From: American Kurdish Information Network
Subject: "No Time Left" - Ozgur Politika editorial
No Time Left
Can you think of another people whose whole culture has
been shaped by pain, sorrow, and torment, and whose tragic
history is etched in its faces?
If only this people could tell its bitter story,
accumulated over the ages and generations, if only the world
could hear, if only all could hear...
Did they not say "its name is forbidden, its tongue is
banned"? Were they not pleased that "it got what it deserved".
Did they not condemn it, saying "it is buried, entombed in
concrete, never to rise again".
Of course there have been countless instances in history
of savagery, but very often just a single instance has shocked
the world and made it take notice.
Everyone should rake through history, sometimes each step
of the adventure of humanity, take note of all examples of
savagery and barbarism. We should then turn to Kurdistan and
investigate the history of the Kurds. But when doing this, we
must not forget to take along a projector, for the lights have
been turned off in Kurdistan and everywhere is pitch dark, an
entirely different world, an entirely different life. This has
been explained and interpreted on countless occasions, so that
the deaf and the blind would understand. Parties to the conflict
have a responsibility to listen, to see exactly what is going on.
In Kurdistan, which was the cradle of civilization,
people have been forced to eat excrement. Dead bodies have been
raped and then shot to ribbons. Human beings have been chopped to
bits, sometimes while still alive. Their brains have been spilled
out while soldiers posed by them.
We have done our best to denounce this to the world, but
the savagery has continued.
This monster will not be satiated. Now it has severed
Kurdish heads from their bodies and poses, grasping them by their
hair, greatly pleased by its "triumph". We ask all who call
themselves human: where, in the closing years of the twentieth
century, has such a thing occurred? Where are the defenders of
human rights, where the advocates of democracy, where the
champions of freedom?
In the west, animals are stunned before slaughter so they
feel no pain. Admirable! But when it comes to Kurds, everything
changes! Why do democratic laws not function, why are freedoms
forgotten, rights usurped? Who will have the courage to answer
these questions? This must be done and done immediately, because
humans are being treated in ways considered unacceptable for
animals.
We call on everyone who claims to be human. This return
to barbarism must be stopped immediately, because we have no time
to wait. Does humanity no longer care?
Let us not forget that this savagery is insatiable,
ruthless, and quite capable to destroying humanity. Therefore
humanity cannot stand idly by, but must act, do its utmost to
consign this savagery to the trash can of history.
So we say: may our heads not be severed from our bodies
and held aloft by dirty hands.
Ozgur Politika
January 13, 1996
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PKK-KDP Cease-Fire Announced
Date: 13 Dec. 1995
The Difficult Road To Peace In Kurdistan
On Monday, the DEM News Agency in Germany reported
that PKK chairman Abdullah Ocalan had announced a unilateral
cease-fire in its four-month fight with the pro-Turkish
KDP militia in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq). The KDP
have announced that they are also interested in observing the truce.
The same is not true in Turkey, where government
officials flatly rejected another proposed cease-fire by the
PKK, refusing to deal with "terrorists". Ocalan announced plans
for a cease-fire in the civil war in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan
in order to create a more peaceful environment leading up to the
general elections in Turkey on December 24. The pro-Kurdish
People's Democracy Party (HADEP) is seeking to gain seats
in the Parliament which were left vacant when the Democracy
Party (DEP) was banned in 1994 and its MPs exiled or imprisoned.
HADEP, which recently announced the formation of a "Peace, Labour,
and Democracy Front" with several small Turkish socialist
parties, faces major obstacles in the upcoming polls. One is a new
10% nation-wide voting hurdle - enacted to prevent "regionalism" -
as well as martial law and heavy snows in the Kurdish regions of
the Southeast. Under martial law provisions, polling stations in
the Southeast will be located in police stations or military
facilities, thus making it extremely unlikely that Kurds will
vote.
In another blow to the cause of peace, the European
Parliament voted today in favour of a Customs Union with
Turkey which will go into effect on January 1, 1996. When
the vote was suspended earlier this year, the Europeans called
on Turkey to released the imprisoned Kurdish DEP parliamentarians
and to remove laws which prevent freedom of speech. Turkey did
not comply. Four MPs - including Nobel Peace Prize candidate
Leyla Zana - are still serving 15-year prison terms, and Article
8 of the so-called Anti-Terror Law and numerous other restrictions
are still in place.
The so-called "Socialist" majority European Parliament
has dealt a slap in the face to Kurdish diplomacy efforts and
revealed its true interests are capitalism and imperialism and
not peace and human rights. Just during the two years of Ciller's
office as prime minister of Turkey, dozens of people have died under
torture, numerous publications have been closed down, whole forests have
been burned as part of a scorched earth anti-guerrilla campaign,
and well over 2,000 Kurdish villages wiped off the map. And yet
the social democrats in the European Parliament say that things
are OK in Turkey and that reforms are progressing. What ever gave them
that idea?!
FREEDOM FOR KURDISTAN!
STOP TURKISH FASCISM!
