users nationwide. The U.S. has 260,000 people in state prisons on nonviolent drug charges; 183,200 (more than 70 percent) are black or Latino.

African American men in their late 20s are locked up at a rate three times that of Hispanic men and more than seven times the rate of white men. African American females “were more than twice as likely as Hispanic females and more than 3 times more likely than white females to have been in prison on December 31, 2005,” according to the Justice Department. “These differences among white, black, and Hispanic females were consistent across all age groups

Immigrants are now the fastest growing section of the prison population, with African American women next. Consider just two women’s prisons in New York, home to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Located down the road from her Chappaqua, N.Y., home are two prisons housing female inmates, Taconic and Bedford. Forty-eight percent of the women in Taconic are there for nonviolent drug offenses; 78 percent of those in the prison are African American or Latino.

Bedford, the state’s only maximum-security prison for women, is home to some of the worst victims of New York’s draconian Rockefeller-era drug laws — mothers and grandmothers whose first brush with the law resulted in their being locked away for 15 years or more on nonviolent drug charges. Clinton has said not word one about the issue of mass incarceration of national minorities, especially African American and Latino women.

The state-organized nature of the imprisonment can be seen in the drug law and sentencing requirements. Drug users, possessing 5 grams of crack cocaine, for example, have a mandatory 5-year term. The same sentence applies to drug dealers when they are found with 500 grams of powder cocaine.

It is also the case that the broad incarceration of African Americans is used to block them from voting. In 2,000 it is estimated that 1.4 million African American men, 13 percent of the black male population, were unable to vote. The numbers for 2004 and 2006 are even higher. And these do not include all the women blocked from voting because of their imprisonment.

The state-organized mass incarceration of African Americans is a crime of genocide that must be rejected, including elimination of current drug laws and mandatory sentencing laws. The racist jailing of Latinos and immigrants must also be rejected.

[TOP]

Prisoners Forced Into Involuntary Servitude

The Prison Industrial Complex is a growing industry that uses prison labor in government departments and for a growing number of monopolies. Prison labor is being used as the lowest paid section of workers. The set-up is essentially a modern-day system of “involuntary servitude,” disguised as prison work-release programs.

In addition, private companies like Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), one of the nation’s largest prison builders, owners and operators — grab major benefits. This is the same corporation that runs the mass detention camps for immigrants and rakes in profits for that as well. In 2006, CCA had revenues of $1.3 billion, expected to continue increasing as prison populations increase.

CCA’s 67 facilities are concentrated throughout Texas, Arizona, Florida, Tennessee, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Georgia, Washington, D.C., Montana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Louisiana.

Overall, the prison labor pool includes more than 2.3 million people incarcerated in the U.S., which includes people in federal, state and territorial prisons; local jails; immigration, customs enforcement and military facilities; Indian Country jails; and juvenile facilities. It is anticipated that by 2011, federal and state prison populations will climb by more than 192,000 new inmates.

Some of the companies that use prison labor, include: Dell Computers, Microsoft, Honda, TWA, Louisiana Pacific, Parke-Davis and Upjohn, Allstate, Merrill Lynch, Shearson Lehman, Nike, Wilson Sporting Goods, J.C. Penney, K-Mart, Target, Victoria’s Secret, Burger King, McDonald’s, Best Western Hotels, Imperial Palace Hotel/Casino and New York Hotel/Casino.

The federal government is largely responsible for providing prison labor, both for the monopolies and for government. In 1934, Congress established the Federal Prison Industries (FPI), now under the name of UNICOR, to employ and provide “job training” to inmates within the Federal Bureau of Prisons. It currently requires those medically able to work for 12 to 40 cents per hour for institution work assignments, and 23 cents to $1.15 for work in UNICOR factories.

In 2005, UNICOR generated $765 million in sales from its 106 factories. And as of last September, its highest net sales were in electronics at $233.2 million, derived from 3,348 inmate workers in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Arizona and California.

