Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

July 1, 2013

Wikileaks: Snowden applies for asylum in these countries

Edward Snowden submits asylum applications

Tuesday July 2, 01:30 UTC

On 30th June 2013 WikiLeaks’ legal advisor in the Edward Snowden matter, Sarah Harrison, submitted by hand a number of requests for asylum and asylum assistance on behalf of Edward J. Snowden, the NSA whistleblower.
The requests were delivered to an official at the Russian consulate at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow late in the evening. The documents outline the risks of persecution Mr Snowden faces in the United States and have started to be delivered by the Russian consulate to the relevant embassies in Moscow.
The requests were made to a number of countries including the Republic of Austria, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, the Federative Republic of Brazil, the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Cuba, the Republic of Finland, the French Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of India, the Italian Republic, the Republic of Ireland, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Republic of Nicaragua, the Kingdom of Norway, the Republic of Poland, the Russian Federation, the Kingdom of Spain, the Swiss Confederation and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
The requests join or update others previously made including to the Republic of Ecuador and the Republic of Iceland.
July 2, 2013: AP: As countries narrow, Venezuela and Bolivia possibilities for Snowden asylum
 http://bigstory.ap.org/article/snowden-faces-asylum-hurdles-europe
Also: Snowden's statement from Moscow July 1, 2013
 http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/07/statement-from-edward-snowden-in-moscow.html
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Statement from Edward Snowden in Moscow

Statement from Edward Snowden in Moscow via Wikileaks

Monday July 1, 21:40 UTC

One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.
On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic "wheeling and dealing" over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.
For decades the United States of America has been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person. Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.
In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.
I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.
Edward Joseph Snowden
Monday 1st July 2013
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Owe Aku 'Red Nations Rising' at Takini, Cheyenne River

Red Nations Rising

Moccasins on the Ground at Takini on the Cheyenne River Reservation
by Owe Aku International Justice Project 
July 1, 2013 In our effort to be true to our principal objective to preserve sacred water and protect Ina Maka for future generations, working within the protocol of our traditions and responsibilities must always be our first priority.  While journeying through the land after the Cheyenne River Moccasins on the Ground training, Obama made indications that he will not approve the Keystone XL Pipeline.  That would be a great victory.  However, our victory does not come until all sacred water is protected from tarsands, uranium mining, coal extraction and the myriad ways fat takers destroy Ina Maka.  

The Moccasins on the Ground Tour of Resistance, in conjunction with many allies and relatives, was on the move again with more non-violent direct action training on the Cheyenne River territory of the Lakota Nation from June 14th through 16th.  These educational and informative gatherings are designed to prepare people to protect water and their communities in opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline (“KXL”) proposed by Transcanada currently under review by the Obama administration (the first application was denied in January 2012).  

The Pipeline’s construction is in itself dangerous to communities along the route and the slurrying process is known to be hazardous to ground and surface water.  Dozens of “man camps” will be set up to house the thousands of Union workers imported to run the enormous equipment used to claw holes in the Earth.  These camps are reputed to bring prostitution, trafficking of women and children, violence, and deaths from equipment/truck drivers not experienced in operating big haul trucks in isolated areas. If the KXL becomes operational, the bitumen, which is what the tarsands oil is called, must be heated to over 150 degrees Fahrenheit, resulting in the KXL pipes being 16 more times likely to rupture than regular crude oil lines.  This is no ordinary oil.  It contains dozens of toxic chemicals that are not only used in extracting oil from the rock but also in melting the bitumen to force it through the pipes.  It is not a question of whether or not the Pipeline will leak but rather when, where and how much will be leaked. Tantoo Cardinal, who was introduced by Debra White Plume and is on the frontline of resistance in her own homeland, talked personally about it:

“I am from the area around the Tarsands mine and I’m here to tell you the water is contaminated for at least 100 kilometers all around the mine site.  We are like the polar bears who are also being threatened by climate change because the ice flows they depend on get smaller and smaller; our territory shrinks from government and corporate assaults by the fattakers and we are left with less and less.”  (Tantoo Cardinal)
The oil spill in Mayflower, Arkansas consisted of tarsands bitumen and to hide the destruction from the public and media, a news blackout was enforced by militarized police and national guard while a no-fly zone was enforced to make sure no photographs of the devastation were released.  This is just one of dozens of leaks that has happened.

