M&M’s personal & political blog…

The founding congress of the International Migrant’s Alliance (IMA) in Hong Kong in July 2008 and the International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR) in September the same year served to expose the concerted international policies promoting migration of workers and their devastating impact. The experience and research of grassroots migrants organizations world-wide has produced a wealth of information about how imperialist globalization is commodifying workers to the ultimate degree for the extraction of superprofits.

We have seen how the imperialists have actually put a positive spin on this massive forced migration and commodification of workers and have the gall to call it a "tool for development". We know that in fact it bleeds the countries of the south of their workforce, decimates families, and is one more way of preventing real development from taking place in the South, and of maintaining imperialist control and uneven distribution of power and wealth in the world.

The age of imperialist globalization is the age of the temporary worker, the migrant, the just-in-time “rent-a-worker” labour force, to use and then dispose of. Indeed, the Philippines is the number one source of this throw-away labour force per capita. The Philippine ruling class and its governments have shamelessly peddled their people to the highest bidder for decades. The Labour Export Policy (LEP), a so-called stop-gap measure introduced by the dictator Marcos in the 1970’s, has become a permanent fixture in the Philippine economy, the principal dollar earner to prop up the backward, semi-feudal and semi-colonial system of rule in the country.

Continue reading Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program – Permanent second-class status for migrants

A Woman Among the Warlords
by Malalai Joya with Derrick O’Keefe

As the decade came to an end (December 31, 2009) I was reading about ten civilians shot down in Afghanistan, and the polemic over why and how they were killed. One report said that a joint international unit helicoptered into a remote town and ordered the people out of their houses. Ten people, including eight children, came out of three houses and were shot. The international forces said they were firing back at an attack. There were no innocents, they said: it was self-defense.

I could not quite buy this explanation, especially because of a biography I read earlier this year about Malalai Joya. This courageous young woman, who at 27 became the youngest person elected to Afghistan’s new Parliament in 2005, was suspended from this body two years later for her persistent criticism of the warlords and drug barons that dominate the Parliament. She has survived four assassination attempts to date, and is accompanied at all times by armed guards and sleeps only in safe houses.

She is very clear regarding the presence of foreign troops in her country and the role of these “international forces”.

Malalai Joya

“In this hoax of a ‘war on terror’ groups are labelled ‘terrorists’ depending on how useful they are to the goals of the United States. The Unites States calls the Taliban terrorists, but not the warlords who murder and rape innocents to impose their will on the people. And are not the night raids that US Special Forces carry out in Afghan villages acts of terror? These violent home invasions are supposed to round up al Quada and Taliban sympathizrs, but the soldiers often end up killing innocent civilians. Again, the result is a terrorized and angry population with an urge to seek vengeance,” she writes in her book.

When Malalai Joya came to Montreal on November 15, 2009, I was eager to hear her speak. The large performance hall at Université de Québec à Montréal was packed. After some introductory remarks by the Fédération des femmes du Québec (Quebec Women’s Federation) and the Echec à la guerre anti-war coalition, the two main sponsors of the evening, Malalai Joya came on the stage.

A modest, unassuming woman wearing a simple brown dress and a headscarf, Malalai Joya spoke hesitant English and her style was anything but inflammatory. She had no power-points, no pictures. But when she spoke about the devastation in her country, and the decades of war she and her people have endured, we all had the images vividly in our minds.

She says that “Kabul has been turned into a city of beggars” where “from the sky we get bombs, and on the ground, the Talibans and warlords”. She says her people have just experienced the “most ridiculous election in the world”, where “it is not a matter of who is voting, but who is counting”, and “the winner is picked by the White House”. She calls Hamid Karzai, the “shameless puppet man” of the Americans.

Her message was clear and direct: foreign troops, and especially the Americans, must leave Afghanistan. They are propping up a regime of warlords, druglords and NGO lords. “We are right now under the “protection” of armed forces from forty three countries, yet we are still living with war, brutality, poverty and crime. If the United States and its NATO allies leave, the warlords will lose power because they have no base among our people.”

Would Afghanistan become a bloodbath if the foreign troops pulled out, because there are no alternative forces strong enough to take the place of Karzai and his pro-US regime? Not true, says Joya, we have intellectuals and a population that knows what is good for itself. “We have what it takes in Afghanistan to deal with the Talibans and other reactionaries who are using Islam for their own ends. If foreign powers stop financing and propping up the warlords, we would stand a chance.”