UNICOR’s customers include the Department of Defense, General Services Administration, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Social Security Administration, Department of Justice, United States Postal Service, Department of Transportation, Department of the Treasury, Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

[TOP]

Somebody Needs To Do Some Time

For Katrina Crimes

Mark P. Fancher, National Conference of Black Lawyers

When the International Criminal Court (ICC) was established in 1998, it gave hope to literally millions of desperate, oppressed people around the world who otherwise believed that state-sponsored tyrants, soldiers and thugs who were responsible for mass murder, torture and other atrocities would never be held accountable for their crimes. The ICC, which is governed by the provisions of a treaty known as the “Rome Statute” is unprecedented in that in countries that submit to the court’s jurisdiction, nobody — even heads of state — can be immune from criminal prosecution and punishment for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The creation of the ICC, which was inspired in significant part by incidents where governments used their domestic courts to absolve those guilty of heinous crimes, was widely celebrated as a significant step forward for humanity. Even in the United States where there was concern about potential abuse of the court, former President Bill Clinton signed on to the Rome Statute with reservations.

Technically, there was the potential for ratification until Clinton’s successor, George W. Bush, directed that Clinton’s signature be removed from the Rome Statute. While the subsequent U.S. attacks on Iraq, and the tortures that have been carried out in Guantánamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, have likely made the withdrawal from the Rome Statute a pretty good idea from the Bush regime’s perspective, the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) regards it as a tragic, monumental step backwards in the ongoing movement for the universal protection of human rights.

Support the International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

As we approach the second anniversary of the Katrina disaster, and reflect on the countless crimes that were committed by government officials and employees, the need for the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction over the U.S. is crystal clear. NCBL had the opportunity to not only tour the ruins of New Orleans but to also speak with survivors. They described National Guard troops who allegedly aimed rifles at civilians and their small children while screaming obscenities and forcing them to remain in emergency shelters that contained no food or water and that were filled with human waste and countless dead bodies.

During separate interviews the survivors made almost identical allegations that National Guard troops entered the Super Dome and the convention center and effected with surgical precision the evacuation of white survivors while leaving the throngs of Africans behind to suffer and possibly die. These white-only rescue operations are alleged to have occurred daily and according to a schedule. NCBL also heard the story of one of many survivors who was arrested for a very minor offense and placed in a maximum-security penitentiary and held there for months amidst violent criminals without ever appearing before a judge.

Yet another survivor claimed that he was pepper sprayed and beaten Rodney King style by several New Orleans police officers because he dared to inquire politely whether an officer knew when evacuation buses would arrive. NCBL heard several separate accounts of survivors who allege that they attempted to cross bridges from New Orleans into neighboring parishes, and who encountered police in formation with upraised rifles. The police allegedly shouted racial epithets and profanity as they ordered survivors to retreat.

Perhaps the most alarming allegations concerned several cold-blooded murders that were carried out by National Guard troops. These allegations included: a point-blank gangland style execution by a superior officer; the shooting of a deranged survivor by a Guardsman in a passing vehicle; and the seizure of an irate survivor who was taken to flying altitude in a military helicopter and then dropped overboard to her death.

NCBL believes that, at minimum, these allegations should be investigated by independent authorities who are capable of obtaining internal government documents and official information that might provide the basis for prosecutions that can land government criminals in jail. The ICC prosecutor generally has that capacity, but the Bush regime has effectively insulated itself from prosecution by rejecting ICC jurisdiction. There is however a new opportunity to overcome Bush recalcitrance during the ongoing race for the presidency. NCBL is calling for a people’s campaign - not to elect a particular candidate - but to obtain commitments from all candidates that if elected, they will re-sign the Rome Statute, and lead the effort to bring the U.S. under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

As a first and significant step in this campaign, NCBL has joined with the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund, the Mississippi Disaster Relief Coalition, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, the U.S. Human Rights Network, and many others to conduct an International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in New Orleans from August 29 through September 2. (For details visit www.internationaltribunal.org) At the tribunal NCBL will make the case for ICC jurisdiction while others will present testimony and evidence of the most serious international criminal and human rights violations. (See NCBL’s memorandum on government crimes at www.ncbl.org)

Never again must government officials be allowed the perception that they can flagrantly ignore the most fundamental human rights and commit crimes against humanity. For its own sake, the United States needs to protect itself from tyranny by submitting to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. NCBL calls upon all people of good will to demand that presidential candidates commit to re-signing the Rome Statute, and leading the effort to bring the U.S. under ICC jurisdiction.