The Moccasins on the Ground training in Bridger was on the traditional 1851 and 1868 treaty territory of the Lakota Oyate (called the Sioux Nation by the uninitiated).  Treaty status is recognized under international law as well as by the United States, although the US government is famous for the ongoing violations to all the treaties it has made with Red Nations as well as with other nations around the world.  The treaties identify the inherently sovereign land of the Lakota people and preserve that land for Lakota people to exercise a responsibility for protecting sacred water for future generations.  This is Lakota law and tradition.  

“I’m in South Dakota today, sort of a ground zero for the XL Keystone Pipeline, that pipeline, owned by a Canadian Corporation which will export tar sands oil to the rest of the world. This is the heart of the North American continent here. Bwaan Akiing is what we call this land-Land of the Lakota. There are no pipelines across it, and beneath it is the Oglalla Aquifer wherein lies the vast majority of the water for this region. The Lakota understand that water is life, and that there is no new water. It turns out, tar sands carrying pipelines are sixteen times more likely to break than a conventional pipeline, and it seems that some ranchers and Native people, in a new Cowboy and Indian Alliance, are intent upon protecting that water.”  (Militarizing Fossil Fuels in the East, Winona LaDuke with Frank Molley, see http://westcoastnativenews.com/when-drones-guard-the-pipeline/.)
The Pipeline will cross the territory of the Lakota Oyate for hundreds of miles.  Not only does it pass over the Oglala Aquifer, it crosses the Mni Wiconi Project which supplies drinking water to the Cheyenne River, Rosebud, and Pine Ridge Indian Reservations. 

“Our people are suffering way beyond their age.  Illnesses caused by poisoned water and the weight of the trauma from generations of suffering lie under the sicknesses that plague us.  This Pipeline is just one more step in their attempts to remove us from the land.” (Nina Washtay, Idle No More).
Non-violent direct action, the right to assembly and the right to free speech are all principles being employed by Owe Aku and its allies in an attempt to take action to protect sacred water which goes beyond proclamations, petitions and resolutions.  At Moccasins on the Ground a National Lawyer’s Guild attorney explained that rights normally reserved under the U.S. Constitution are not only threatened but have been virtually annihilated.  Under the Patriot Act any interference with state, local or national policy is considered an act of terror.  

“Twenty years ago this region was determined to be a national sacrifice area.  You cannot regulate the Pipeline.  All you can do is stop it but protection under traditional law or treaty law will not be from the courts.  It’s easy to define legal rights [for participants] in non-violent direct action:  there are none left.”  
As evidenced by the tarsands spill in Arkansas and the bombing in Boston, the militarized police force of the United States does not hesitate to use police-state policies to protect the corporations.  The training of Moccasins on the Ground is designed to instill discipline and a sense of responsibility in strategies for stopping the pipeline through the return of traditional values and decolonization.  The balance between speakers and hands-on training is what makes Moccasins on the Ground so effective.  As explained by several of the elders present, this is a spiritual movement based in the ancient Lakota tradition of relationships between human beings, plants, animals, water and rock.  In talking about a ceremony that closed the three-day training, Rocky Afraid of Hawk explained that:

“We are not allies.  We are relatives.  Allies may be together, but still apart.  In the Lakota way, relatives are with us.  The Hunka ceremony (the making of relatives) is not about individuals but about tiyospaye (the extended family).  This is the way we should think about what we are doing and how we should conduct ourselves to always be good relatives with each other and the water.”
Representatives of many Red Nations including the Nakota, Dakota, and Lakota peoples, Northern Cheyenne, Dine, Anishinabe, Cree, along with representatives from Protecting the Sacred, Tar Sands Blockade, Tar Sands Resistance Movement, Utah Tarsands Resistance, Lakota Media Project, Prairie Dust Films, Idle No More, and Colorado AIM, Barrio Warriors, and many other organizations, all participated in the event as well as the Hunka ceremony.

A water ceremony was held along the Cheyenne River, Lakota families from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe made their vow to protect their water and their people from the KXL. 

