Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume 3, Number 4 February 23 - March 1, 2003 Quezon City, Philippines |
The
Geneva Declaration on Terrorism Geneva,
21 March 1987 PREAMBLE The
peoples of the world are engaged in a fundamental series of struggles for a just
and peaceful world based on fundamental rights now acknowledged as sacred in a
series of widely endorsed international legal conventions. These
struggles are opposed in a variety of cruel and brutal ways by the political,
economic and ideological forces associated with the main structures of
domination present in the world that spread terrorism in a manner unknown in
prior international experience. Although these struggles are global in scale,
there are certain arenas that require particular attention and urgent action at
this time. We mention in this regard the central struggle in Southern Africa
against the apartheid system, the criminal regime and policies that
sustain this system, and engage in military interventions throughout the region
spreading terrorism beyond the immediate battle grounds of South Africa and
Namibia; we mention the ongoing struggle of the Palestinian people for their
homeland in the face of Israeli and United States military and paramilitary
policies throughout the entire eastern Mediterranean region bringing special
hardships and anguish to the people of Lebanon; and we mention the struggles in
Central America against reactionary forces in and out of governmental control
that are being organized and orchestrated by the United States through the
special instrumentality of the CIA. The
terrorism of modern state power and its high technology weaponry exceeds
qualitatively by many orders of magnitude the political violence relied upon by
groups aspiring to undo oppression and achieve liberation. Let
us also be clear, we favour non-violent resistance wherever possible and we
praise those long efforts by the liberation movement in South Africa and
elsewhere to avoid violence in their pursuit of justice. We condemn all those
tactics and methods of struggle that inflict violence directly upon innocent
civilians as such. We want no part of any form of terrorism but we must insist
that terrorism originates with nuclearism, criminal regimes, crimes of state,
high-technology attacks on Third World peoples, and systematic denials of human
rights. It is a cruel extension of the terrorist scourge to taunt the struggles
against terrorism with the label "terrorism". We support these
struggles and call for the liberation of political language along with the
liberation of peoples. Terrorism
originates from the statist system of structural violence and domination that
denies the right of self-determination to peoples
(e.g., in Namibia, Palestine, South Africa, the Western Sahara); that
inflicts a gross and consistent pattern of violations of fundamental human
rights upon its own citizens (e.g., in Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, South
Africa); or that perpetrates military aggression and overt or covert
intervention directed against the territorial integrity or political
independence of other states (e.g., Afghanistan, Angola, Grenada, Lebanon,
Libya, Mozambique, Nicaragua).
In
particular, state terrorism manifests itself in: 2)
the introduction or transportation of nuclear weapons by a state into or through
the territory or territorial waters of other states or into international
waters; 4)
the armed attack by the military forces of a state on targets that put at risk
the civilian population residing in another state (e.g., the bombings of
Benghazi, Tripoli and Tunis, Druze villages in Lebanon and Kurdish villages); 5)
the creation and support of armed mercenary forces by a state for the purpose of
subverting the sovereignty of another state (e.g., against Nicaragua); 6)
assassinations, assassination attempts, and plots directed by a state towards
the officials of other states, or national liberation movements, whether carried
out by military strike, special forces units or covert operations by
"intelligence forces" or their third party agents (e.g., the CIA
against Nicaraguan politicians, the Qadhafi family, Yasir Arafat); 7)
covert operations by the "intelligence" or other forces of a state
which are intended to destabilize or subvert another state, national liberation
movements, or the international peace movement (e.g., the bombing of the Rainbow
Warrior); 8)
disinformation campaigns by a state, whether intended to destabilize another
state or to build public support for economic, political or military force or
intimidation directed against another state; 9)
arms sales which support the continuation of regional wars and retard the search
for political solutions to international disputes; 10)
the abrogation of civil rights, civil liberties, constitutional protections and
the rule of law under the pretext of alleged counter-terrorism; and 11)
the development, testing and deployment of nuclear and space-weapons systems
that in all circumstances increase the probability of genocide and ecocide,while
condemning the poor to continued misery and all humanity to a state of perennial
fear. It
follows that the most dangerous and detrimental form of state terrorism in the
world today is that practiced by the nuclear weapons states against the rest of
the international community, which is euphemistically called nuclear deterrence.
This system of nuclear terrorism actually constitutes ongoing international
criminal activity -- namely, the planning, preparation and conspiracy to commit
crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and grave
breaches of the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949. Hence those government
decision-makers in the nuclear weapons states with command responsibility for
their nuclear weapons establishments are today subject to personal criminal
responsibility and punishment under the Nuremberg Principles for the nuclear
terrorism they daily inflict upon all states and peoples of the world community.
That
being said, we nevertheless welcome the constructive proposals put forth by the
Soviet government to achieve genuine nuclear arms control and reduction
agreements with respect to space weapons, strategic nuclear weapons and
intermediate nuclear forces. We regret that the United States government has
failed to respond to these promising initiatives, but has instead exacerbated
the nuclear arms race by pursuing its so-called Strategic Defense Initiative. II.
NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENTS As
repeatedly recognized by the United Nations General Assembly, peoples who are
fighting against colonial domination and alien occupation and against racist
regimes in the exercise of their right of self-determination have the right to
use force to accomplish their objectives within the framework of international
humanitarian law. Such lawful uses of force must not be confused with acts of
international terrorism. Thus, it would be legally impermissible to treat
members of national liberation movements in the Caribbean Basin, Central
America, Namibia, Northern Ireland, the Pacific Islands, Palestine, and South
Africa, among others, as if they were common criminals. Rather, national
liberation fighters should be treated as combatants subject to the laws and
customs of warfare and to the international laws of humanitarian armed conflict
as evidenced, for example, by the 1907 Hague Regulations, the Four Geneva
Conventions of 1949, and their Additional Protocol I of 1977. Hence, national
liberation fighters would be held to the same standards of belligerent conduct
that are applicable to soldiers Nevertheless,
we wish to emphasize that the overwhelming majority of violations of the laws
and customs of warfare have been and are still being committed by the regular,
irregular, para-military and covert forces of states, not by national liberation
fighters. The Western news media have purposely distorted and perverted this
numerical relationship in order to perpetrate the cult of counter-terrorism for
their governments' own militaristic and terroristic purposes. III.
NON-INTERNATIONAL ARMED CONFLICTS With
respect to those situations where sub-national groups or organizations use force
against the apparatus of the state but nevertheless do not represent national
liberation movements, we affirm the applicability of common article 3 to the
Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocol II of 1977 to
these non-international armed conflicts. In particular, the fundamental
distinction between combatants and non-combatants must be maintained at all
times and under all circumstances. IV.
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA The
international media also play a direct role in international terrorism when they
uncritically disseminate disinformation from "official sources" that
creates public support for the use of deadly force or other forms of economic
and political violence against another state. The international media also play
an indirect role in terrorism through a pattern of selective definition and
coverage. The media specifically ignores or understates institutional forms of
terrorism, preserving the term instead for national liberation movements and
their supporters. In such ways the media become agents of ideological control,
advancing an inverted standard of terrorism. V.
CONCLUSION The principles of the United Nations Charter -- if applied in all of-their ramifications -- constitute an effective instrument for reshaping the actual policies of power and hegemony among sovereign states into those of mutual respect. Conversely, the real international terrorism is founded in the imposition of the will of the powerful states upon the weak by means of economic, political, cultural and military domination. We declare that the key to ending all forms of terrorism is the development of new relations among nations and peoples based on unfailing respect for the right to self-determination of peoples, and on a greater measure of economic, political and social equality on a world scale. Reposted by Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
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