Mark P. Fancher chairs the International Affairs Section of the National Conference of Black Lawyers and is a contributing editor of BlackAgendaReport.com

[TOP]

Korea International War Crimes Tribunal, June 2001

U.S. Guilty of Crimes Against the Korean People

On June 23, 2001, the Korea International War Crimes Tribunal in New York City found the United States government guilty on 19 counts of War Crimes, Crimes Against Peace, and Crimes Against Humanity for its actions in Korea from 1945 to the present. Under the banner “Korea is One,” over 600 people from all over the world participated in the Tribunal that was organized by the Korea Truth Commission, the International Action Center and Veterans for Peace. The Tribunal marked a culmination of 14 months of work by KTC, which points out that it is part of a greater historical process by the Korean people struggling to reunify their nation and exercise their long-denied right to self-determination.

The indictment against the U.S. government and its leaders was brought by six prosecutors from the U.S. and Korea led by Ramsey Clark, a former U.S. Attorney-General, and Byun Jung Soo, a former Korea Supreme Court Justice. Sitting in judgment was a panel of jurists from 19 countries, including those whose governments participated with the U.S. in its aggressive war against Korea in 1950. Large delegations from Japan, Europe and the U.S. participated. A 60-strong delegation organized by the People’s Front represented Canada.

The proceedings were marked by the spirit of struggle of the Korean people who have continued their fight with fierce determination in the face of the most brutal and genocidal actions of the U.S. government. Despite the interference of the U.S. state which blocked the entire delegation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and many from the south of Korea from entering the U.S., moving testimony was given in person and by video. In particular, the testimony of survivors of U.S. atrocities crystallized for participants both the fighting spirit of the Korean people and the significance of the work of the KTC to reveal the truth of the last 55 years.

On June 24, participants in the Tribunal presented the Final Judgment to the United Nations in a militant rally of several hundred people. A caravan then left for Baltimore for an evening rally. Today, on the occasion of the 51st anniversary of the start of the U.S. aggression in Korea in 1950, the caravan arrives in Washington, D.C. to deliver the verdict and a petition of a million signatures to the U.S. Congress. A march on the White House will follow to demand the U.S. government take full responsibility for its past and continuing crimes against the Korean people and end its occupation of the Korean peninsula.

[TOP]

Final Judgement of the Korea International War Crimes Tribunal, New York City - June 23, 2001

The Members of the Korea International War Crimes Tribunal, meeting in New York, having considered the Indictment for Offenses Committed by the Government of the United States of America Against the People of Korea, 1945-2001, which charges all U.S. Presidents, all Secretaries of State, all Secretaries of Defense, all Secretaries of the armed services, all Chiefs of Staff, all heads of the Central Intelligence Agency and other U.S. foreign intelligence agencies, all Directors of the National Security Agency, all National Security Advisors, all U.S. military commanders in Korea and commanders of units which participated in war crimes, over the period from 1945 to the present, with nineteen separate War Crimes, Crimes Against Peace and Crimes Against Humanity in violation of the Charter of the United Nations, the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal, the Hague Regulations of 1907, the Geneva Protocol of 1925, the 1929 and 1949 Geneva Conventions, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948, other international agreements and customary international law, the laws of the United States, the laws of Korea and the laws of other nations that have been forced to provide bases, support and military personnel for United States actions against Korea;

• having the right and obligation as citizens of the world to sit in judgment regarding violations of international humanitarian law;