My own tears welled up when Malalai Joya said she was not afraid, even though she travels with body guards, and lives under constant threat. After all, she was attacked from the first time she went to take her seat as an elected representative in the Afghan parliament, when she was only 27 years old. Today she is 36. But she says, her life or death does not matter, because the struggle of the people of Afghanistan will continue regardless. “I am young and I value my life; I don’t want to be kiled. But I don’t fear death. I fear reamining silent in the face of injustice. I fear becoming idifferent to the fate of my people…”

Will the election of Barack Obama change things for Afghanistan? asked an audience participant. Her book had already answered this. “I know that (Barack) Obama’s election has brought great hopes to peace-loving people in the United States. But for Afghans, Obama’s military build-up will only bring more suffering and dneath to innocent civilians, while it may not even weaken the Taliban and al-Queda. I hope that the lessons in this book will reach Preseident Obama and his plicy makers in Washigton, and warn them that the people of Afghanistan reject their brutal occupation and their support of the warlords and druglords.”

Malalai Joya’s message reverberates to other peoples’ struggles, as well.

“In Afghanistan, democratic-minded people have been struggling for human and women’s rights for decades. Our history proves that these values cannot be imposed by foreign troops. As I never tire of telling my audiences, no nation can donate liberation to another nation. These values must be fought for and won by the people themselves. They can only grow a and flourish when they are planted by the people in their own soil and watered by their own blood and tears. ”

Clearly, there will be more blood and tears in 2010 in Afghanistan.

A few days after Malalai Joya’s trip to Montreal, Barack Obama announced that the US would be redeploying 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Ironically, Malalai Joya’s voice was drowned out in the name of democracy, women’s rights and human rights, by none other than the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 2009.

She concludes her book’s introduction with: In Afghanistan, we have a saying that is very dear to my heart: “The truth is like the sun: when it comes up, nobody can block it out or hide it.” I hope that this book and my story will, in a small way, help that sun to keep shining and inspire you, wherever you might be reading this, to work for peace, justice and democracy.

Her book, with her fresh young face on the cover, is a worthwhile read and a strong indictment of “humanitarian imperialism”.

Marie Boti
January 3, 2010

Note: In the acknowledgements at the end of the book, among the list of people Joya mentions is Mable Elmore, a recently elected MLA in Vancouver, and long-time activist in the Philippine progressive community. I have known Mable for several years and am very pleased to know she helped make this book possible.

Montréal, Québec, Canada – November 28, 2009

The Centre d’appui aux Philippines / Centre for Philippine Concerns (CAP-CPC) vehemently condemns the barbaric massacre of at least 57 people, including many women and children, 29 journalists, and human rights lawyers on November 23, 2009 in Ampatuan, Maguindanao on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines.

The victims were abducted and executed by approximately 100 gunmen while en route to file election papers for Ismael Mangudadatu as a candidate for governor of Maguindanao in the May 2010 elections. The candidate was not with the entourage as he had received death threats.

The 29 journalist victims constitute the largest group of media personnel killed in a single incident in the world. Twenty-four of the victims were women including the candidate’s wife and sisters and two lawyers, Concepcion Brizuela and Cynthia Oquendo. Many of the victims were beheaded and mutilated; some of the women were raped.

It signals the opening round of what we fear to be an extremely bloody lead up to the Presidential elections in May 2010 in which entrenched forces will use any means to maintain control behind a facade of democracy.

Police have named as the chief suspect, Andal Amputuan Jr., son of the three-term governor of Maguindanao province and a powerful supporter of the Lakas Kampi colation led by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Andal Ampatuan Jr. was being groomed to take over his father’s position as Governor. He was assisted by senior police officials, local police and paramilitary forces who function as a private army of the Ampatuan clan. An earth digger registered to the provincial government was even on hand to bury the victims in common graves prepared in advance.

The Ampatuans are governors of both Maguindanao and the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the family includes a cabinet undersecretary, congressmen and several town mayors . These warlords delivered large numbers of questionable votes to the ruling coalition of President Arroyo in the 2004 and 2007 elections. The town nearest the massacre site carries the family’s name.

The Ampatuan warlords apparently consider themselves untouchable because of their loyal ties to the Arroyo government. A climate of impunity reigns for human rights violators and mass murderers in the Philippines.

Since 2001 over 800 people have been killed in the Philippines, all of them in some way seen as opponents or critics of the regime led by President Arroyo. The dead include peasants, lawyers (22), judges (15), opposition politicians, journalists and other members of civil society as well as 51 incidents of massacres victimizing 255 persons.

These extra-judicial killings are perceived to be a result of the U.S.- initiated counter-insurgency plan to eliminate the New People’s Army – Operation Plan Freedom Watch (Oplan Bantay Laya – OBL). The OBL was first ceated by the Arroyo regime in 2002 as a 5-year plan and extended in 2007 with the support and encouragement of the U.S. Government under its “global war on terror” policies. There have been no proper investigations of these extrajudicial killings and only one prosecution and conviction.

