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@A call for global solidarity against global war @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ September 17, 2001 @@@@@@@@@@@@@@Violence Against Women in War Network, Japan We demand: 1. The United States government should call off the preparation for the retaliation war against the international terrorist attack. 2. The Japanese government should not cooperate with the United States military policy. 3. The United Nations should establish International Criminal Tribunal to prosecute and punish the perpetrators of the terrorist attack. 4. The racist attacks against Arab people should be stopped. 5. A just and co-existence world should be created in order to eliminate the root causes of terrorism. We, VAWW-NET Japan and our friends have addressed the issue of Japan's war crime committed in the 20th century. Our objective is to create a violence-free 21st century. We are deeply shocked at the terrorist attack that occurred in the first year of the new century, and we are frightened by the United States government call for the retaliation war. We express our profound condolence for thousands of loss of lives and share grief of those who have lost their loved ones. This attack may be an unprecedented tragedy in American history in which so many Americans perished in a single day. What the tragedy implies, however, is that security policy of the world's largest military might did not protect their citizens. The center of its economy and the military power were so vulnerably destroyed. Yet, even before the perpetrators are identified, President Bush called it "acts of war", and announced the military attack in revenge and vowed the United States will win this war of "good versus evil", and "civilization versus barbarism". We express our uncompromising rejection to the retribution by force. This terrorist attack is an international crime, not a war. This carnage is a crime against humanity. The crime needs to be brought to justice at the International Criminal Tribunal which the United Nations should establish: the perpetrators and the accomplices need to be prosecuted and punished through due process according to international law. However, President Bush declared that the United States and its allies would destroy not only terrorist groups but also the states which aid and harbor the terrorist groups, ignoring the role of the UN. A budget of 40 billion dollars is now allocated for the military strategy. Isn't this act of President Bush a violation of international law? It is a renunciation of democracy and the rule of law -- the very pride of the United States. We oppose to this belief of the United States leaders -- violence against violence. Violence does not eradicate terrorism. Violence only produces more violence. The history has proven it. Peaceful means is the only way to end the cycle of violence. The United States media fans the emotion of the public towards the direction of the Third World War as the public opinion overwhelmingly supports the use of force. We wonder whether the United States citizens who support the retaliation ever thought of the reasons why they were targeted. The victims of this tragedy are the victims of the mistaken foreign policies of their own government. The victims include a number of people from other nations. We recall the millions of death of not only other Asian people, but also of Japanese citizens caused in the Japanese war of aggression in the last century. People of the world remember that the United States has killed thousands of thousands more people in the world -- in Vietnam War, in the Gulf War, by aiding the dictatorships in South America and in Asia, by bombing Sudan and former Yugoslavia, and in supporting Israeli government who continues occupation of the land of Palestine. In the present time, it is the United States which propels globalization that has caused enormous economic disparities between wealthy and poor nations, environmental destruction, and armed conflicts. The Unites States government rejects international cooperation on such issues as global warming, nuclear non-proliferation, establishing International Criminal Court, and the UN World Conference against Racism. Peoples in the world feel outrage and even hatred against the United States. We also recall the United States itself has provided terrorist groups with weapons. These are the causes of this terrorist attack. Without addressing these root causes, terrorist attacks would never be eliminated. It would remain "the weapon of the weak". A woman from an Asian nation has written to us: "I wonder if Americans know how devastating a war is." She suffered the war waged in her own land. If one feels raged at the loss of thousands of Americans, would not she/he think of the possible loss of lives of women and children in such nations as Afghanistan? Those people would be killed in the war that the United States is about to initiate. Should not these deaths be prevented? The military attack against Afghanistan will certainly cause more deaths among 4 million people who have already suffered from hunger caused by the United States economic sanction. We are also concerned about violence against women in the case when the ground troops are deployed. As Americans were plunged into sorrow, these people would experience the same. Is it true that the victims of the terrorist attack would want such cruel revenge? Is it true that their soul may rest in peace by another tragedy? We do not believe that hatred nationalism is what they want. The lives in the non-Western world need to be protected as much as the lives in the Western world need to be protected. This belief lies in the heart of democracy and in the principle of human rights -- the "civilization" that the United States values. We have heard that people of Arabic origins in the Unites States are now facing vicious racist violence. We demand such violence be stopped immediately. At the same time, we are encouraged by receiving "other voices", many statements against war from United States citizens of conscience. We want to act in solidarity with those who courageously pursue peace in the midst of patriotic warlike chauvinism. NATO nations' support of the United States military attack is, we perceive, an expression of repressive means against peoples in the South such as Muslims. The NATO support of the United States government is a refusal of the reflection on their past of imposing colonialism. It denies the efforts to reform unjust North-South inequality that exists today. We hope civil society in the West take action for peace, not the use of force. As Japanese citizens, we are deeply concerned about the Japanese government's support of the United States government. The Koizumi administration already decided to modify the Self Defense Forces Law in order to protect the United States military bases located in Japan. It already talks about establishing the emergency preparation system and deployment of Self Defense Forces to keep public order. Right wing nationalists abuse this tragedy to implement the@Guidelines for US-Japan Defense Cooperation system to cooperate the United States military action. This is a major step to turning Japan into a nation capable of waging war. We are apprehensive that violence against women may worsen in Okinawa where the United States military bases are heavily located and the function of which will be intensified. We, again, express our strongest rejection to proceeding the road to militarization and to cooperating war. We shall not cooperate any military action to kill. We steadfastly stand for the principle of our peace constitution. We must prevent a global war by any means. It will be a global war of the"North" ? the United States, Europe and Japan ? against the "South."These nations of the "North" have promoted globalization that have caused arising of fundamentalism and nationalism world wide. People in the "South" especially suffer from these effects of globalization, and they resist globalization. We appeal to citizens of the world including United States citizens of conscience to unite and oppose the globalization of war by our "globalization" of solidarity. Our deep belief firmly stands in the philosophy of non-violence that denies all forms of violence. We ask women all over the world to work together to create a 21st century of peace, not to repeat the century of war. Yayori Matsui Chairperson of VAWW-NET Japan Please sign and return to VAWW-NET Japan fax: +81 3 5337 4088 e-mail: vaww-net-japan@jca.apc.org Petition form you can get at VAWW-NET Japan Web-site. Japanese: www1.jca.apc.org/fem/lookout/NoViolence/NoWarPetition.html English: www1.jca.apc.org/fem/lookout/NoViolence/NoWarPetition-e.html @ |