• having heard the testimony from various hearings of the Korea Truth Commission held over the past year and having received evidence from various other Commission hearings which recite the evidence there gathered;

• having been provided with documentary evidence, eyewitness testimonies, photos, videotapes, special reports, expert analyses and summaries of evidence available to the Korea Truth Commission;

• having access to all evidence, knowledge and expert opinion in the Commission files or available to the Commission staff;

• having considered the Report from the Korean Truth Commission (South) on U.S. War Crimes During the Korean War, providing eyewitness accounts by survivors of massacres of civilians in farming villages in southern Korea by U.S. military forces during the 1950-53 war;

• having considered the Report from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on U.S. War Crimes During the Korean War, prepared by the Investigation Committee of the National Front for Democratic Reunification, providing details on war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the north by the U.S. from June to December 1950;

• having been provided by the Commission, or otherwise obtained, various books, articles and other written materials on various aspects of events and conditions in Korea, and in the military and arms establishments;

• having heard the presentations of the Korea Truth Commission in public hearing on June 23, 2001, and the testimony, evidence and summaries there presented;

• having considered the testimonies of those Koreans denied visas to personally attend the hearings by the governments of the U.S. and the Republic of Korea (ROK), but presented in the form of videotaped interviews and documents;

• having been informed that the Korea Truth Commission gave ample opportunity to U.S. government defendants to attend and present evidence in their defense, which up to the moment of this verdict they have been unable or unwilling to do;

• and having met, considered and deliberated with each other and with Commission staff and having considered all the evidence that is relevant to the nineteen charges of criminal conduct alleged in the Initial Complaint, make the following findings:

Findings:

The Members of the International War Crimes Tribunal find the accused Guilty on the basis of the evidence against them: each of the nineteen separate crimes alleged in the Initial Complaint has been established to have been committed beyond a reasonable doubt. The Members find these crimes to have occurred during three main periods in the U.S. intervention in and occupation of Korea.

1. The best-known period is from June 25, 1950, until July 27, 1953, the “Korean War,” when over 4.6 million Koreans perished, according to conservative Western estimates, including 3 million civilians in the north and 500,000 civilians in the south. The evidence of U.S. war crimes presented to this Tribunal included eyewitness testimony and documentary accounts of massacres of thousands of civilians in southern Korea by U.S. military forces during the war. Abundant evidence was also presented concerning criminal and even genocidal U.S. conduct in northern Korea, including the systematic leveling of most buildings and dwellings by U.S. artillery and aerial bombardment; widespread atrocities committed by U.S. and R.O.K. forces against civilians and prisoners of war; the deliberate destruction of facilities essential to civilian life and economic production; and the use of illegal weapons and biological and chemical warfare by the U.S. against the people and the environment of northern Korea. Documentary and eyewitness evidence was also presented showing gross and systematic violence committed against women in northern and southern Korea, characterized by mass rapes, sexual assaults and murders.

2. Less known but of crucial importance in understanding the war period is the preceding five years, from the landing of U.S. troops in Korea on September 8, 1945, to the outbreak of the war. The Members of the Tribunal examined extensive evidence of U.S. crimes against peace and crimes against humanity in this period. The Members conclude that the U.S. government acted to divide Korea against the will of the vast majority of the people, limit its sovereignty, create a police state in southern Korea using many former collaborators with Japanese rule, and provoke tension and threats between southern and northern Korea, opposing and disrupting any plans for peaceful reunification. In this period the U.S. trained, directed and supported the ROK in systematic murder, imprisonment, torture, surveillance, harassment and violations of human rights of hundreds of thousands of people, especially of those individuals or groups considered nationalists, leftists, peasants seeking land reform, union organizers and/or those sympathetic to the north.

