Condemn the war of occupation on Libya by US-France-Britain!
Express solidarity to the people of countries like Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria, Morocco and Jordan who are fighting for democracy and independence!
COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST)
CENTRAL COMMITTEE
Press Release
March 31, 2011
Oppose the intervention of imperialists, particularly of US, Britain and France in the internal matters of Arab countries!
For the past few weeks, the people's upsurges in Arab world are shaking the imperialists, particularly US imperialists while at the same time greatly influencing the people of the world. Starting from Tunisia this spread to many Arab countries. Ben Ali, the President of Tunisia who has been suppressing the people of Tunisia since 23 years and Hosni Mubarak, who was ruling Egypt since 30 years had to step down and run away dreading these mass upsurges. The mass movements in countries like Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan etc are ongoing in the same vein. The Arab population is demanding with one voice that their rulers who have been carrying on dictatorial rules since decades colluding with the imperialists should step down. Lakhs of Arab people, particularly the youth are defying ban orders and are pouring into the streets. Streets and squares have become seas of masses for weeks together. Hundreds have laid down their lives and thousands were injured in the crackdown by the governments. But now with the war on Libya by NATO countries led by US, the entire Arab world phenomena took a crucial turn.
In the name of stopping Libya from using its armed forces to suppress the rebels opposing Qaddafi's rule, the Security Council made the 'No fly zone' resolution. The NATO countries led by US voted in favor of the resolution while Russia, China, Germany, Brazil and India abstained from voting. Nor did the ones with Veto power use it to stop this resolution. Obviously these countries had indirectly condoned the military action by not opposing the resolution. The Manmohan Singh government is deceiving the people of India and the world by shedding crocodile tears in the aftermath of the attacks without even caring to condemn the attacks formally. US which had never condemned the arbitrary killings of Palestinians carried out by the Zionist Israel umpteen number of times by confining dozens of UN resolutions to the dustbin and which had used its Veto power for Israel most indiscriminately and other western powers have immediately started bombing Libya as soon as the UN resolution was made. On the very first day of this attack which is said to be part of an international campaign, 18 bomber jets belonging to France had rained at least 40 bombs on several targets. The US and Britain navies have targeted the security systems in Libya and have launched missiles. 18 Air Force B-2 war planes of US launched more than a hundred missiles on Libya and bombed several targets. In this war launched in the name of preventing massacres that could be perpetuated by Qaddafi forces, hundreds of civilians have lost their lives. Nothing could be more callous than asking the world people to believe that the value of the lives (deaths) of the Libyans change according to which bombs took their lives! The very media houses which have been relaying badly twisted news items supporting this NATO war on Libya hiding the facts on the ground had to admit that in the first attacks many children had died. They have once again nakedly displayed their class nature in the reportage of this one-sided war.
The UN which calls itself a neutral organization has once again proved itself to be a puppet in the hands of imperialist countries like US, Britain, France etc. Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon is behaving like their poodle. In the inhuman attacks on Gaza launched by Israel in December 2008, nearly 1,417 Palestinians (most of them women and children) lost their lives and many thousands of them were injured; Israel illegally used white phosphorus on the Gaza people and many of them became cancer patients due to this; it used F-16 bombers and resorted to 'targeted killings' and virtually made 15 lakhs of Gaza people live in conditions of an open jail without even drinking water or electricity – but all these were not enough for the UN to make a no-fly-zone resolution. The neo-Nazi Rajpakse government launched a genocidal war on Tamils to decimate LTTE and rained tonnes of bombs on residential areas and civilian targets and had killed 20,000 Tamils just in the last two days of the war; the atrocities committed by the Sinhala chauvinist army on the captured women tigers not sparing even their dead bodies have horrified the world – but the UN did nothing. In the past quarter of a century the Indian government through its army had crushed to death more than 80,000 Kashmiris under its iron heel – but the UN could not be woken from its slumber. And now the UN wants the world people to believe that this war on Libya is indeed being fought to protect the Libyans from Qaddafi forces. Shame on it! There is not even one instance where it had acted for the interests of the oppressed nations or the people while we can quote dozens of instances where it had jumped to save the US, Israel or other western countries' interests even if there is so much of a scratch.
The war on Libya defies the very spirit of the no-fly-zone resolution of the UN too. In the name of implementing the UN resolution made to prevent Libyan planes from bombing the rebels US, Britain and France are indiscriminately bombing Libya. This is nothing but a war of occupation. The real motive is to oust Qaddafi and replace him with their favorable ruling clique and loot the oil resources there. Nobody is so innocent as to believe that Obama is bombing Libya to protect Libyan rebels while he had sent Saudi Arabian troops into Bahrain through the back door to suppress the people's rebellion there. This blood-thirsty 'Nobel Peace Prize Laureate' who is killing hundreds of innocents in drone attacks in Afghanistan and western Pakistan has no moral right to utter even the words 'lives of innocents'. The western countries which never bothered about the lives of people when the armed forces of the dictators of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan etc, whom they had been supporting all these years, fired upon people killing them in scores are now bent upon dethroning Qaddafi – mind you, not for any selfish interests but 'to save the Libyans'. Unadulterated imperialist hypocrisy!