For more information or interviews with the principles, please contact:
Kent Lebsock
Owe Aku International Justice Project



Kent Lebsock
Owe Aku International Justice Project
Advocate for Lakota Treaties & Mother Earth
  
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June 30, 2013

Zapatistas Marcos 'Classmates v. The Students'

Inicio / Comunicado traduccion
jun302013

Classmates V. The Students

Classmates V.
The Students.
June 2013.
To the adherents of the Sexta in Mexico and in the world:
To the Little Zapatista School invitees:
Compañeros, compañeroas, compañeras:
Here we are posting some data to give you an idea of the type of plebes…err, that is, people, who will be your classmates, or compañeros in study, at the Little Zapatista School. Here you go:
.-Invitations sent: about 3,000.
.-Invitations accepted: about 2500.
.-Not yet responded: about 500.
.-Invitations rejected: 1.
.-Of those who have already completed the registration form, a bit more than half are men and a bit fewer than half are women (that is to say, we men are winning – note from SupMarcos contributing “a gender perspective” as they say), in addition to an indefinite number who identify themselves as others [otr@s].
.-There are 1500 students who will attend the little school in the communities during the scheduled dates in August 2013. More than half are men (ahem, ahem), less than half are women, and nine identify as “others” [otr@s].
Of these 1,500 students, more than 60 are children younger than 12 years of age. Of these 60 plus children, 19 are younger than four years old. Note the following statistic: for every one girl that is coming, there are two boys coming.That is to say, among the minors we are also winning – another commentary from “a gender perspective” by Supmarcos.
Of the more than 1400 adults that are coming to the communities, more than 200 are over 50 years old.
.-Around 200 people will attend the course at CIDECI in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas in August 2013.
.-More than 200 people will take the [little school] course via videoconference.
.-More than 130 people have asked for the materials because they cannot attend the course in the communities.
.-More than 500 people have asked to register for the course for next December-January. Note: if you did not receive an invitation it was because of the lack of available space, but you will be invited. Simply send an email to the webpage, and if we missed you this time around, we will put you on the list for the next course.
.-There will be students from 5 continents. Some of the countries of origin of the students in the course, Freedom according to the Zapatistas, include: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, the United States of America, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Venezuela, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Slovenia, the Spanish State, France, Greece, Holland, Italy, the Basque Country, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Sweden, South Korea, India, Iran, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Canary Islands.
The furthest point of origin of students is Sri Lanka, which is more than 17 thousand kilometers from Zapatista territory. Then follows India (more than 15 thousand kilometers away), Australia (more than 13 thousand kilometers away), and new Zealand (more than 11 thousand kilometers away).
.-The oldest students are more than 90 years old.
.- The youngest students will be 11 months old in August 2013. And they are, of course [original in English], male. Their names are Brian and Eduardo.
.-Among the little school students, at least 34 have PhDs in diverse areas including: Philosophy, Sociology, History, Anthropology, Literature, Political Science, Physics, Mathematics, Psychology, Economy, Urban Studies, and Theology.
.-More than 50 students are professors and researchers in universities.
.-Several students have won Mortal Kombat video game tournaments. We aren’t including their names or nicknames in order to protect the innocent (that is to say, the men, as here we are also the majority. Amen).
.-The following are some of the institutions of higher learning where some of the compas who are now students in the Zapatista little school study or previously studied, work or previously worked as researchers and professors:
Escuela Normal Superior.
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México.
Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, México.
Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México.
Universidad Nicolaíta de Michoacán, México.
Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, México.
Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas, México.
Centro de Estudios de México y Centroamérica, México.
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, México.
Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México.
Universidad Iberoamericana, México.
Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas, México.
Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey (TEC-Monterrey), México.
Universidad Autónoma de Sonora, México.