3. The Members find that in the period from July 1953 to the present, the U.S. has continued to maintain a powerful military force in southern Korea, backed by nuclear weapons, in violation of international law and intended to obstruct the will of the Korean people for reunification. Military occupation has been accompanied by the organized sexual exploitation of Korean women, frequently leading to violence and even murder of women by U.S. soldiers who have felt above the law. U.S.-imposed economic sanctions have impoverished and debilitated the people of northern Korea, leading to a reduction of life expectancy, widespread malnutrition and even starvation in a country that once exported food. The refusal of the U.S. government to grant visas to a delegation from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who planned to attend this Tribunal only confirms the criminal intent of the defendants to isolate those whom they have abused to prevent them from telling their story to the world.

In all these 55 years, the U.S. government has systematically manipulated, controlled, directed, misinformed and restricted press and media coverage to obtain consistent support for its military intervention, occupation and crimes against the people of Korea. It has also inculcated racist attitudes within the U.S. troops and general population that prepared them to commit and/or accept atrocities and genocidal policies against the Korean people.

It has violated the Constitution of the United States, the delegation of powers over war and the military, the Bill of Rights, the UN Charter, international law and the laws of the ROK, DPRK, People’s Republic of China, Japan and many others, in its lawless determination to exercise its will over the Korean peninsula.

The Members of the Korea International War Crimes Tribunal hold the United States government and its leaders accountable for these criminal acts and condemn those found guilty in the strongest possible terms.

Recommendations:

The Members call for the immediate end of U.S. occupation of all Korean territory, the removal of all U.S. bases, forces and materiel, including land mines, from the region, the rectification of environmental damage, and the cessation of overt and covert operations against northern Korea.

The Members urge the immediate revocation of all embargoes, sanctions and penalties against northern Korea because they constitute a continuing crime against humanity.

The Members call for emergency funds to be provided to the people of northern Korea through the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to feed the hungry and care for the sick, whose suffering is a direct result of U.S. policies.

The Members call for reparations to be paid by the U.S. government to all of Korea to compensate for the damage inflicted by 55 years of violence and economic warfare.

The Members further call for an immediate end to all interference by the U.S. aimed at preventing the people of Korea from reunifying as they choose.

The Members call for the U.S. government to make full disclosure of all information about U.S. crimes and wrongful acts committed in Korea since September 7, 1945.

The Members urge the Commission to provide for the permanent preservation of the reports, evidence and materials gathered to make them available to others, and to seek ways to provide the widest possible distribution of the truth about U.S. crimes in Korea.

We urge all people of the world to act on recommendations developed by the Commission to hold power accountable and to secure social justice on which lasting peace must be based.

Done in New York this 23rd day of June, 2001

[TOP]

Korean War Letter Reveals Pentagon Policy of Shooting and Killing Unarmed Korean Civilians

Korea Truth Commission Joint Office and U.S. Chapter

A letter written fifty-six years ago was recently unearthed by a Harvard historian and is getting a lot of attention. U.S. Ambassador to Seoul during the Korean War, John J. Muccio wrote the letter to U.S. Undersecretary of State, Dean Rusk. It clearly spells out the secret policy the U.S. military had of shooting Korean refugees. It is not the only evidence, but it is unambiguous and from the highest level, and because of that, very important.

On July 26, 1950, the same day that Muccio wrote the letter, U.S. troops and airplanes began a four-day massacre at the village of No gun-ri. Some 400 Korean peasants were machine gunned to death and strafed from airplanes as they desperately tried to protect themselves. Babies and old people were among its tragic victims. This was only one of many massacres of Korean civilians by U.S. troops. Some 3.5 million Korean civilians died in three years. There are survivors, witnesses and evidence of more than 135 massacres by U.S. troops similar to No gun-ri.

An international delegation organized by the Korea Truth Commission (KTC) visited south Korea in August of 2000 as part of their ongoing investigation of U.S. war crimes during the war. The Chair of the U.S. Chapter of KTC, HwaYoung Lee was one of the investigators. Lee was told by No gun-ri survivors that a U.S. military orientation that had been disseminated to refugees included instructions to wear white clothing and to make their way to railroads, where they would be led to safety by soldiers.

