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Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 20:23:38 -0600 (CST) Subject: WB/IMF: JOHANNESBURG: INT'L TRIBUNAL ON AFRICA DECLARATION From: ILC <theorganizer@igc.org> Organization: ? Article: 57742 To: undisclosed-recipients:; Message-ID: <bulk.25199.19990316181614@chumbly.math.missouri.edu> Final resolution of the Preparatory Committee on the International Tribunal on AfricaJohannesburg, Sunday, February 28, 1999A preparatory meeting for the International Tribunal on Africa was held in Johannesburg on February 27 and 28. This meeting was organised by the Socialist Party of Azania, trade union leaders from Azania (South Africa) and the International Liaison Committee for a Workers¹ International (ILC). Trade unionists and political activists from other African countries, from North and South America and Europe also participated. These delegates, along with others who could not attend, brought documents and gave testimonies which affirmed that the survival of the peoples of Africa is at stake. Recent surveys by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) show that, as a result of the spread of diseases and epidemics, destitution and starvation, life expectancy in Africa has been reduced by 20 years within the last few years. The wars, massacres and genocides, engulfing a constantly growing number of African countries have exacerbated the already intolerable situation A backward movement - most probably unprecedented in the history of humankind - is taking place on the continent that had already been ravaged by the successive scourges of slavery and colonialism. The testimonies and documents gathered by the preparatory conference established the fact that the imposition of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the early eighties, to facilitate the payment of the external debt, are responsible for this deplorable situation. Every year 30 billion dollars, which could have met the urgent needs of the African people, are siphoned from the continent to pay and service the debt which, in most cases, were granted to notoriously corrupt and anti-democratic governments. It was established that a small fraction of the amount spent on debt servicing and payments could provide the cure for diseases (measles, malaria, diarrhoea) which affect children mostly, with low cost medicines and vaccines, and prevent the death of more than four million African children yearly. In spite of the fact that AIDS is assuming epidemic proportions, the peoples of Africa are being denied access to cures which have proved efficient in the treatment of AIDS on account of the payments and servicing of the debt. Continuing internecine violence and wars, which lead to forced migrations and an increase in the refugee population, exacerbates the spread of AIDS. In addition to the external debt, African governments have accumulated huge internal debts owned to monopoly capital and which acts as a break on the national development effort and undermines the sovereignty of the people. As a result of the imposition of the structural adjustment programmes by the World Bank and IMF, African states spend ten times more on the payment of the debt, than on health budgets at a time when men, women and children are dying in their millions from curable diseases. Testimonies and documents brought by delegates to the Johannesburg preparatory meeting also established that privatisation inevitably leads to the outbreak of war through social dislocation and the economic deprivation of the African people. The transfer of the control of national resources to multinational corporations engenders tensions leading to the setting up of armed groups and the hiring of mercenaries by the big corporations to maintain their hold on the national wealth. Numerous testimonies and documents that will be published as an annex to this appeal affirmed that we are confronted by policies which unhesitatingly sacrifice the peoples of Africa to the financial interests of multi-national corporations, stock markets and other international financial institutions. On the basis of the testimonies and documents gathered we insist that the right of the peoples of Africa to life be urgently asserted; we demand that those responsible for the deteriorating social, economic and political conditions on the continent must be brought to justice. To this end, we pledge to take all measures necessary to convene the International Tribunal on Africa and constitute ourselves into a Preparatory Committee for the trial of those responsible for the worsening situation in Africa. We propose that the Tribunal be held at the beginning of the year 2000 the date and venue will be decided at a later date, after further consultations with our partners and other supporters. The first task of the committee will be to publish the testimonies presented at this conference as well as those that have been sent from countries from where delegations could not come to Johannesburg. This meeting identified public figures and personalities, known for their dedication to the defence of the rights of the people who could be invited to serve on the jury. A final list of members of the jury will be announced after the personalities have been contacted. The delegates pledged to give the widest possible publicity to the existence of the Tribunal. n this connection, it took cognisance of the fact that the International Open World Conference will be held in San Francisco in the year 2000 at the initiative of American trade unions and the ILC. That conference which is being convened in defence of the independence of trade unions and for democratic rights provides a unique opportunity for publicising the work on the Tribunal. We fully support the convening of the conference and urge its organisers to assist us to give extensive publicity to the work of the International Tribunal on Africa. Considering the role of the United States in the imposition of the dictate of the World Bank and the IMF on African countries, the meeting decided to organise a tour of the United States by a delegation of the Preparatory Committee to seek the fraternal support of organisations in the United States which have already declared support for the establishment of the Tribunal. Conscious of the devastating effects of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism on the African peoples, the meeting endorsed calls for reparation for the African people in respect of crimes committed against them by the imperialist countries. The meeting also called for the dismantling of all foreign military bases on the continent of Africa. Endorsed by all delegates to the Preparatory Conference for the International Tribunal on Africa. ANNEX TO FINAL DECLARATIONGrowing evidence has come to light, through the meticulous work of distinguished scientists and public health specialists in the United States, indicating that the world's most feared and deadly viruses, specifically HIV and Esbola, were deliberate laboratory creations. Dr. Leonard Horowitz, in his book Emerging Viruses, synthesises evidence concerning the role of the U.S. government and its intelligence agencies in fomenting the exposure of entire populations in Africa to viral disease. Evidence has been published reflecting painstaking research which exposes social policies of population control" implemented through the intentional transmission of the most deadly viruses all created in government funded laboratories via tainted hepatitis, polio and small vaccines in Africa and the United States. Dr. Maurice Hillman, the U.S. Army's chief vaccine developer and the official in charge of this work at Mercke, Sharp and Dohme Pharmaceutical Corporation, has admitted to infiltrating the Aids virus into vaccines produced for widespread public use. We note that Dr. Robert Callo, co-discoverer of the Aids virus, worked under the auspices of the National Cancer Institute in a classified "special virus cancer program. We mark our grave concern over documentation that Hazleton Research Laboratories and Litton Bionetics, the Medical division of the major military contractor, Litton Industries, were not only among the major U.S. biological weapons contractors, but now acknowledge that viral vaccine "experiments' were carried out in central Africa and in New York City. We take grave notice of the evidence that over 750,000 square miles of Zaire were leased secretly from former President Joseph Mobutu with over one million people in that leased area subjected to these experiments. A global epidemic involving Aids and Ebola has reached genocidal proportions. the very fabric of society has been torn asunder in Africa and the immensity of the scale of human suffering has only begun to be measured. In South Africa alone there are nine million fewer people because of the impact of Aids. In country and after country the toll on youth is destroying entire generations. The International Tribunal on Africa will undertake an exhaustive inquiry into this alarming body of data and assemble the full facts concerning the sudden and widespread occurrence of deadly viral disease in the African continent and beyond. Endorsers:
Azania (South Africa):
Brazil :
Lorenzo Mario Oliveiro Solidado, Bahia
Burkina-Faso :
Bénin :
Burundi :
Comores :
Cote d'Ivoire :
France :
Ghana:
Niger :
Togo: |