|
APA Newsbriefs
ASIAN PEACE ALLIANCE (occasional newsletter)
Issue No. 01-2003:
1.
APA Joins Anti-Iraq War Actions
2.
Reports from the Ground
-
Tokyo,
Japan
-
Japan
-
Korea
-
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
-
Indonesia
-
Lahore,
Pakistan
3. Solidarity
Statements
-
Message of
Support to Anti-War Protest and Solidarity to Iraqi People (from the APA
Secretariat)
-
Solidarity Greetings
(from the People's Democratic Party, Indonesia)
-
Solidarity Message
against War on Iraq and for Peace (from Women Making Peace, and other
Korean groups)
APA JOINS ANTI-IRAQ WAR ACTIONS
In middle
of January this year, hundreds of thousands of peace-loving people around
the world filled the streets, plazas, concert halls and other public places
with sounds and images of protest against the impending invasion of Iraq by
the United States and Britain. Outside the US, the voice of peace echoed
loudest in Asia, with APA members taking lead roles in organising anti-Iraq
war mobilisations in key cities in the region. The Pakistan Peace
Coalition, APA-Japan (in particular, the Peopleâ?Ts Security Forum, People's
Plan Study Group, and Peace Link Hiroshima Kure and Iwakuni), Peopleâ?Ts
Democratic Party (Indonesia), Women Making Peace (Korea), Peace Camp
(Philippines), Forum Asia (Thailand), Asian Regional Exchange for New
Alternatives (Hong Kong) and Committee for Peace Not War (Hong Kong) were
among the APA members at the forefront of anti-Iraq war actions this month.
In Japan,
APA-Japan participated in organising simultaneous peace actions in at least
23 cities on January 18, with around 8,000 gathering in Tokyo alone. Protest
actions were held in the cities of Sapporo, Otaru, Omiya, Kofu, Nagano,
Toyama, Kanazawa, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Shjizuoka, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe,
Hiroshima, Tokushima, Kumamoto, Okinawa, Wakayama, Tottori, Matsue, Fukuoka
and Nagasaki in the form of rallies, public lectures, hunger strikes,
anti-war concerts and marches to US consulates.
In
Hiroshima, Peace Link--Hiroshima, Kure and Iwakuni joined the Hiroshima
Committee to Oppose the US War against Iraq and Japanese Emergency Law,
which mobilised thousands of people in a two-hour demonstration at the
Hiroshima Shirokita Park. The rally was aimed to express solidarity with
anti-war movements in the US and all over the world. In Pakistan, the
Pakistan Peace Coalition joined forces with anti-war networks, launching
demonstrations against the war on Iraq as early as January 9. On January 18,
the Anti- War Committee, formed on December 23, 2002 by several political
and social organisations, organised a huge mobilisation in front of the US
consulate in Lahore. In Rawalpindi, a coalition of peace and civil society
organisations mounted on January 18 a large demonstration in the form of a
seven-kilometre human chain, with schoolchildren displaying their self-made
peace posters.
In Korea,
Women Making Peace joined the Pan National Committee for Two Girls Killed by
US Military Vehicle and the Korean Action Network Against War, which
organised a rally against the war on Iraq and a candlelight vigil for the
two girls on January 18.
In the
Philippines, Peace Camp, a coalition of organisations and networks working
on peace and justice issues in the country, staged an anti-Iraq war rally in
front of the US embassy on January 17.
In Hong
Kong, ARENA and the Committee for Peace Not War joined local NGOs and
regional organisations based in Hong Kong in leading a march towards the
offices of the US and British Consulate General on January 18. The
mobilisation, which started at 3:00 PM from the Chater Garden in Central,
carried in slogans, placards and streamers the appeal "No War in Iraq!"
In
Thailand, Forum Asia organised a public discussion on the war on Iraq at the
parliament on January 24. Together with other organisations, Forum Asia set
up the United Front for Peace of Thailand, which will organise public events
leading up to the International Day of Protest on February 15.