In Korea at that time, it was traditional for peasants to wear white clothing. A large group of them had followed the instructions very carefully on that day and made their way to a railroad track at No gun-ri. They saw a U.S. military plane circle overhead and then leave the area. When it returned the attack began. Airplanes strafed them and ground troops opened fire repeatedly as women and children sought safety under a railroad viaduct. Many were shot to death in the numerous attacks that followed. Some of the young men tried to flee into the surrounding mountains and were chased down and killed by ground troops.

Activist Brian Willson was also part of the KTC delegation. Based on his experience on the trip, Willson writes about the Korean War in an article “When Will the United States Apologize for its War Crimes” on his website (http://www.brianwillson.com/awolkoreacl.html)

In the article, a chilling reference stands out; “The New York Times (Dec. 29, 1999) reported from declassified U.S. Air Force documents the “deliberate” strafings and bombings of Korean “civilians” and “people in white.” Apparently, the U.S. military assured civilians that wearing white would help get them to safety, and then used it as a way to identify them and attack them as enemies.

The story of No gun-ri is only known so well because the persistence of its survivors resulted in a Pulitzer Prize winning Associated Press series. Until then, the south Korean government persecuted, threatened, red baited, and even jailed people who tried to tell what the U.S. military had done to them. When the AP series caused a stir, the Pentagon was finally forced to “investigate.” Predictably, in 2001 their investigative commission concluded that hundreds were in fact killed at No gun-ri, but denied any orders from above. There was no official apology. No mention of any other U.S. attacks on civilians. They blamed jittery troops — the same thing they said about the massacre of hundreds at My Lai, Vietnam, and the same thing they are saying now in response to the growing anger over Haditha, Iraq.

They omitted the information from all of the declassified documents that is now available to anyone through a quick browser search. Letters between U.S. officers, operations reports, and military logs, spell it all out. “All Koreans moving south to be treated as enemy” says one military communiqué generated in the early days of the war. Another from April 1951, incredibly, expresses concern that the policy of shooting southward bound civilians has gone on so long that troops are growing “hesitant” to carry it out. All of that information was left out of the Pentagon’s 2001 report.

The Muccio letter shows that the massacres of civilians were ordered by the Pentagon, not the result of troops cracking under the pressure of war. Targeting civilians is a war crime. But shooting refugees was secretly Pentagon policy during the Korean War. They concealed it in the decades since, and continued attacking and killing civilians in Vietnam, in Grenada, Panama, and Yugoslavia and are doing so today in Iraq and Afghanistan, because an imperialist army of occupation inevitably tries to defeat the resistance by attacking the population. The lies and cover-up are already in motion in relation to the massacre at Haditha.

The goal of the anti-war movement has to be unequivocal. End the war and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq! At the same time, the movement has to support the cause of justice for victims of U.S. troop attacks on the Korean people.

The KTC demands a comprehensive investigation of the numerous massacres of Korean civilians, a formal admission and apology from the U.S. government to the Korean people, and full reparations to the victims and their family members!

U.S. Troops and Weapons Out of Korea!

End Occupation Now!

[TOP]

Reparations for U.S. War Crimes in Korea

Criminal U.S. Germ and Chemical Warfare

June 25 is the day when the U.S. imperialists launched its war of aggression against Korea. Though half a century has passed, the U.S. refuses to apologize and pay reparations for its brutal crimes of biochemical warfare against the peaceable inhabitants and cities of Korea, in gross violation of international law. The Korean War itself (June 25, 1950-July 27, 1953) was a crime of aggression, launched on the pretext of a “threat” from the Koreans, much like the current war against Iraq.

In autumn of 1950, the U.S. Headquarters of the Joint Chiefs of Staff developed a plan to extensively use chemical and biological weapons. The U.S. imperialists used more than 20 kinds of germ weapons during the war. They especially targeted the northern half of Korea for germ and chemical warfare. According to the plan, the U.S. used germ weapons against civilians and cities. In the period from January to April 1952, they dropped various kinds of germ bombs in 169 areas in the northern half of Korea, 804 times. They also used various goods contaminated with poisonous insects and bacteria in more than 90 cities and counties, more than 900 times.