Universidad de Chapingo, México.
Universidad de la Tierra Chiapas, México.
Universidad de la Tierra Oaxaca, México.
Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México (UACM), México.
Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas (UAZ), México.
Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes (UAA), México.
Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), México.
Escuela Superior de Guerra, México.
Instituto Maurer, México.
University of Cambridge, England.
University of Oxford, England.
École Nationale de Sciencie Politique, París, France.
Universidad de las Naciones Unidas, de la UNESCO.
University of California, Berkeley, USA.
Stanford University, California, USA.
University of Chicago, USA.
University of Maryland, USA.
Columbia University, New York, USA.
Yale University, USA.
National Humanity Center, North Carolina, USA.
Université de Toulouse, France.
Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos de Lima, Peru.
State University of New York at Binghamton: Fernand Braudel Centre, USA.
Centro ‘Juan Marinello’ de La Habana, Cuba.
Columbia’s Institute for Scholars at Reid Hal, París. France.
Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia.
Claremont Graduate University, California, USA.
City University of New York, USA.
Smith University, USA.
Mount Holyoke College, USA.
University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA.
New Hampshire University, USA.
Humanities Research Institute of the University of California, USA.
Drew University, USA.
Harvard University, USA.
Univerza V Ljubljana, Eslovenia.
University of California Riverside, USA.
University of Utah, USA.
Universidad de La Habana, Cuba.
CIMI, Brasilia, Brazil.
University of Edimburgo, Great Britain.
McGill University, Canada.
Duke University, USA.
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, París, France.
University of New Mexico, USA.
Universidade Federal do Río de Janeiro, Brazil.
Université Paris- Sorbonne, France.
Universidad del País Vasco, Basque Country.
Universidad de la Laguna, Canarias.
.- Some of those who are now students in the Zapatista little school have their writings translated into: German, Catalan, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, French, Galician, Greek, English, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, and Turkish.
.-The following are some of the video game consuls where some of our invincible compas have confirmed their supremacy with the combo “mega-super-duper-hyper fatality-machoman” (Yeah! None of this angry birds and other girl stuff): the video games from the neighborhood store, Atari, Sega, Xbox, GameCube, Gameboy, Xbox360, PSP, PS1, PS3, PS4, PS5…huh?…there is no PS5?…ok, ok, ok, typo. I’ll continue: PSVita, Nintendo 64, Wii, WiiU, Nintendo 3DS.
.-More than 100 students are actors, actresses, directors, musicians, painters, cartoonists, photographers, cultural promoters, writers, editors, politicians, lawyers, union and community organizers.
In general, after analyzing the data with the most pre-modern intelligence equipment, we can say that an undetermined number of people that will attend the little school – we’ll need to see them to count them – are dirty, ugly, and bad.
Without regard for their age, creed, color, weight, brains, or sex, they have conducted themselves, throughout the entirety of their lives, with absolute irresponsibility in the face of Power in all of its forms. They have been repudiated in their respective social circles for their stubborn non-conformity; they have scandalized decent folk and behavioral norms; they have reiterated their rebellion and their passion for freedom despite rumors to the contrary; and they have fought according to their conscience rather than according to the latest fashion. In sum, they have not sold out, they have not given up, they have not surrendered.
I am telling you this so that later you don’t complain that you are criticized for keeping “bad company.”
Oh, and of course, the vast majority of the people who are coming to participate as students are men, women, boys, girls, elderly, and youth who have something extraordinary that we, the Zapatistas appreciate: they are our compas.
And I haven’t included everyone, because there is always some infiltrator who comes to see if we
are really giving military training instead of teaching what is in our hearts.
Vale. Cheers and welcome to the generous heart that opens its windows to us.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast.
SupMarcos.
Mexico, June 2013
P.S. OF CELEBRATION. – To celebrate that, for the first time in the almost 20 years of Zapatista public life, we men have outdone the women…huh?…ok, we have outdone them only in quantity…for now…what? Of course I didn’t cheat! I’m incapable… and the numbers were calculated by a woman from the support team…huh? No, the support team is not majority women…or is it?…Okay well, that’s not the subject, the point, or the issue here.
