* *12th August 2011
The British Consul-General The British Consulate Riebeeck Street, CAPE TOWN Cc : All Media Houses Dear Sir, We, the leadership and members of the following organisations the SACP, ANC, COSATU, SANCO, ANCYL, YCL, ANCWL, MJC and PASOP and all democrats and peace loving peoples of the African continent, demand that you convey to Her Majesty’s Government of the United Kingdom our call for an end to the bombing by NATO forces of Libya. We note that Britain and NATO take as their authority for this aggression the UN Resolution supporting the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya. This was a position supported by the South African Government at the UN in the belief that it genuinely sought to limit escalation of the conflict in Libya and would thereby protect civilian lives. We condemn the subsequent use of this policy to justify military aggression by the armed forces of NATO member states against targets in Libya, which has included the bombing of population centres and the inevitable loss of innocent civilian lives, including women and children. We do not understand how a policy aimed at restricting flights in Libyan airspace can legitimize airborne aggression against that country’s citizens. We condemn the role Britain is playing, as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) but in particular as an imperialist state that is serving the private accumulation interests of the capitalist class and their corporate entities, in the bombings of Libya, murdering of its civilians, young and old, women and children, in pursuit of the exploitation of the oil endowments of and labour in Libya. We reject attempts to marginalise the African Union (AU) and peaceful political resolution of the situation in Libya, illegally supplying weapons to rebels and assisting them with intelligence operations, all as part and parcel of a regime change agenda and installation of puppet governments in other countries against the will of the people. We call upon Britain to immediately STOP the bombing of and abandon all its imperialist operations and objectives in Libya, and everywhere in the African continent and the world.We call upon the British Government to convey this call to its NATO allies and take the lead amongst them, most of which are former colonisers of Africa but including also the USA, to end the neo-colonial, imperialist and ultimately racist imposition of their wills on the nation states and peoples of Africa. We, who have organised and participated in this demonstration of popular feeling today, call on HMG – 1. To suspend with immediate effect British participation in the armed aggression against the Libyan people or any section thereof; 2. To use its influence in NATO councils and with other NATO member states to have NATO suspend its military intervention in that country; 3. To ensure the end to foreign armed intervention of all kinds in the internal conflict in Libya, including the arming and military support of both rebel and Libyan government forces; 4. To work with the South African Government, the African Union, the Arab Union and also the UN to ensure the early convening of talks to end the conflict in Libya; 5. To acknowledge that the Libyan Government is rightfully a party to those talks and respect their choice of representatives; 6. To review the British Government’s foreign policy and practice towards the continent of Africa and its peoples, to enshrine within that policy respect for the national governments and peoples of the nation states on the continent of Africa and institutions, such as the African Union and regional bodies, established by the nation states of Africa and freely joined by them; and 7. To demonstrate through the outcomes of this policy review that Britain accepts and supports the fact that the era of colonialism and subservience to European powers by the peoples of Africa has ended and that contemporary norms of international order and respect as defined in the UN Charter alone should be the basis of international relations. We look forward to receiving your confirmation that this memorandum has been forwarded by you to Her Majesty’s British Government, and we undertake to convey this confirmation, and in due course the response of the British Government, to all the organizations supporting today’s protest. Signed Received ……………………………………………….. ……………………………… Benson Ngqentsu Chris Trot SACP Brian Bunting District (Cape Metro) British Consul-General District Secretary Cape Town -- Venceremos -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