REPORTS FROM THE GROUND
Tokyo, Japan (on-the-scene report)
By Kimiko Ogasawara
People's Security Forum
01/18/2003
We are now
at this moment gathering for a peace rally named WORLD PEACE NOW, at Hibiya
Park in Tokyo. We have just returned from a peace march where we walked,
starting from this park, around Ginza with many young people, including
Peace Boat, Chance, trade unions, citizens' groups, religious people
including Buddhists and Christians, and NGOs. Okinawans, Korean residents in
Japan, and foreign residents are here wishing for peace. We walked with
photographs of Iraqi children and mothers, singing a new peace song, and
Buddhists, walked with drums. Just now, messages from ANSWER and APA
and was introduced, with reference to the movements in Pakistan, Korea and
so on. Some people just came back from visiting Iraq, and reported the
situation there. Among them, young nursery school teacher, high school
students, a high school teacher who was recently forced to resign his school
because of his will to visit Iraq again to become a human shield.
Young
musicians held a peace concert this afternoon here, which began by ringing
the Bell of Hiroshima Peace Cathedral for three minutes.
From
January 13 to 21, seven Okinawans will be visiting Iraq.
Japan
By Muto Ichiyo
Peopleâ?Ts Plan Study Group
01/19/2003
The World
Peace Now action in Tokyo on January 18 had a turnout of approximately
8,000, the largest on the issue of the Iraq war. We started from the Hibiya
Park outdoor amphitheatre for a march through Ginza and came back to the
same place for the rally. When those at the front of the column arrived at
the park from Ginza, those at the end of the column were still about to
leave the park.
The action
was held by a coalition of 32 groups and networks, with APA-Japan among
them. Long-time movement groups, new groups of the young, NGOs,
environment groups, and others with different histories and background
collaborated.
The 118
action was held as part of the international anti-Iraq war campaign, which
was carried out on the same day in 25 different countries. In Japan action
was held in 23 places all over the country. (Sapporo, Otaru, Omiya, Kofu,
Nagano, Toyama, Kanazawa, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Shjizuoka, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka,
Kobe, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tokushima, Kumamoto, Okinawa, Wakayama, Tottori,
Matsue, Fukuoka).
This can
well be the beginning of a new peace action in Japan open to civil society.
It was impressive that so many small groups (hundreds) and organizations,
whose main concerns were not peace, each with its own voices and
expressions, voluntarily participated in the spirit of working together. It
was not another "mobilization" but spontaneous self-mobilization. The
planning and organizing were done largely by the young generation, which is
something new on the Japanese movement scene. The whole action was colorful,
cultural, and sonorous, drums of all kinds -- Okinawan, Korean, Japanese,
jazz, and Nichiren Buddhist drums effectively used to heighten the spirits.
Kina Shokichi, a very popular Okinawa musician, closed the Hibiya rally with
his peace songs.
In Okinawa,
Ms. Taira Etsumi, Kuwae Teruko and two others are on 9-day hunger strike in
front of the US consulate in Naha opposing US war against Iraq. Earlier, on
January 13, the Okinawa peace liaison council sent a seven-member peace
mission to Iraq. Etsumi is the mother of Taira Natsume who heads the
mission. The hunger strikers are drawing many people supporting them,
turning the space a continuing protest meeting. Around 300 citizens have
partially participated in the hunger strike. (Ms. Kuwae in December visited
Seoul as part of the APA delegation to convey a solidarity message to the
big Korean candle march protesting against the acquittal of US soldiers who
had killed two Korean girls).
On January
18, about a hundred Okinawa peace activists went to the US Kaneda airfield
to protest. Japanese police and US soldiers came to protect the gate, and
protesters chanted "No war on Iraq" messages to GIs beyond the fence. I
talked with Ms. Takazato Suzuyo over the phone just now, and she said that
GIs coming out through the gate were listening, some showing support. On the
base fence a large streamer reading "Don't kill Iraqis" was put up.
