NOVANEWS
In response to the irresponsible, hypocritical and reactionary behaviour of the
Birmingham Amnesty International group and their plans to push war propaganda on the streets of Birmingham, local comrades from Red Youth, CPGB-ML, AIWAA, IWA(GB) and others prepare a counter-demonstration on 12 April in Birmingham. It is the firm conviction of these comrades and other anti-imperialists that we cannot allow what happened in Libya to be repeated in Syria. It is also their firm conviction that if Stop the War Coalition is incapable of opposing this warmongering then it is up to communists and revolutionaries to get on with the task alone.
The following Statement is communicated to the Amnesty dupes:
“We have no doubt that Amnesty International contains a number of well-meaning supporters, people with genuine compassion. It is from this belief that we are outraged by the continual stream of lies, hypocrisy and war-propaganda that emanates from Amnesty International, hoodwinking its members, volunteers and the general public into supporting acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing and regime change.
It was precisely the above which was the outcome, indirectly and not so indirectly, of the position adopted by Amnesty International in regards to the war against Libya. Amnesty seems very quick to make claims of rights abuses when it serves the interests of imperialism, echoing the lies and misinformation. And yet never so quick to learn the awful lessons that echoing such lies leads to the real atrocities committed by imperialist forces.
Having made a host of inflammatory and ultimately false statements in the French media of the use by Colonel Gaddafi of ‘mercenaries’ during last year’s predatory war of aggression, Amnesty International President Genevieve Garrigos was forced to admit five months later that there had been no evidence to support any of her claims.
An investigation by Donatella Rivera exposed Garrigos who had peddled inaccurate information and lies. Garrigos eventually admitted in an interview: “Donatella was right to verify if we actually found mercenaries. And we didn’t.”
As a result of her spurious information, lies and falsifica-tion, Garrigos helped stoke the fires of war. She helped to cause the unnecessary suffering and death of tens of thousands of Libyans including an untold numbers of black Libyans. It is now widely known and reported by UN Human Rights Watch that the Libyan ‘rebels’ whom Amnesty was so quick to champion were in fact the ones committing ethnic cleansing of black Libyans in Tawergha and beyond.
It is therefore out of a genuine concern for those honest supporters and champions of human rights who may re-side inside Amnesty that we protest against the ongoing use of slander, innuendo, half-truths, untruths, rumour and damned falsification presented to the world as fact.
It is with this knowledge and with a real love for freedom, democracy and liberty that we call on these protesters to correct their position on the question of Syria and oppose today’s dirty war propaganda which emanates from the Birmingham group of Amnesty.
Amnesty calls for ‘defiance’
A leaflet advertising the demonstration of 12 April 2012 and seemingly produced by Amnesty International’s Bir-mingham group, calls for people to “Stand in solidarity – in defiance”. This piece of war propaganda claims that there has been five decades of human rights abuses, that there has been a 14-month ‘brutal crackdown’ and that hundreds have been mistreated and tortured. You would be forgiven for thinking that these scoundrels were about to expose Saudi Arabia, Bahrain or another of the Gulf dictatorships – but no, the target is Syria! The intention of the leaflet is to create the impression that there exists in Syria a most despotic and cruel regime, a regime which tortures, punishes and imprisons hundreds, nay thousands of its own citizens including children. There is no rationale, no explanation and no evidence other than Amnesty’s usual hodge-podge of bluster and rumour.
Whilst Amnesty claims that there have been five decades of repression in Syria – the truth is rather different. The Syrian people enjoy a standard of living envied by many in the Middle East. Her long-standing commitment to secularism has ensured a relatively peaceful and pros-perous half-century for the people of Syria who come from many different nationalities, cultures and religions. If Syria has failed to provide the scope of liberties which President Assad has gone a long way to addressing this past year, it has been because Syria has existed in a state of siege, constantly under threat from its aggressive, genocidal neighbour Israel. Despite interference in Syrian affairs, despite constant provocation and threats, Syria has continued to provide support to the Palestinian people in defiance of the United States and the Zionist entity. What other country in the Middle East provided safety and refuge to millions of families who fled Iraq during the last Iraq War? What other country has done so much to assist the Palestinian struggle for national liberation? Who else has provided a home to so many of the victims of Zionism and imperialism in the Middle East?
Since the outbreak of the imperialist supported violence last year, regular demonstrations have been held across Syria with tens of thousands of people from all sections of the diverse society showing their support for the president and Syrian government not the ‘Free Syria Army’. It is with this in mind that we must ask ourselves what role Amnesty is playing in calling demonstrations which imply tacit sup-port for the gang of terrorist mercenaries calling them-selves the ‘Free Syrian Amy’. Not least as the FSA are assembled, supplied, supported and sheltered by such standard bearers of freedom and democracy as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel, the United States and Turkey.
Once again Amnesty International is doing the dirty work of imperialism, it is providing whatever pretext can be found for the overthrow of a legitimate government, a legitimate President, and the murder, torture and butchery of soldiers who comprise the regular standing army of the Syrian Republic.
Who are Amnesty to assist the imperialists in interfering, in complete violation of International Law, with the internal business of a sovereign state?
Whilst Israel pushes ahead with its policy of ethnic clean-sing of Palestinians, Amnesty turns a blind eye and (in Birmingham at least) organises no protest. Whilst Israel is gripped by the heroic struggle of Palestinian hunger-strikers and freedom fighters, Amnesty has chosen this moment to talk about Syrian prisoners.
Whilst Saudi troops commit acts of unparalleled ferocity and brutality in Bahrain, Amnesty Birmingham wants us to ‘push for an end to the bloodshed in Syria’! Whilst black Libyans are butchered every day by racist, terroristic ‘rebels’ as a direct result of the horrendous and catastrophic war waged for ‘humanitarian assistance’ and delivered by the F16s, stealth bombers and tomahawk missiles of the imperialist armies, Amnesty International wants to provide a pretext for further carnage in Syria! The truth about Syria is that it is a thorn in the side of imperialism in the Middle East. Its long standing com-mitment to independence and national sovereignty has incurred the wrath of the United States who long ago marked Syria out as a part of the ‘axis of evil’.
If we were foolish enough to be duped into supporting Amnesty and those who provide support for imperialist schemes then we will be witness to the same horror in Syria that has befallen Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Imperialism and its agents do not deliver democracy, liberty, human rights or stable government. Imperialism seeks domination!
Learn the lessons of history
In campaigning for a return to the Russian presidency, out-going Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that Moscow would not allow a replay of the events in Libya: “Learning from that bitter experience, we are against any UN Security Council resolutions that could be interpreted as a signal for military interference in domestic processes in Syria.”
In seeking to overthrow the patriotic and progressive re-gime in Damascus, imperialism also seeks to deliver a knockout blow to Hezbollah, thereby strengthening Israel. Above all, in seeking to destroy its most significant regional military ally, the attack on Syria is a vital stepping stone to yet another war of aggression, this time against Iran, beyond which lies the global conflagration that con-frontation with China and Russia would entail.
We must not fall for the war-propaganda used to ‘justify’ imperialist aggression and certainly should take no part in spreading these lies and falsifications.
In a very real sense, Syria today stands in the same place, as did the Spanish Republic in 1936. British workers and progressive people need to stand in their place, demanding: Hands off Syria! Victory to Assad!
Birmingham, 12 April 2012″
Other good sources of information on Syria here:
