Support indigenous peoples

A chairde,

I am writing to urge all Irish people at home and abroad to demand that Mary Robinson, the new UN Human Rights Commissioner from Ireland, and Bill Clinton, immediately adopt the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the minimum international standard of protection for those on whose graves the wealth of Europe and the United States was built. The Clinton administration has been the international leader against the draft declaration, attempting to change or delay passage of a doucment developed over more than a decade by the non-governmental Working Group on Indigenous People(s), representatives to the Human Rights Commission's Sub-commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.

To those of you in Ireland, I would like to dispel any notion that the North American holocaust was merely a tragic episode in American history and assure you that the anti-colonial resistance of Native people is very much alive, though obviously not as advanced as that of Ireland.

And to those of my compatriots on these shores, I urge you to reconsider identifying yourselves as ``white Americans,'' as I have attempted to differentiate our historical status to the Native people with whom I live and work. If we are refugees, then we owe a debt of gratitude to our true hosts; if we perceive ourselves as settlers, then we diminish our moral claims to genuine independence. After all, what is the difference between an Irish American discounting the treaties through which the United States gained its sole legal right to these lands and an Ulster unionist dismissing the claims of the republican movement as a historical anachronism?

I would propose that the success of history's greatest genocide in reducing Native people to a tiny minority does not justify the continued denial of the treaty claims of its survivors; instead, it makes it all the more imperative that we, as exiles from and residents of an occupied land, actively support those who are paying with their lives and freedom to resist the domination of the world's most powerful nation. To this day the US does not recognise its original inhabitants as full-fledged human beings, but rather as colonial ``wards'' or national minorities. The US position is evidenced by the state department's refusal to acknowledge Natives as ``peoples'' under international law, which would uphold their right to self-determination independent of indirect rule through US laws governing the administration of ``tribal governments'' by the infamous Bureau of Indian Affairs.

I live near the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota, where the racist and colonial oppression by state law enforcement has worsened since tribal members have learned enough about the law to assert their sovereignty when they are dragged into state courts on the slightest pretext. With no support from their tribal governments and scandalous (mis)representation, the Anishinabe (Chippewa) people have established in state courts often unwilling to consider treaties or federal laws that the state of Minnesota has no jurisdiction to enforce its civil regulations within reservations.

Yet the police continue to impose such laws, and the same judges who ruled that they have no jurisdiction to hear such cases will sentence tribal members who fail to assert their immunity.

Those who prevail in state court almost universally suffer retaliatory harassment from police, who want to maintain absolute control, in part to uphold county governments' lucrative business of collecting fines they have no authority to issue from the impoverished reservation residents.

There have also been several deaths in police custody of activists who have struggled for land and sovereignty and of jailed young people, all of which have been ruled ``suicides,'' with little or no investigation.

Based on my limited knowledge of my own national history, this seems very much like the British policy of criminalisation and counterinsurgency.

In short, I believe there is a commonality between the republican struggle and that of American Natives, which the Irish diaspora in the United States in particular has an obligation to support. Sinn Féin has in the past expressed its solidarity with framed Lakota political prisoner/POW Leonard Peltier, and I hope this support has not been downplayed for fear of alienating the US president as the party searches for a just peace.

Jeff Armstrong
Minnesota
United States

 

Radio silence

A Chairde,

On 18 June I was listening to both the Pat Kenny and Marian Finucane [radio] shows. With much difficulty I managed to get through to both programmes and I understood from the people I spoke to that they would get back to me the following day. I wished to bring the following item to the attention of the two hosts and would have liked to have posed some questions to Pat Kenny. Your readers can judge for themselves whether or not the points I wished to raise were valid ones.

I am a Catholic priest and in 1984 I attended to John Downes after he had been murdered by the RUC. I was present at the time with other Americans at an anti-internment rally in front of Connolly House in Belfast. The following day the American group held a meeting at the British Embassy in Dublin. Two speakers had been assigned, a Richard Lawlor and myself. When I started to speak the RTE cameramen present ostentatiously put their cameras on the ground and folded their arms. That night the RTE news reported only that the American group had protested outside the British Embassy with a background shot of myself talking to Joe Cahill.

This I felt would explain why Marian Finucane expressed surprise at the account given by her second last caller on 18 June. RTE would seem to have its own political agenda when reporting news from Northern Ireland.

Literally hundreds of people have been murdered by armed British personnel - RUC and army. Evidence of their involvement in these murders may be found in such books as Injustice in Ireland: The Truth About British Repression, published by Clergy for Justice. I would be willing to send copies to the hosts of both programmes if they contact me.

Some 13 Sinn Féin councillors have been murdered by armed British personnel. They and the others murdered by RUC and army left families behind, widows, widowers and children. Has Pat Kenny ever condemned their murders? Has he ever tried to evoke a response of revulsion against them as he did against those who killed the RUC members recently?

In conclusion, may I state that I have prayed for all victims and families of those killed in the war in Ireland. I have also attended the funerals of two members of the IRA. Both funerals were subjected to a vicious attack by armed members of the RUC and army.

Maurice Burke SMA.

 

Praise for gay coverage

A chairde,

I am writing simply to praise your publication of Eoin O'Broin's coverage of Belfast's 7th Lesbian and Gay Pride Festival. Coming from Boston and now living in New York City, I can especially appreciate the acknowledgment of alternate lifestyles within the Irish Republican community. The Irish-American communities in both Boston and New York have suffered greatly from divisions over these matters in the past several years.

Even for me as a heterosexual, it is painful to see Irish-American gay rights groups protesting behind police barricades because they have been excluded from participating in St. Patrick's Day parades. This type of exclusion annually places an unnecessary dark cloud over an otherwise festive occasion. Your coverage and acknowledgment of the contributions of the homosexual community are a testament to the Republican movement's dedication toward the spirit of inclusion.

Liam Toohey
New York

Environmental truth

A Chairde,

We owe you a real debt for being so much on the ball with your article by Robert Allen. In his 12 June piece he refers to the scary mistakes that can be made when multi-nationals (Monsanto in this case) start playing round with genetically engineering one crop, rape-seed, in order to boost sales of another of their products, Roundup.

Rape-seed is used to make Canola Oil, highly recommended to benefit health in many ways. The latest information of the mis-deeds of profit - greedy Monsanto leaves me feeling very confused and vulnerable.

Please continue to alert us to the causes of so much ill-health in our everyday lives.

Robert Allen's account of the devastating damage by multi-national chemical companies in this country in his book ``Guests of the Nation'' was never widely available. This is probably for the same reason that a 78 year old farmer was roughly ejected from a meeting in Aughinish Alumina when protesting about damage to his trees. The truth of damage from multi-nationals will always be crushed by vested interests. Now there are scandals waiting to have the full glare of the spotlight.

Could our health services charge these damaging companies for the cost of trying to repair our health in the same way as 40 States have done to the tobacco companies in the US? At least they know what the illnesses involved are!

Noelle Ryan,
Belfast.