[COAT] Afghan MP tells Ottawa to Stop Arms Shows

[coat AT list.openconcept.ca]

Please circulate this 

Afghan MP tells Ottawa Council to Stop Arms Shows
http://coat.ncf.ca/ARMX/cansec/joya.htm

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The letter (appended below) to Ottawa City Council comes
from an Afghan woman MP who expresses her clear opposition to the use of
Ottawa facilities for any military trade shows.
  
Malalai Joya is an elected Afghan Member of Parliament. However, in May
2007 she was barred from Parliament for three years because she had
denounced the many foreign-backed warlords and drug barons who dominate
her government.  While the Afghan Parliament passed a law giving
immunity to all Afghan's who have committed war crimes over the previous
25 years, it also passed a law saying that Afghan MPs could not criticise
each other.  
 
So it is permissible to have MPs in Afghanistan's parliament who are war
criminals, but it is not permissible to have MPs in that Parliament who
dare to risk death threats for merely criticising the presence of those
war criminals. This is the democracy that Canada helped to install and is
now protecting. Canada helped the US to replace Taliban warlords with
other warlords from the "Northern Alliance" who killed tens of
thousands of innocent civilians in Kabul alone during the 1990s.
 
For more about MP Malalai Joya, please view COAT's slide show on CANSEC.
The CANSEC slide
show starts here
The section of the
slide show on Malalai starts here
Malalai's website is
here

See this 46-page issue of COAT's magazine (issue #59) called
The New
Face of Terror in Afghanistan: 
How so-called 'Democracy' Empowered our Allies; the Fundamentalists,
Warlords and Drug Barons
 
Excerpts from Malalai's letter were read to Councillors at the Corporate
Services Committee meeting on June 15, 2009. Her struggle to expose
Afghan warlords in her government and her removal from Parliament was
described. However, several Councillors expressed their outright
opposition to the display of graphic photographs -- provided by Malalai
Joya -- that showed civilian victims of allied bombing attacks. 
These attacks were carried out by warplanes thoroughly embedded with
numerous essential Canadian components manufactured by CANSEC 2009
exhibitors. 
 
One Councillor even stated in his closing remarks that Malalai Joya
should (instead of being so critical) be thankful that Canadian troops
allow her to have a voice in the Afghan Parliament. (The Councillor
apparently did not absorb the fact that Malalai has banned from attending
the warlord-dominated parliament that Canada helped to install and that
Canadian troops are now protecting.)
 
Here is the letter received from Malalai Joya on June 12, 2009.

-------------------------------------------
 
As a member of a generation of war and conflict from Afghanistan, and as
a representative of a country which has been torn apart by decades of
war, occupation and bombs, I join the inspiring protest of peace-loving
people of Ottawa against hosting the weapons shows. I strongly support
the initiative of Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT) against arms
and for a peaceful world.
 
Being from a country devastated by war, we know very well the awful
consequences of arms and ammunition produced by countries like Canada.
For over 30 years, Afghan people have been bombed, killed, tortured and
brutalized by world powers and the armed groups supported by them. Around
2.5 million Afghans have been killed during these years. Today there are
over 800,000 disabled people, 25% of them children; there are over
700,000 war widows and millions of orphans. Afghanistan’s soil is still
full of over 9 million land mines which take innocent lives on a daily
basis.
 
The Afghan terrorist bands have made life a torture for our nation; they
are imposing their extremism and acts of terror with the help of the
weapons that are being sent to them from abroad. None of them are able to
produce any weapon to kill innocent people. 
 
I think the people of Canada and especially citizens of Ottawa should not
allow their soil to be used for displaying any hated weapons used against
the poor people of Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries.
 
In the past eight years, under the so-called “war on terror” imposed by
the US and allies against Afghan people, thousands of innocent Afghan
people have fallen victim to the dreaded war machine of occupation
forces. But still the terrorists are getting stronger day by day and
Afghanistan is being changed into the world capital of the drug mafia.
The coalitions forces are not only killing our people with weapons, some
of which are produced in Canada, but they are giving arms and support to
warlords who are now policy makers in the puppet government of Hamid
Karzai, They misuse their power to suppress Afghan people, especially
women.
 
You may have heard of the USA bombardments of civilians in Afghanistan
and the tragedies caused by it.  The most recent example is the
massacre in Bala Baluk district in Western Afghanistan, where US B-1
bombers dropped a series of 2000-pound bombs on two small villages and
over 143 civilians, mostly women and children, where torn into pieces.
Many mournful families never found the dead bodies of their loved ones as
they were burnt in the flames of the bombs. In a similar incident, a
wedding party was targeted in Nengrhar province of Afghanistan and 47
women and children, including the bride, were killed. Such tragedies are
daily realities of life for Afghan people.
 
Dropping thousands of cluster bombs and the depleted-uranium (DU) and
white phosphorus bombs used in Afghanistan have caused terrible health
problems. It has also ruined our environment and in the past few years
the number of congenital abnormalities and disorders in newborn babes
have raised to high levels.  The use of DU weapons not only put our
people in danger, it will also have bad effect on soldiers fighting in
that environment. Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan may not be safe from
its impact.
 
The bomblets of cluster bombs, scattered in Afghan villages are like dead
gifts to Afghan children and they routinely kill or disable our kids. It
is so sad to know that many components in the war planes used to
distribute such deadly weapons used against our people are produced in
Canada and that they are put on display at Ottawa weapons show.
 
Canada is seen as a peaceful country by many Afghans. The image of Canada
and its people will be badly destroyed in the mind of Afghan people if
they know about such shows of weapons, because they are deeply fed up
with the years of war and being killed by such weapons.
 
I call on peace and justice-loving people in Ottawa to raise their voice
and stop using of their city for displaying the death machines which are
killing poor people in my country. Please express your solidarity with my
suffering and crying people, by saying NO to the show of weapons, which
drive billions of dollars into the pockets of a few people, at the
expense of blood, tears and suffering of the unfortunate people of
Afghanistan and other conflict zones.
 
I pay tribute to all people of Ottawa who raise their voice against the
display of weapons and express the thanks of my people to them for caring
about their life and miseries.
 
With due respect,
 
Malalai Joya
http://www.malalaijoya.com