Arm The Spirit - December 13/95
++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++
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++++ see http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm ++++
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Arm The Spirit is an autonomist/anti-imperialist collective based
in Toronto, Canada. Our focus includes a wide variety of
material, including political prisoners, national liberation
struggles, armed communist resistance, anti-fascism, the fight
against patriarchy, and more. We regularly publish our writings,
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called Arm The Spirit. For more information, contact:
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From: Luis Quispe
From the Editor
MARCHING ON
The contents of this issue, as those of the previous editions,
highlight the major developments of the People's War in Peru. Now, as
then, we are joyful that the latest political and military actions of
the People's War have proven to the world that it is firmly rooted in
the masses of our country and is the torchbearer of the world
proletarian revolution.
The anti-imperialist struggles in the oppressed nations, especially
the Peruvian revolution, show that despite the temporary
counterrevolutionary offensive, revolution is the main tendency in
today's world. In Peru in more than 15 years of battles and
victories, the People's War led by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP)
has reached the stage of strategic equilibrium which today develops
its unstoppable march to the conquest of power countrywide and the
installation of the People's Republic of Peru.
The dictatorship and its yellow press wage a massive propaganda
campaign against the revolution. This fanfare is echoed by the
imperialist press worldwide. They report tales about "capture of
terrorists" and a "divided and defeated Sendero" pleading for "peace
talks." Why aren't they credible? Because their songs of victory are
in contradiction with reality. The loud and clear actions of the
People's War are shaking up the old state.
The U.S. government tells us that the regime is bringing justice,
economic development, free and fair elections and "human rights." None
of this is true. Rather than a booming of the economy, poverty grows
at considerable rates. The "modernization" of the status quo of misery
cannot succeed because people want revolution, they want a new
democracy that can be achieved only with the victory of the People's
War. The judicial system is rotten and moribund. Faceless judges and
the Army's death squads such as the "Colina Group" are engaged in the
business of silencing, disappearing and murdering political opponents.
Most of the country is under a state of emergency and military
curfews. The savage neoliberal restructuring of the old state, which
U.S. imperialism and its financial tools (IMF and World Bank) are
implementing in Peru, can only bring profits to greedy multinational
"investors" and big bourgeoisie who ransack the wealth of the country
while driving the people deeper into poverty and foreign dependence.
The U.S. gimmick of "suspending military aid" to the murderous Army
which it funds and trains is not credible at all. U.S. imperialism
directs the low intensity warfare against the people. In addition,
under the disguise of a "war on drugs," the U.S. military presence in
Peru is omnipresent.
As part of the "pacification" campaign, arbitrary arrests, search and
seizure operations and counter-revolutionary violence have been
institutionalized. The government talks of a pacified country when in
reality there is no peace even in the cemeteries. Mass graves in army
controlled settlements in the Huallaga Valley and Ayacucho have been
found.
Our strength is that we have the truth. We are trying to present it
clearly and plainly. We realize that what people understand in Peru is
not easily translated into foreign thoughts because Peru is
semi-feudal and semi-colonial whereas the U.S. is an imperialist
country with a culture and history of its own. With this in mind, we
must strive to find a way in which we can best support the People's
War. The classic questions of Maoism: 1) who are our friends, 2) who
are our enemies, and 3) how to unite the many to oppose the few, need
to be answered in order to make more effective our revolutionary work.
As Mao said, "correct ideas come from social practice and from it
alone." If the masses make history, then we must be involved with the
masses and learn from them.
Our Newsbriefs section reports on the Red October offensive in
celebration of the Party's anniversary and other actions throughout
the country.
We are showing that the contradictions within the bourgeoisie have
become quite open. It reflects the cracks in the ruling classes. For
example, the clashes of the tyranny with the Church hierarchy on
population control and their partnership in the counterinsurgency
effort.
The boycott of the presidential and municipal elections has been the
highest since the launching of the People's War. Although the results
of the municipal elections are no longer politically relevant, the
high rate of absenteeism was significant due mainly to the PCP's
boycott of the electoral farce. To bring the mayors under its control
or else make them irrelevant, the dictatorship and its kangaroo
Congress have created the "Ministry of the Presidency" that will
handle social services, public works and hand-outs for the purposes of
counterinsurgency.
The good news is that the People's War goes on. The masses and
workers are resisting the policies of hunger and misery with combative
rallies and mass volunteering into the ranks of the revolution. On
October 25th there was a successful strike in Lima, and in the
countryside the People's Army has paralyzed several cities with an
armed strike.
We convey our greetings to the glorious party of the proletariat in
Peru, the PCP and its Central Committee; to the supporters of the
People's War worldwide and encourage them the accomplishments of all
tasks that serve the Peruvian revolution and the world revolution in
accordance with the International Directives of the PCP.
In struggle,
Luis Quispe, Editor
Marcelina Ccorimanya, Co-Editor (international)
Carlos Alcantara (national news)
--
The preceding was published by The New Flag (La Nueva Bandera),
a newsletter reporting on the contemporary Peruvian politics,
especially the developments of the People's War. Should you
like to subscribe, please write to:
From: Godenas
The New Flag is a bi-monthly magazine of news and views on the peoples'
struggle in Peru. In addition to the latest information from the front
lines of the peoples' war, it provides a unique perspective on the left
and the world revolution. Its letters section contains lively debates on
a wide variety of topics. For a sample copy, reply by e-mail
