Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- Please respond to Richard Sanders at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] a ------- Seeking Endorsements for the "No to NATO: Festival of Creative NonViolence" Dear friends, I am writing to see whether you could seek endorsements from any NGOs for the "No to NATO: Festival of Creative NonViolence" that we are holding in Ottawa, Canada, on October 6. We wish to counter the NATO-related meetings being held here, Oct 5-8. We also wish to celebrate nonviolence as a means to oppose to war and injustice. I hope you can help with this effort! I believe it is very important -- especially at this time -- to demonstrate that nonviolent protest is strongly supported by a wide variety of organizations, not only in Canada but around the world. A diverse list of endorsements for this festival will show the general public, the media, governments, corporations, police and other "security forces" that there is indeed a strong and dynamic movement supportive of nonviolence and opposed to the use of war and militarism to resolve conflicts. Please read our "Call to Dis Arms" and distribute it to any organizations or individuals who may be interested. Thanks! I've also included in this email a list of 24 "Reasons to Oppose NATO." Anything you can do to help encourage NGOs to endorse our festival of nonviolence and spread the word to fellow activists would be greatly appreciated! If you can't physically be with us in Ottawa, please join us in spirit! Together we can send a powerful message that nonviolence is alive and well, and that NATO is not welcome, anywhere! In solidarity, Richard Sanders Coordinator, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade P.S. We will list the names of endorsing organizations on publicity materials such as pamphlets, posters, the next issue of our magazine (Press for Conversion!) and on our web site. (NOTE: In our web site, we would like to include some information about the endorsing NGOs that are listed. We would therefore appreciate a short (30 word) description of endorsing NGOs, as well as contact information (phone, fax, email and website URL). Thanks very much for your support! ================================================================= "Call to Dis Arms!" >>>>>> NATO PA* is coming to Ottawa! October 5-8, 2001 <<<<<< Please join us in building towards the: "No to NATO! Festival of Creative NonViolence" <------< what Saturday, October 6, at 1 p.m. <------< when Gathering at the US Embassy (MacKenzie Ave.) <------< where JOIN THE FESTIVITIES! Celebrate the diversity of creative nonviolence!! Here are some of the ideas we've been discussing. We need your help now to turn these and other ideas into reality: > large puppets and street theatre > symbolic conversion of police barricades around NATO mtgs. into prison walls to contain war criminals > poetry/spoken word/musical performances > speaker phone/sound system creating a live connection to anti-NATO activists around the world > radical cheerleaders, the Raging Grannies and the Grumbling Gramps (?) > interfaith peace service > distribution of free vegetarian food > civil disobedience to attempt citizens arrests of NATO war leaders > boycott of corporations sponsoring/supporting the NATO visit > projecting images of NATO's war against Yugoslavia (slides, videos) onto exterior walls of significant buildings GET BUSY! Start preparing for Olympics of nonviolent action! We are inviting activists from far and wide to come together to build this celebration of peacemaking! We would like to see as many creative activities as possible to counter NATO's warmaking. Let's demonstrate to NATO, corporations, governments, the general public and the media, that there is a vibrant, dynamic, diverse and lively movement opposed to militarism and corporate globalization. Please work with others to take on a project (large or small) to prepare the most imaginative action, performance or display that you can muster! Embrace your spirit of creativity and nonviolence to send the message loud and clear: We are holding NATO leaders accountable for their crimes against peace and humanity! A FEW THINGS THAT YOU CAN DO: (1) PUBLICITY! Please help to promote this Festival. Spread the word to friends and colleagues: Circulate this email announcement to your contacts, to listserves, make phone calls, put notices in publications, make announcements at meetings, shout from the rooftops and generally encourage as many people as possible to attend! (2) ENDORSMENTS! Please ask organizations to endorse the Festival so that our list of sponsoring groups is as comprehensive as possible on future publicity materials. Please consider asking for endorsements from groups focused on peace, anti-globalization, human rights, the environment, social justice, poverty as well as labour unions and religious, youth and feminist organizations, to name but a few. (3) CREATIVITY! Please urge groups to bring their creative energies, props and performances to the Festival. Get together with others to plan some particular activity that creatively conveys a message that you feel strongly about. (We're hoping to see puppets, costumes, street theatre, satirical songs, clever banners, flags, photos, signs and many other diverse symbolic representations to dramatically conveying who we are, what we stand for and why we think NATO should be behind bars!) Please let us know what you're planning so we can compile a list to help publicize your activities and possibly direct some volunteers your way for a specific project! (4) FINANCIAL SUPPORT! Of course, some money would help too! We have received no funding for this event. If you can't make it to the Festival, or even if you are attending, please remember that any donation -large or small -- would be very much appreciated. Please ask unions, NGOs and other individuals for grants or donations to help us make this festival a great success. Cheques can be made payable to the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (or just COAT), and mailed to 541 McLeod St., Ottawa Ontario K1R 5R2 Canada (earmarked "Festival of Creative Nonviolence.") (5) JOIN OUR LIST SERVE! The Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade has created the "no_to_nato" list serve to discuss and build nonviolent responses to NATO's visit to Ottawa. To join our list, just send the following message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: subscribe no_to_nato (Then, when you receive an automated email simply reply to it and you're subscribed.) You can connect to the "no_to_nato" archive of email postings from the COAT website: <http://www.ncf.ca/coat> or view it at <http://www.flora.org/coat/forum/> (6) ATTEND A MEETING! Please join us in helping to organize the "No to NATO! Festival of Creative NonViolence." This is a special meeting of the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade to focus on planning for this event. Tuesday, August 28, 7;30 p.m. 91A Fourth Ave. (just east of Bank St., in Ottawa's Glebe) (If you are not in Ottawa, please MEET LOCALLY to discuss bringing buses, cars, trains, unicycles and your creative talents to our fair city! If you are too far away from Ottawa to even think of attending or arranging transportation, then refer to items 1 to 5). THE PATH OF NONVIOLENCE We will gather across from the new U.S. Embassy on MacKenzie Ave. on Saturday, October 6, at 1 p.m. This is only one block from the Conference Centre where the NATO PA meetings are being held. We could stay at that location, in Majors Hill Park (a beautiful treed park where many festivals are held) or we could organize a peace march to a series of fairly nearby, potent symbolic locations. We could, for instance, visit the following: (1) Canada's Military Peacekeeping monument (MacKenzie Ave. and Sussex Dr.) (2) Canada's War Department (between the Laurier and MacKenzie King bridges) (3) the UK embassy (Elgin St.) (4) the War Memorial (Elgin St. and Wellington St.) (5) the Parliament Buildings (Wellington St.) Whether we will venture from the Park to visit some or all of these locations is not yet decided. Any input? MORE INFORMATION ON NATO PA * The NATO PA (Parliamentary Assembly) is comprised of pro-NATO politicians from NATO member states. Check out their website at <http://www.nato-pa.int> ================================================================= REASONS TO OPPOSE NATO: (1) NATO is a creature of the Cold War and should be abolished, not expanded. (2) NATO's official military doctrine reserves for itself the right to use nuclear weapons despite the fact that in 1996 the World Court made such use, or threat, illegal. The use of nuclear weapons contravenes International Humanitarian Law because civilian deaths would be massive and indiscriminate. NATO's nuclear weapons also pose the risk of environmental catastrophe, including the global holocaust of "nuclear winter." NATO's nuclear weapons policy also contravenes the Nonproliferation Treaty (to which all NATO members are signatories) that requires all states to press quickly to abolish nuclear weapons. NATO member states (US, UK and France) now have more than 9,000 nuclear warheads in active service, about 60% of the world's nuclear arsenal. These three NATO states have committed some of their nuclear weapons to NATO for its use in war. NATO itself maintains between 60 and 200 nuclear weapons at airbases in Western Europe. NATO's nuclear weapons and the threat of their use are a means of coercion and intimidation, especially against states that do not possess these weapons. (3) NATO's powerful core members (the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Holland, Belgium and Spain) have a long history of controlling vast empires. Former colonies of these NATO countries -- today's Third World -- still suffer from tragic economic inequalities resulting from hundreds of years of imperialism imposed by nations that are now members of NATO. Transnational corporations controlled by economic interests in NATO countries continue to dominate these former colonies under a neoliberal economic system now labeled "corporate globalization." (4) According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, about 80% of the world's total military equipment was produced by NATO members in 1996. The following NATO members are among the world's top ten military producers: the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Canada. The U.S., U.K. and France alone contributed about 70% of world's total arms production for that year. (5) After the disappearance of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, NATO became increasingly irrelevant and needed a reason for its continued existence. NATO therefore escalated its efforts to foment ethnic wars in the Balkans in order to create excuses for its own military interventions in the region. NATO's interventions -- so-called "humanitarian wars" -- were then sold to the public as a means of settling conflicts between ethnic groups. NATO's real purpose is to expand the colonial spheres of influence of its member states and their corporate allies. (6) NATO waged a war of aggression against Yugoslavia that was illegal under its own Charter and various international laws. (7) NATO forces used 1,200 warplanes and helicopters to fly 35,000 combat missions against Yugoslavia. It dropped 20,000 bombs and missiles containing 80,000 tons of explosives on that country. Contrary to international law, NATO targeted civilian infrastructure, including over 1,000 targets of no military significance, such as: schools, hospitals, farms, bridges, roads, railways, waterlines, media stations, historic and cultural monuments, museums, factories, oil refineries and petrochemical plants. (8) NATO's illegal bombing campaign severely impacted the health of Yugoslavia's civilian population. Thousands of civilians were killed, at least 6,000 were injured and countless others, especially children, suffered severe psychological trauma. (9) According to the UN Environmental Program, NATO's bombing campaign triggered an ecological catastrophe in Yugoslavia and the surrounding region. (10) In its war against Yugoslavia, NATO used weapons that are prohibited by the Hague and Geneva Conventions and the Nuremburg Charter, such as depleted uranium missiles that are radioactive and highly toxic weapons with long-term, life-threatening health and environmental consequences, and anti-personnel cluster bombs designed to kill and maim (that contravene the "Ottawa Process on Landmines" because many "bomblets" do not explode during initial impact). NATO continues to stockpile these prohibited weapons for use against civilian populations in future wars. (11) After its bombing of Yugoslavia, NATO refused to disarm the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) as required by United Nations resolution 1244. Instead, NATO converted the KLA into the Kosovo Protection Force supposedly to maintain peace and order in NATO-controlled Kosovo. Under the watchful eye of 40,000 NATO troops, the revamped KLA terrorists ethnically cleansed the area of 250,000 people who were not of Albanian heritage (as well as some ethnic Albanians loyal to Yugoslavia). During NATO's occupation, 1,300 citizens have been killed and another 1,300 have been reported missing. Kosovo's remaining minorities have no freedom of movement, live in ghettoes and face frequent terrorist attacks and property destruction. (12) NATO appointed Agim Ceku, an alleged war criminal, as commander of the Kosovo Protection Force. Ceku, an Albanian Kosovar, led the Croatian army's "Operation Storm" that ethnically cleansed the Serbian population from their ancestral lands in Croatia. If the Hague were to pursue an indictment of Ceku, and other such terrorists, it would be a major embarrassment to their NATO bosses. (13) As an occupying colonial power, NATO forces helped to enforce the cancellation of election results in Bosnia, shut down the offices and transmission towers of media stations that were critical of NATO's presence and seized the assets of political parties that refused to cooperate with them. (14) The exploitative behavior rampant in military culture is exemplified by the actions of NATO troops based in the Balkans. For example, NATO troops fuel the demand for prostitution in both Bosnia and Kosovo. The women who service NATO troops live in deplorable conditions and are frequently held against their will by local captors. When evidence of UN or NATO involvement in this trade has surfaced, implicated officers have been discharged and sent home but no criminal proceedings have ever been initiated against them. (15) NATO has been a prime source of destabilization in Macedonia by giving military assistance to Albanian terrorists there. The London Times (June 10, 2001) reported that NATO's appointee to the Kosovo Protection Force, Agim Ceku, sent 800 KLA troops to Macedonia to aid the nascent Albanian insurgency there. This June, NATO troops intervened to evacuate KLA fighters when Macedonian forces closed in on the rebels near Aracinovo. German media reports state that NATO's evacuation was ordered because 17 former U.S. military personnel -- hardened by years of Balkan fighting and working for a private U.S. mercenary group -- were among the KLA terrorists. NATO has also used diplomatic means to pressure the Macedonian government to succumb to Albanian demands. (16) NATO's aggressive policy of expansion into Eastern Europe severely threatens international stability. With NATO's annexation of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland now complete, Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia have declared an interest in joining the NATO juggernaut. NATO has also set its sights on penetrating even further into former Soviet spheres of influence by trying to encompass Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and the Ukraine. NATO's intention to press beyond the former borders of the Soviet Union is dangerously confrontational and risks provoking war with Russia. (17) NATO's expansion into Central and Eastern Europe is a means of integrating the military forces within those countries under NATO (and largely U.S.) control. As military units within NATO, the armed forces of new NATO member states must submit to demands for standardization of military training, weapons and other military equipment. Requirements that new members standardize their military equipment to NATO's exacting specifications is a tremendous boon to U.S. and European military industries that profit greatly from these expanded export markets. (18) New NATO member states may also lose sovereignty over other important aspects of their armed forces, such as the command, control, communications and intelligence functions, which also risk being subsumed under the auspices of NATO standardization. (19) The reasons for NATO's expansion eastward are largely economic. For instance, NATO's military access and control over Eastern Europe helps Western European corporations to secure