The U.S. also conducted human experiments using bacteria on people on their warships not far off Wonsan. In 1951 they did more than 3,000 experiments on Koreans using these germ weapons. Another U.S. crime was use of chemical weapons, a weapon of mass destruction. From February 1951 to July 1953 many chemical weapons were used in 24 cities and counties of the northern half of Korea including Kangwon and Hwanghae provinces and on battlefields. In particular, the U.S. released more than 15 million napalm bombs on military positions on the front and peaceful cities and farming and fishing villages in the rear.

The U.S. perpetrated massive bio-chemical warfare unprecedented in the history of war at that time, and still they could not defeat the Korean people. In addition to their illegal and brutal chemical and biological warfare, the U.S. dropped more than 428,000 bombs to raze factories, enterprises, educational, cultural and health institutions and houses in Pyongyang. The city was virtually razed to the ground.

In the beginning of the war alone 22,600 civilians in 11 cities and counties including Suwon and Chungju, were slaughtered. When U.S. troops landed in Inchon on September 16, 1950, they massacred some 1,300 citizens. For three days from September 28, they arrested at least 75,000 patriots and civilians, then killed more than 38,800 of them. The U.S. imperialists slaughtered more than a million civilians from the summer of 1950 to the summer of 1951. For 50-odd days occupying Sinchon County in the northern half of Korea (October 1950), the U.S. mercilessly massacred some 35,000 people, one fourth of its population.

Despite its illegal and aggressive war, massive bombings, brutal massacres and chemical and biological warfare, it is the Korean people who prevailed at that time and now today. It is the U.S., then and now, that is threatening war and must be opposed and called to account for all its war crimes in Korea today, as in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and elsewhere.

[TOP]

Pyongtech Farmers Resist U.S. Military Base

Below are excerpts from an interview with the Reverend Kyu Hyun Mun, chairperson of the Solidarity for Peace and Reunification organization in South Korea, translated by the Korea Truth Commission. Rev. Mun is involved in the struggle of farmers in Pyongtech, south Korea, against the expansion of U.S. military bases on their land.

The Pyongtech farmers’ claim is this: They are willing to give up the farming land they have cultivated for generations if it is in the national interest. But if it is for U.S. aggression, the farmers are adamant not to give up their land. The farmers deeply believe their struggle is not just their own, but a step toward world peace and justice, a struggle for a better livelihood for all.

These are farmers who have historically suffered at the hands of foreign interests. First the Japanese military came and forcibly took their land away from them. Then in 1945, the United States occupied Pyongtech at the end of World War II, made the Japanese military bases their own, and expanded them, taking even more land from the Pyongtech farmers.

The farmers had to move to new land, prime that land for agriculture and cultivate it, without government compensation or subsidies. They did this by themselves with their own hands.

The farmers believe that the cultivating of food is the -cultivating of life, and their own contribution to world peace. The Chinese character for “peace” depicts rice entering the mouth. The land now being forcibly taken from them — almost 320 acres, a huge amount of land — can produce six months’ worth of rice for all of Pyongtech’s 360,000 citizens.

They are amazed at the current situation — the south Korean government, at the behest of the United States, forcibly taking land from them. Recently, the head of the farmers’ committee was arrested. My older brother is now on a hunger strike outside Cheong Wa Dae, the office of the president.

The farmers believe the Pyongtech struggle is one for democracy, peace, justice and human rights. And we believe that the Pyongtech farmers will prevail soon. They have one demand: renegotiation between south Korea and the United States and the south Korean farmers. The south Korean government made a deal with the United States without the consultation of the farmers. The hope is that through negotiations the United States will give up on turning Pyongtech into another U.S. rapid-deployment site.

We appeal for your solidarity, which will strengthen our determination to struggle for justice and peace. We extend our deepest solidarity and gratitude to those of you who have been involved in the Korean struggle all these years.

[TOP]

International Tribunal on Katrina & Rita