For Immediate
Release:
Tuesday, August 22, 2011
Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media
Coordinator,
202-518-5624, cell
202-904-7614,
mclarty@greens.orgStarlene Rankin,
Media Coordinator,
916-995-3805,
starlene@gp.orgThe Green Party
urges US/NATO to withdraw from
Libya and support African Union efforts to broker
a resolution
• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on
foreign policy:
http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-foreign-policy.phpWASHINGTON,
DC -- Green Party leaders urged an immediate US/NATO withdrawal from Libya after
the advance of rebel forces into
Tripoli, and called on President Obama to
support a political solution to the crisis in Libya through diplomacy, with the
involvement of the African Union, Arab League, and United Nations.
"The
African Union's mediation committee offered a positive outline for an immediate
ceasefire, followed by negotiation without preconditions and democratic
elections in Libya. This is the perfect moment for President Obama, NATO,
and the UN to support the efforts of the African Union to broker a
resolution. All elements of Libyan society must be invited to the table to
determine the country's new direction. The Libyan people must be allowed
to decide their own future," said Romi Elnagar, member of the Green Party of
Louisiana and the Green Party's International Committee (
http://www.gp.org/committees/intl).
"If
US and NATO forces prolong military action and attempt an occupation to
stabilize Libya, the result will be more civilian lives lost and a disaster
similar to the occupations of
Iraq and
Afghanistan, and the evaporation of hopes
for freedom and democratic self-determination for the Libyan people," Ms.
Elnagar added.
See "African Union Statement on the NATO Invasion
of Libya: It's Time to End the Bombing and Find a Political Solution in Libya"
by Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, Uganda's Permanent Representative to the UN, New Vision
(Uganda), June 17, 2011 (
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/757904).
According to the statement, "Gadaffi accepted dialogue when the AU mediation
Committee visited Tripoli on April 10, 2011. Any war activities after that
have been provocation for
Africa. It is an unnecessary war."
The
Green Party opposed the US/NATO assault on Libya from the beginning (
http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=399)
and Greens have strongly criticized President Obama for public statements, after
the beginning of the attack, in which he changed the goal from "humanitarian
intervention" for the protection of Libyan civilians to ousting Gaddafi.
Attacking a country to remove its leadership is a violation of international
law. The Libyan war was also conducted without congressional approval,
even after the US House in June voted against authorizing continued military
operations in Libya for one year.
The Green Party supports nonviolent
resistance to oppression, as most Palestinians have practiced for decades and
Egyptians more recently, and deplores the killing of unarmed
civilians.
"The severity of bombing raids over the past few months
suggests that Gaddafi himself has been and may still be the target. The
bombing inevitably turned indiscriminate and led to widespread civilian death
and injury. NATO's claim of protecting civilian lives has become
increasingly implausible. Unfortunately, Secretary of State Clinton's
refusal to grant the Libyan UN ambassador a visa has censored Libya's own
collected statistics on civilian casualties resulting from the raids," said
Farheen Hakeem, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.
Cynthia
McKinney, the Green Party's 2008 presidential nominee, recently conducted a
fact-finding tour of Libya and reported on NATO's bombing of civilians at
Al
Fateh University, Campus B, in Tripoli on June 9 in her blog at Black Agenda
Report (
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/more-nato-humanitarian-interventionthe-bombing-al-fateh-university-campus-b).
Green
Party leaders noted that, while attacking Libya in the name of democracy and
liberation, the US has withheld criticism of violent repression of popular
movements for democracy in
Bahrain,
Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, and the Palestinian
territories occupied by
Israel, which are US allies.
Greens have agreed
with the call by the United National Antiwar Committee "for an immediate halt to
US intervention in regions and countries where mass mobilizations are
challenging oppressive regimes" (Statement on Libya,
http://nepajac.org/libya.htm) and warned
against US efforts to co-opt movements for democracy in African countries and
force them to accept Africom (United States Africa Command), a program to impose
US military presence and strategic objectives in African countries.
"The
unprovoked assault on Libya has constituted a third war, with US troops still
occupying Iraq and Afghanistan/Pakistan, against the government of a majority
Muslim nation. It has opened a dangerous new front in a wider unending US
war that is at least in part motivated by a desire to control the planet's
largest oil reserves in the coming decades. These policies, unless
reversed, may eventually ignite a global conflict in this century of dwindling
oil resources and advancing climate change. Already, the US has spent $3.7
trillion on wars during the past decade, draining sorely needed funds from
public services and other domestic necessities and aggravating the current
fiscal crisis. It's time to retire the Bush-Cheney-Obama policy of
military aggression," said Muhammed Malik, co-chair of the
Miami-Dade Green
Party (
http://www.miamidadegreenparty.org)
and a member of the Green Party's International Committee.