The Asahi
Shimbun this morning (January 19) covered the Tokyo event favorably, placing
a photo on the front page and printing a long report on an inside page. The
Asahi article reported the activities of peace groups in Yokosuka, a major
US naval base near Tokyo, to collect signatures in the street for an
anti-Iraq war statement. Of the 1,000 signatures, 30 were by US navy crew
and their family members. A crewman on the USS Blueridge, the flag
ship of the 7th fleet, according to the report, told the peace group that of
the 1,100 crew of the ship, 300 were against the planned US attacks on Iraq.
A crewman on the aircraft carrier Kittyhawk told the Asahi that he had
to obey the order but he did not want to kill human beings.
Korea
By Gyung-Lan Jung
Women Making Peace
01/20/2003
On 18
January, over 400 people attended the candle lights vigil organized by the
Pan National Committee for Two Girls Killed by US Military Vehicle.
The vigil
started with the Candle Dance for Peace and Against War and continued with
poems, songs and speeches. Solidarity messages from Asian Peace Alliance and
East Asia-Puerto Rico-US Women's Network Against Militarism were read to the
participants at the rally. The vigil was a cultural event against war and
for revising the US and ROK Status of Forces Agreement.
Later,
conservative Christians organized two big rallies against the withdrawal of
the United States Forces Korea from Korea and against the North Korea
nuclear development program. The rally gathered around 30,000 participants.
On January
25, there will be another big candlelight vigil for revising SOFA and
against war and for peace in Seoul.
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
By Abdul Hameed Nayyar
Pakistan Peace Coalition
01/27/2003
Rawalpindi,
the twin town of Islamabad, saw the largest protest in Pakistan. On
the 18th of January, a 7-kilometer long human chain was formed for two hours
on the main road of Rawalpindi by over 3,000 people at the call of a new
coalition of some two dozen organisations formed for protests against the US
policies. In the chain were industrial workers, traders, lawyers, school,
college and university students and teachers, shanty town dwellers,
political workers, members of NGOs, and others. The banners and
placards described how the real causes of the impending war on Iraq were oil
and Israel, that it was a war meant to consolidate imperialism, and that the
Muslims need to combat the US imperialism by joining hands with the rest of
the world and not by taking it as a war of religions. Tens of thousands of
leaflets were distributed. Among the participants were about a
thousand school children in their uniforms who were brought out by their
teachers and principals. The children had brought their own posters that
they had made in a city-wide competition on peace posters held a couple of
days earlier by the protest organisers.
Two
interactive street theatre groups gave a number of performances, devised on
the politics of hegemony and wars of resources, on street corners and seen
by thousands of passers-by. One youth music group rode a truck along the
length of the chain singing peace songs. The protesters were of
different hues and colours. While at one place Christian missionaries were
imploring Jesus Christ to help stop this madness, at another Shiite clergy
were cursing the great Satan that the USA is, and at yet another place a
communist group was waving red flags and asking workers of the world to rise
against capitalism as embodied by the US.
After the
protest was over, a child protester of class six asked in all innocence,
"The war will not break out now, will it? The coalition now intends to take
the protest further, with plans to launch a move to strike at the US
corporate interests by boycotting Macdonald's and KFC franchises and Coca
Cola and Pepsi Cola. The medium of street theatre will be used for this
campaign.
Indonesia
By
Roysepta Abimanyu
Peopleâ?Ts Democratic Party
01/28/2003
The action
started with 100 people at 1:00 PM of January 22, under the banner of Front
Anti Imperialis (Anti Imperialist Front). The masses rallied to the US
Embassy as planned, but before they reached the premises, a 200-strong
police phalanx blocked the rally in front of Tugu Tani (the statues erected
as commemoration of the peasants guerrilla fightersâ?T contribution in the
independence revolution). Using the arguments that the action was not
reported to the police and therefore it broke the demonstration law of 1999,
the police forced the masses to withdraw their plan. First, the people
marched to Gedung Juang (the building where the radical youth who were the
vanguard of independence stayed back in 1944-1946) and made public speeches
there. After that, they marched to LBH building (legal aid NGO), and ended
their action there. The only media coverage was from SCTV, because the mass
arrests that took place in another protest action in front of President
Megawati residence in the same afternoon attracted the attention of the
media. Some participants of the anti-war action were also arrested. In
the morning before the action started, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Hasan
Wirayudha stressed that the issue on US invasion to Iraq would increase the
political turmoil in Indonesia. The Anti Imperialist Front now discussed the
possibility of another action on February 6, which is hoped to be more
successful than January 22 action.