Moving on: To celebrate this fact that confirms the superio…uhm?…ok, ok, ok, to celebrate the fact that the gender equality scoreboard is in our favor, we have instituted the prize “THE DUCKS SHOOTING AT THE RIFLES,” which can only be won by boys….uhm?…okay, okay, okay…by boys AND girls who are under a certain chronological age (because I saw the list and there are a number of people who are of infantile mental age). The prize will consist of a voucher that the boys…okay, the girls too…can redeem with one of the male teachers…okay, okay, or female teachers of the little school. With this voucher they can punish their mothers…what? And their fathers too? But it’s always the moms that dole out the punishment! And this is a “get one free” pass for revenge of sorts, a kind of “what comes around goes around”, or “you asked for it…” Okay, the dads too…but only in extenuating circumstances…okay, okay, okay, without extenuating circumstances…And so the male teacher…or the female teacher, will punish the moms of the children who win the prize. Why? For misbehaving. Yes, even though they haven’t misbehaved, because sometimes we get punished even though we haven’t misbehaved…sometimes they even give us injections, even though we are innocent. The boys that is, because the girls are always guilty. Huh? Stop interrupting me, I need to finish this and send it.
To win the prize, the children have to select one of the following responses with regard to the video below called “Little Carlos Lettuce and the Drama of the Little Balloon [globe].” The question is:
Whose fault was it that Little Carlos Lettuce lost his little Balloon?
a).- The little balloon [globe], that is, neoliberal globalization.
b).- Women in general.
c).- Television and the bad governments.
The boy who responds correctly (without copying and without asking for help from anyone) will receive a voucher for “THE DUCKS SHOOTING AT THE RIFLES,” valid only in Zapatista territory and only one time during the period between August 12-17, 2013 (Good Government Council Permit #696969). For the girls, regardless of what answer they give, they will receive a knock on the head…Nah just kidding, nobody’s going to get a knock on the head. But in place of a voucher, they will receive a poster-sized statistical graph, where they can see that that we boys are the majority…yes, to help them in their “gender training,” as they say.
Note: moms, dads, and tutors: no fair whispering the answers (none of this “it’s C honey, choose C”), nor can you exchange that voucher for one that will get you out of eating that pumpkin soup.
And so it’s been said.
For gender equality, scoreboard 2-1 in favor of us guys, that is, the real machos.
El SupMarcos.
Aviation Pilot Studies and Correspondence Synchronized Swimming (aha, that’s why there is a Zapatista Air Force) and graduate, with top academic honors, of the Machist Institute of Apology Research (English acronym MIAR), located in the mountains of southeastern Mexico, the last bastion of resistance against women in the worldwide world. The above name (me) currently teaches at that prestigious institute, the seminar, “the problem began when our mother Eve manipulated our father Adam…” Registration open, space unlimited. The MIAR motto is “We will regain control, be it only of the remote control,” or “Really woman you carry a knife.” huh? Our anthem? You would be right to think that it is “What has this woman done for you,” by Gilberto Parra Paz, interpreted by Pedro Infante in the movie of the same name. Ok then! Sing or I’ll blow the house down! Ajúa!
I testify…huh?..but it’s raining!…okay, okay, okay….after I wash my clothes, I testify…hahaha, I didn’t say that I was going to wash them with them still on, if not what good is the rain? hmm…I’ll just bathe in it and that way I’ll save soap…
Huh? As you can imagine, I hide…but they find me. Arrroz con leche. Haiga cosa. Arriba el norti, ji jiñor!
Now for real. I testify.
Yomero [me for real].
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Listen to and watch the videos that accompany this text:
From the best news show that has existed in world TV, “31 Minutes,” the segment “Little Carlos Lettuce and the Drama of the Little Balloon.” Children younger than 12 years old: you must watch this video to compete for the prize: “THE DUCKS SHOOTING AT THE RIFLES.”
Pedro Infante and Luis Aguilar perform Gilberto Parra Paz’s “What has this woman done for you,” MIAR’s anthem, in the movie by the same name, from 1951.
“Mi Cariñito” by Manuel Esperón, with Pedro Infante in the movie “They call me a womanizer” (it’s a lie, those are just rumors, don’t believe it). This song is dedicated to the grandmother of the Zapatistas, Maria Luisa Tomassini (who has already said she is coming), to our much admired Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and to all of the mothers of the disappeared and of the political prisoners. Check out Tucita supporting “the suffering of the damned.” (Didn’t I tell you? The girls are spoiled from the beginning).
Ok, I didn’t get to combo fatality, but here is what I did get as, of course, “Sub-Zero.”
********************************
Traducción del Kilombo Intergaláctico.
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