strategic energy resources such as oil from the Caspian Sea and Central Asia. The U.S. and Western European corporations will greatly benefit from NATO's control of the oil corridor through the Caucasus mountains. NATO wants its troops to patrol this pipeline and to dominate the Armenian/Russian route to the Caspian Sea. The Caucasus also link the Adriatic-Ceyhan-Baku pipeline with oil-rich countries even farther east, in the former Soviet Central Asia republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Billions of dollars in oil may someday flow through these corridors to Western Europe for the benefit of Western-based oil companies. (20) NATO's growth is not only a provocation to Russia, it also threatens the security of China and other Asian states that may respond in kind by increasing their military spending, thus diverting resources from the essential needs of their citizens. NATO's expansion may eventually provoke an anti-NATO alliance in Asia, further destabilizing peace and leading to possible future wars. (21) As part of the "NATO Defence Capabilities Initiative," NATO member states have committed themselves to increase their military abilities for "power projection, mobility and increased interoperability." This will require significant additional military expenditures. European NATO countries have already increased their expenditures for military equipment by 11% in real terms since 1995. Meanwhile, military budgets in the U.S. and Canada have also increased over the past two years. The military budgets of NATO countries amounted to about 60% of the world's total military spending (US$798 billion) for the year 2000. Rather than focusing on such genuinely humanitarian priorities as providing food, housing, health care, education, environmental protection and public transportation for their populations and the rest of the world, NATO is intent on increasing their military budgets for future interventions even farther afield. (22) The testing and training conducted by NATO to prepare for war, also has numerous negative impacts on people and the environment. NATO's war preparations include military exercises, the training of pilots and the testing of weapons and warplanes. For instance, low level flight training areas and bombing ranges in Nitassinan threaten the traditional lifestyle of many in the Innu Nation. Their unceded territory in Quebec and Labrador is being turned into a military wasteland by NATO test flights. NATO nations also carry out dangerous bombing practices on Vieques Island, off Puerto Rico. (23) In the late 1940s-early 1950s, at the bidding of the CIA, NATO helped to set up secret paramilitary, anti-communist cells in at least 16 European states. Originally called Operation "Stay Behind," this network of guerrilla armies was created to fight behind the lines in case of a Soviet invasion. It was codified under the umbrella of the Clandestine Co-ordinating Committee of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (which became NATO). These clandestine armies were condemned by the European Union in a resolution (Dec. 22, 1990) that blamed the CIA and NATO for their 40 year role in overseeing this covert operation. Widely known by the code name for the Italian campaign (i.e., "Operation Gladio") these organizations, which the EU feared may still have been operating in 1990, were accused of illegal interference in political affairs, conducting terrorist attacks, jeopardizing democractic structures and other serious crimes. (24) Key NATO representatives have interfered with internal electoral/political developments in Europe. Although recent elections in Albania were fraught with irregularities and fraud (ballot box stuffing, ghost voters, selective disenfranchisement) NATO General Secretary George Robertson pronounced the election fair and legitimate. Earlier this year, another NATO spokesperson openly threatened that if the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (the party of former premier Vladimir Meciar) entered a coalition government, Slonakia would not be welcomed into NATO or allowed early European Union membership. (Your suggestions on how to improve this list would be appreciated.) ================================================================= FREE SAMPLE COPY OF OUR MAGAZINE EXPOSING NATO'S CRIMES The next issue of the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade's quarterly magazine, Press for Conversion!, will elaborate on the above list of reasons to oppose NATO. We'll gladly mail a free sample copy of that issue upon request. This offer is applicable to folks in Canada who haven't previously received a free issue. If you're interested, email us your street address in Canada before September 15. (If you're outside Canada, send US$5 to COAT at the address below, or buy an annual subscription for US$17. Folks in Canada can also buy a copy for Cdn$5, or subscribe for Cdn$20.) ================================================================= FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Richard Sanders Coordinator, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT) A national peace network supported by individuals and organizations across Canada 541 McLeod St., Ottawa Ontario K1R 5R2 Canada Tel.: 613-231-3076 Fax: 613-231-2614 Email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Web site: <http://www.ncf.ca/coat> ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- Help build opposition to NATO PA meetings in Ottawa, Oct. 5-8, 2001! Join the "no_to_nato" list serve: Send the message: subscribe no_to_nato to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [email protected] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