Lahore, Pakistan
By Rizwan Atta
Pakistan Peace Coalition
01/31/2003
On January
18, more than 800 activists from different political parties and civil
society organizations gathered in front of Hotel Flatties in provincial
capital, Lahore, to participate in the protest rally against possible attack
on Iraqi people. The event was organized by Anti War Committee Pakistan,
which is formed by different progressive political parties, civil society
organizations and individual activists. Many organizations brought
their banners and play cards. The rally started at around 3:30 p.m. with a
large banner in front saying "Stop War on Iraq" and "Down with US
imperialismâ". The participants chanted slogans Stop War." "Bush,
killer of Iraqi people and "We want peace.
The rally
was planed to march up to US Consulate but a heavy contingent police forces
stopped the march just after it began. An intensive discussion took place
between the leaders of the rally and police but the march was not allowed to
go further except a few steps. Speakers addressed the rally, exposing the
lies of the Bush administration. They emphasized that there is no
justification to attack Iraq. A group of protesters managed to sneak to the
US Consulate and presented a memorandum to the consulate officials.
Some
organizations distributed pamphlets and handbills to create awareness among
the general public against the ill effects of war. On December 8,
around 150 people attended the seminar on "Possible US Attack: Dangers and
Consequences", which was organized in preparation for the January 18 rally
and to promote awareness on the issue. Daily protests were also held
at the Mall Road from December 9 to 17.
SOLIDARITY STATEMENTS
Message of Support to Anti-War Protests and Solidarity to Iraqi People
From the APA Secretariat
The Asian Peace Alliance greets your
organisation on this day of anti-war protest. We stand side by side with you
in extending our solidarity to the people of Iraq as they face another
crisis that promises to heighten their already unimaginable suffering.
For there is already a war on Iraq.
The
governments of the United States and Britain have consistently been waging a
war on its people since the end of the first Gulf War. Over the last 12
years, barbaric economic sanctions have claimed the lives of more than half
a million children, according to UNICEF. This means that 5,000 to 6,000
children are killed in Iraq every month, due to contaminated water, lack of
medicines and malnutrition: the direct result of American attacks against
water treatment plants, sewage treatment plants, electrical generating
plants, and communications centers during the Gulf War, and the subsequent
imposition of sanctions.
500,000 children. Every single one of them is a young life snuffed out
forever by easily preventable causes. It is a human tragedy on a scale few
of us can comprehend. How can we comprehend that the infant
mortality rate in Iraq rose by 100% between 1991 and 1995? That
chronic malnutrition in Iraqi children under 5 shot up by 72% in the 6 years
following the Gulf War? That Iraqis are now dying from diseases that
were once easily treated in their country? Under the noses of UN
inspectors combing Iraq for "evidence" of a weapons programme, very real
weapons of mass destruction, economic sanctions, continue to be deployed
against the Iraqi people.
It is also often forgotten by the media that a military campaign has
continued to be waged against Iraq by the US and its allies over the past 12
years. Almost completely hidden from international scrutiny, US and British
planes have continued to bomb Iraq an average of 3-4 times per week, killing
hundreds in their enforcement of so-called "no-fly zones." These
no-fly zones blanket more than 60% of Iraq, 60% of a country over which no
plane can fly without prior approval from Washington. The cost of
reconstructing an economic infrastructure in Iraq is estimated to begin at
US$50-60 million. And while most Iraqis are forced to subsist upon an
average of US$130 a year, the US has continued to spend $1.4 billion
annually on further bombing their battered country.
