In support of an International Tribunal on North American Genocide
by David Sugar on Monday, August 16, 2010 at 4:38pm
Healing cannot even begin for the survivors of genocide until truth emerges and is acknowledged. This to me is one of several essential reasons I have chosen to support and if possible to actively participate in Kevin Annett's call for holding an International tribunal on North American genocide.
With the mass graves of perhaps 100,000 indigenous school children of recent origin littered over the North American continent, and many more systematically and sexually abused, and used in human medical experiments, it is for the direct survivors, the surviving victims of these crimes, and families to finally know where their missing children have been buried that is another essential reason for such a tribunal to be organized at this time.
Given the refusal of past and present governments in the United States and Canada to fulfill it's legal obligations, it is only through compulsion of international authorities that it may finally be possible to collect documents of precisely who was killed where, and enable the remains of these lost children to finally be returned to their relatives.
While I am speaking of crimes against humanity and genocide against the indigenous population that have happened only within the last 40 years, and of course including of course the program of mass sterilization of Lakotah women, this gets to the third essential reason for such a convening such tribunal at this time. Along with the survivors who have direct living memory of these events, many of the participants and direct architects of these policies remain free and at large, including a former president of the United States of America (as his crimes predate his presidency, sovereign immunity does not apply). These individuals must finally be brought to justice and held accountable for their crimes, as well as the institutions and governments they have served. Neither does time makes this any less an obligation, as demonstrated by the prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from Nuremberg demonstrate, nor must there be any sanctuary or place such people can live free.
The final reason I offer, perhaps most important reason for holding such a tribunal, is to prevent both continuing policies of genocide and to prevent future crimes against humanity in North America. This reason is the future of the survivors and their descendants. Hence, it would be essential for such a tribunal to consider not only remediation through prosecution of those responsible for these immediate crimes, nor simply questions such as reparations for victims, but also actions necessary in light of continued and institutional practice of genocide and the continued refusal of these governments to meet their binding legal obligations under international law, as well as the entire history of genocide in North America that brought us to this point.
Such remediations may well include calling for a complete program of decolonization and the re-establishment of fully sovereign indigenous nations that was illegally taken in the past, so that the survivors and their decedents may be able to live free and safe in their own nations once more. This or other potential recommendations of such a Tribunal, while perhaps outside of it's direct authority to enforce on it's own, can then be taken up directly by the nations of the world, such as through the United Nations General Assembly.
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Brenda Norrell Thanks David. Is it OK if I post this on the Censored News blog?
www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com Best, Brenda
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David Sugar @brenda Absolutely. This one is not a draft, but rather "final", as in ready for such publication.
6 hours ago · LikeUnlike ·
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Sakoieta' Widrick Good stuff. I wonder though how much and how long this will be ignored and we'll be told that we should've gotten over this by now...after all, didn't the both the governments of the U.S. and Canada apologize??? That's supposed to be suitable to us, but if this was done to a non-Native they'd be in court till hell freezes over.
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David Sugar
@sakoieta this struggle is not just about the past, but very much also the present and future for those yet to come. When a bank robber apologizes for past robberies while in the midst of his latest robbery, and then even goes on to commi...t more robberies, what would one make of such an apology?
I find it a deep insult, as well as the whole sick idea that people can be paid some token amount to forget about those killed and crimes past. It is not and never has been about money from what I can see, but rather about dignity, something I think they can never understand.
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Sakoieta' Widrick Exactly. I have had students in my class talk about the money the government spends for Indians to "heal". My comment has been and still is how can we even begin to address the issue when the trauma still continues in the forms of government and religious policy that is still designed to diminish our standing as a people of sovereign nations.
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Chip On Shoulder
Are you suggestions leaders should be held accountable? What a novel concept. Novel to non-native socio-political institutions that is.