Ben Ali of Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, Isa Al Khalipha of Bahrain and King Abdullah of Jordan are the dictatorial rulers who have been suppressing the people of their countries since decades colluding with the western imperialists, particularly the US imperialists. The façade of democracy and elections in these countries can be gauged from the fantastic statistics that Ben Ali always got 97 to 99 percent of the votes?! There was no semblance of any democratic or civil rights. The police and intelligence departments were developed to monstrous proportions and they had been controlling the lives of people suppressing even an iota of dissent. Unemployment is on the rampage. Yemen alone has 40% unemployment. On the other hand the rulers are amassing immense wealth due to the rich oil resources there. Countless billions of dollars are stashed away in foreign banks. The world was astonished to find that Ben Ali had actually carried one and half tonne of gold physically with him while running away. Tip of an 'oilberg'? The ill-effects of the worldwide financial crises on the Arab people since 2008 are as severe as in any other part of the world. More than half the population there is living on less than two dollars a day. These dictators are spending people's money indiscriminately in the 'War on terror' launched by US in the name of suppressing Al Qaeda. Yemen started a counter-terrorist training programme with 750 millions of dollars. Such misuse of people's exchequer while cutting subsidies on essential services etc earned the wrath of the people. All these years the imperialists have stood in support of all the exploitation, oppression and repressive measures of these dictatorships on the people of their countries and have been cashing in on the several contradictions between various religions, tribes, nationalities and between sects like Shias and Sunnis. Now seeing the scale of the upsurges the imperialists have decided to trade new horses getting rid of the old ones. They made Ben Ali and Mubarak step down and had the power transferred to the military generals. In other countries the western powers are still supporting the dictators. The 22 nation Arab League is behaving like a stooge of the western powers in this entire episode and is neither displaying any shades of Arab nationalism nor giving voice to the anti-imperialist aspirations of the Arab people.
Only those rulers who fulfill the democratic aspirations of the people and unite them and oppose imperialism unequivocally can defend and preserve the independence and sovereignty of their countries. Any ruler, whether it is Qaddafi or any other, who resorts to autocratic rule over his people can never fight imperialism uncompromisingly. He can never unite people against imperialism.
The imperialists have been resorting to many conspiracies and scheming right from the beginning to establish their authority in West Asia and North Africa which are home to immense oil resources. They have stood in support of the dictators who bent their knees and preserved imperialist interests. If they think that he is a hindrance to their interests they are not hesitating to 'use and throw'.
Call of CPI (Maoist) to the Arab people
The Arab people should continue their agitations against dictators and imperialists with great determination. They should firmly oppose the attempts of imperialists, particularly US, Britain and France to hijack their movements. They should stay alert towards the military councils which came to power in place of the dictators. We are cautioning the whole Arab population not to get deceived by believing that the military generals who had all along supported the dictators would now guarantee democracy. All the anti-imperialist, democratic, patriotic sections including workers, peasants and middle classes should unite. The only path before the Arab population is to fight uncompromisingly with imperialism under the leadership of the proletariat. The recent phenomena in the Arab world has once again proven clearly that guidance of Marxist ideology and leadership of the vanguard of the proletariat, i.e. of a revolutionary communist party are inevitable for the true liberation of the oppressed masses. The namesake independences won by these countries from colonialism has given way to neo-colonial exploitation resulting in unbearable living conditions and the Arab people are direct victims of this since the past 40-50 years. If the Arab people have to win real independence then they have to stand on their own legs, destroy neo-colonialism and fight imperialism firmly. They should fight a united war against US, Britain and France imperialists who are waging an unjust war on Libya. CPI (Maoist) is hopeful that the struggles against the comprador bureaucratic rulers supported by the imperialists would definitely grow into determined resistance struggles against imperialists, against their intervention and against the unjust wars imposed by them. Only then could the Arab world be liberated from the clutches of dictators and imperialists.
Call of the CPI (Maoist) to the people of India and the world
The upsurges of the Arab people for freedom and democracy are entirely just struggles. Though there are some reactionaries like religious chauvinists among the agitators, these movements are democratic and progressive. Express solidarity to these movements. Condemn with one voice the unjust war imposed on Libya by the Western imperialists and the intervention of the imperialists in the Arab world.
Stop immediately the unjust war on Libya by NATO forces led by US!
The imperialists have no right to intervene in the internal matters of Libya!
Expose the interventionist policies of imperialists, particularly of US, Britain and France in the Arab world!
Support the just people's movements in the Arab countries!
(Abhay)
Spokesperson,
Central Committee,
CPI (Maoist)