There is
already a war on Iraq. Any further military action by the US and
Britain will only increase the suffering of a people who have known only
misery, violence, and tragedy for a decade.
Can the world watch, give its tacit consent, as the US and British
militaries pummel them even further? How can anyone support this
war and still call themselves human? In the name of humanity and
peace, it is time to stop this war on the innocent. There is no
justification for a new military campaign, and there must be no new military
campaign. We extend our strong solidarity to your efforts against the
planned escalation of US and British violence on the people of Iraq. Similar
efforts are being carried out throughout Asia and around the world. The
collective strength of peace loving people around the world can and will
stop this insanity. It is also time to end the sanctions, time to let
the people of Iraq enjoy their right to life and security. Their
suffering must end. We demand peace for the people of Iraq, for the people
of Asia, for the people of the world.
Solidarity Greetings from Indonesia
From the People's Democratic Party, Indonesia
Comrades
and Friends,
Today we
are facing the problem that is continuing day by day to strangle and suffer
the majority of the world population, that is militarism and imperialism.
After the terrorists attack on WTC building on September 11, 2001, the US,
with the unconditional support of the UK, has been trying to establish its
power by military might, to dictate the global policies in the interest of
the first world countries. The US military power grows in the Asia Pacific,
thus its influence intervenes in the domestic politics in the region. What
is happening in the Philippines and in the Korean peninsula are clear proof
of the rise of US power in many Asian countries.
What is
happening these days in Indonesia is a form of resistance -- the people of
Indonesia against the oppression and deprivation done by the states and
governments of the first world countries. The US has destroyed the
Afghanistan people's independence and self-determination as well as robbed
their lives, created draconian governments of the Mujahidin, the Taliban,
and the newly installed puppet government. Their imperialist interest in the
Middle East had brought misery to the Iraqis, and now the US and its allies
want to complete their control of the Iraqiâ?Ts oil. These are the facts of
the policies pursued by the imperialist powers to destroy and dominate the
peoples and countries that hinder or endanger their predatory interests.
Under these conditions, the People's
Democratic Party of Indonesia calls on the peoples of the world to:
1. Stop the
US-led invasion to Iraq.
2. Stop imperialist interventions in third world countries, like
Venezuela, Columbia, etc.
3. Gather around the International Solidarity to fight against the US
imperialist might.
The Central Leadership Committee
The People's Democratic Party
Solidarity Message Against War on Iraq and for Peace
From Women Making Peace and other Korean groups
We, APA
Korea member organizations, extend our strong voice against the US's
impending attack on Iraq. We know that there is no just cause for the US
attempt to attack Iraq but craving for oil at innocent Iraqi people's
expense. The Bush administration should immediately stop its attempt
to attack Iraq. It should stop its sanctions against Iraq so that innocent
people, especially children, women and elderly people will not suffer and
become victims any more.
While raising our voice of opposing the US attempt to begin a war in Iraq,
we cannot help but turn our eyes to the current nuclear crisis on the Korean
peninsula which has been escalated since October 2002. In
November 2002, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared that the US
is capable of waging two wars against Iraq and North Korea and it can win in
both frontlines. We demand the US government solve the nuclear issue through
peaceful means. The US government should begin dialogue and negotiation with
North Korea immediately.
On January 18 2003 there will be another rally, in which Korean people will
express their strong opposition against the US war on Iraq and demand the
peaceful resolution of the nuclear problem on the Korean peninsula. We hope
that our voices and messages of solidarity for peace and against war will
grow throughout Asia and the world. We believe that people's efforts
for peace will make a difference and can change the world.
In Peace and Solidarity,
Women Making Peace
Council for National Reconciliation, Self-reliance and
Reunification of Korea
Korea Nonviolent Peaceforce
Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea
|