As to the sovereign immunity' for acts committed by USA presidents while in office, there can be none in ...such an international tribunal. Some of the most heinous acts and programs are created and perpetuated by such abusive, tyrannical heads of states. While such abusive leaders should be accountable to their own people, in manner similar to that provided by the Haudenosaunee Great Law, it seems wise to have a backup on an international level to sanction dictators and tyrants.
Your call for programs of decolonization are most significant. Too many think of solutions in terms of getting control of the masters institutions or changing them to be 'kinder, gentler' authorities. As the election and performance of Obama proves to those in the USA, hope or belief in change is not enough. Such 'regime change' is not enough when the authoritarian, corrupt institutions remain in place, controlled by the perverted strictures put in place centuries ago. We have to relearn how to think critically and especially to think outside the box they have wrapped the people in.
Too many Indigenous persons speak of the USA as 'our country' and 'our government' and align themselves with partisan politics as if that offers some hope for the future of their People. Just this week I read the words of a sister here on FB expressing pride that she has assimilated, as if distancing herself from her 'primitive, uncivilized' prior existence. If only her eyes could be healed and her ability to think clearly were restored, perhaps she would understand her victimization and affliction with what some term as Stockholm Syndrome.
"Since the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized is so deeply entrenched in the United States and Canada, most of us [Indians] have never learned how to challenge the status quo."
- - For Indigenous Eyes Only - a decolonization handbookSee More
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Barbara Low
The Colonial states of Canada and the U.S.A. are clearly guilty of Genocide. These countries have violated a number of articles of the Geneva convention.
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(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm ...to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
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a) Many documented cases of killing members of the group BECAUSE they are Indigenous. (Pox blankets, missing women in Canada, "Indian Wars", mass kiliings like Wounded Knee, scalp bounties)
b) Many documented cases of causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of Indigenous groups. Deliberately infecting children with communicable diseases in Residential schools. Prohibition of many rights including right to mobility, and vote which lead to social exclusion and ridicule.
c)The Indian Act and the Indian Re-location Act are just two bits of legislation which set out ways and means to inflict conditions which will bring about certain destruction of an identifiable group. Reservations, forced re-locations, etc.
d) Preventing births through forced sterilizations on both sides of the imaginary line.
e) Children were forcibly removed from families and placed in Boarding Schools, Residential Schools, and non-native homes.
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These are just a few of the PROVABLE allegations which should result in a guilty verdict in the International Courts.
The U.S.A. and Canada are not going to magically "step up" and begin to honour the SPIRIT and INTENT of the Treaties, unless they are forced to through serious International pressure.
We have been banging our head against the doors of the White House and Parliament Hill for too long.
Time to take it to the World.See More
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Barbara Low
Oh..and here in Canada, the last Residential School closed in 1996....and over 3000 Native women, have been "disappeared" since 1981 up here.
Trans generational effects of trauma in our communities mingles with the crippling effects of the o...ngoing Genocide - and David is right - Healing can not begin, while the struggle is still being waged in the streets and in our homes.See More
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David Sugar @barbara I would almost think your reading from my note from yesterday
. It is time perhaps to get that also into order...
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David Sugar @chip you are correct we should not loose sight of what is an essential principle.
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Barbara Low Ah David....at this point, I feel like I have been reciting the above "Case for Genocide" since the dawn of time. I get tired of thinking about it myself. I am certainly done with living it.
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David Sugar @barbara Nobody should ever have had to. All we can try to do is that those who are yet to be should not have to also.
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Sakoieta' Widrick Barbara, that is and has been my point from day one. When I talk with people and they try to get me to accept that because Phil, "Take a Pill" Fontain got money from the government and because Steven Harper issued an apology the issue is closed or should be and they believe it is only Indians who want more money of "taxpayers" hard earned dollars that is keeping things alive. This is nonsense and part of the problem came from our own leaders who are on the payroll for public dollars.
Community Forum
Topic: Our Country (Read 6444 times)
July 11, 2011, 05:25:17 pm