In the case of the Ampatuan massacre, it took four days before the principal suspect was taken into custody and only after intense public outcry for justice. The Arroyo government’s initial response was to declare a state of emergency in the province which would be enforced, of course, by the local state apparatus controlled by the Ampatuans.

Over the past few years, the Arroyo government has given the Ampatuan clan the authority to recruit and arm civilians to assist in fighting “insurgents” in the region. As a result, the Ampatuans now have a 500-strong army, which includes entire regular military and police units assigned to ensure the security of the clan members, as well as 200 special armed civilian auxiliary forces. These paramilitary forces of the Civilian Volunteer Organization (CVO) and Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) are officially designated and financed by Manila as auxiliaries of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in line with Oplan Bantay Laya.

Through its continuing support for OBL, Washington bears responsibility for this crime against humanity. The US military considers Mindanao strategic for its forces in this part of the world. It maintains military facilities on the island in direct violation of the Philippine Constitution. It has conducted at least seven military exercises in Mindanao since 2001, poured in millions of dollars of military aid and has trained local security forces to enhance “interoperability” with US troops.

Ottawa also shares responsibility. Canadian mining companies are active in several islands of the Philippines including mineral-rich Mindanao and are known to use local private security forces as well as the AFP and PNP to protect their interests.

In a statement, the Lawyers Rights Watch Canada (LRWC) and Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) pointed out that in 2007, Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur for extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions, made a number of recommendations to prevent further and punish past extrajudicial killings.

Their statement reads: (Alston’s) recommendation that, “(C)onvictions in a significant number of extrajudicial executions must be achieved” has not been implemented. His recommendation that, “IALAG [Inter-active Legal Agency Group] should be abolished, and the criminal justice system should refocus on investigating and prosecuting those committing extrajudicial executions and other serious crimes” has not been implemented. His recommendation that “(H)uman rights should be safeguarded within the peace movement” has not been implemented.

The statement concludes: “The Philippine government failed to take effective steps to prevent or punish those extrajudicial killings, in spite of the careful recommendations of Professor Alston. That failure violated the Philippine government’s primary legal duty to protect the right to life and to ensure adequate criminal and civil remedies when that right is violated. It also created the climate of impunity that encouraged and allowed the November 23 2009 massacre. For a period of over eight years, the Philippine government has on the one hand refused, and on the other, demonstrated a lack of capacity, to carry out the investigations required by both international law (binding on the Philippines) and domestic law.”

The Stop the Killings in the Philippines Network and the Philippine Solidarity Network – Canada calls on all justice-loving people to denounce the Ampatuan Massacre and all other extra-judicial killings in the Philippines, demand an independent international probe of these killings, and condemn the Arroyo government for coddling mass murderers and human rights violators as well as its direct implication in the extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

We demand the dismantling of the private armies of the warlords in Maguindanao Province as well as other parts of the Philippines and the immediate rescinding of Executive Order 546 created by the Philippine government in July, 2006 which allows local politicians to convert and fund their private armies as legal entities in the counter-insurgency program.

We demand that those responsible for this attack as well as those involved in the more than 1,000 extrajudicial killings perpetrated with impunity, be they hired thugs or ranking officials in the government and its police and armed forces, be immediately investigated and made to face prosecution and such further actions as required by local and international law.

Too many people have died, the bloodbath and the climate of impunity must stop now.

JUSTICE FOR THE VICTIMS OF AMPATUAN MASSACRE!
JUSTICE TO ALL VICTIMS OF EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS!
STOP THE KILLINGS IN THE PHILIPPINES!

Annex:

Given the intimate ties of the Ampatuans and other forces in the Philippines with the U.S.-backed Arroyo government, there is no reason to expect that any fact-finding body or investigation initiated by the present Philippine government will be credible or will bring justice to the victims of massacres and other human rights violations in the Philippines.

To this end we join with other lawyers and human rights organizations around the globe in demanding:

1. The appointment of a team of professional investigators from outside the Philippines;
a) qualified in the various necessary aspects of criminal investigations,
b) absolutely independent of the Arroyo regime; and
c) authorized to compel production of evidence and examine witnesses; and
d) mandated to conduct a thorough, transparent and accountable inquiry into the 57 murders that occurred on November 23, 2009; as well as put into place the mechanisms for uncovering the facts and responsibility behind the other political killings and forced disappearances, and
e) mandated to make recommendations for the prosecution of the suspected perpetrators identified by the inquiry and to make recommendations of alternatives in the event that the Philippine courts are unable or unwilling to proceed with the prosecutions recommended.
2. Monitor and assure the safety of others likely to be under attack, including the witnesses.

Written by Malcolm Guy for Centre d’appui aux Philippines / Centre for Philippine Concerns and the Philippine Solidarity Network – Canada