PRESS STATEMENT August 3, 2006
The Peoples United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), a movement that represents the struggling people of Swaziland is concerned about the Middle East crisis. Too many innocent lives have been lost, and it appears the world is content to stand by and watch.
- The world must condemn the targeting of innocent civilians. There is no justification for killing children, women and the infirm in any war situation. The world seems not to have learnt anything from what happened during the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Yugoslavia ethnic cleansing, the Rwandan genocide and the apartheid era in South Africa. This is a serious indictment to the leaders of the United Nations and the so-called civilized world. To us, a liberation movement that has been peacefully fighting for the restoration of democracy and justice in our country has a cause to be concerned and afraid. We are afraid to see the world being indifferent to such mass slaughter of defenceless women and children. This has a clear message; the definition of life in world politics takes different meaning. To the world there are people whose lives are more precious than others. What does this tell the Royal family in Swaziland? It says you can practice modern day slavery and oppress the people because the world will be quiet and nothing will happen to you. This is totally unacceptable.
PUDEMO’s views;
World must intervene now.
The world, through the United Nations must intervene now and stop the war. In this way lives of citizens of Lebanon, Palestine and Israel will be saved. There must be a cessation of hostilities between the warring factions.
Humanitarian aid must be made available to the affected people in order to avoid a further deterioration of the current catastrophe.
The United Nations must rebuild the damaged infrastructure of the affected areas so that the people can go back and lead normal lives like the rest of the people of the world.
Israel must withdraw from all foreign lands; Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights.
The Israel neighbours must all accept the right of the state of Israel to exist. The Israelis must be assured of peaceful and safe existence with its neighbours.
The last two points are fundamental to lasting peace in the Middle East, and hence any attempts to overlook them will not resolve the situation.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of these affected countries and we call upon every peace loving person of the world to make a small contribution towards the end of this senseless war. More that anything else, there must be a lasting solution to these crisis for sustainable peace in the region. War has never been a solution to conflicts.
Iraq and Afghanistan
Our prayers are also with the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, and we say may these people find peace and live normal lives like all the people of the world. Too many innocent lives have been lost in these countries and there is no hope for an end to these killings.
Zimbabwe.
We are calling on our brothers north of Limpompo to also find it within themselves to find lasting peace so that they can collectively rebuild their beautiful country Zimbabwe. They should not do these for themselves, but for the children and the many generations to come. They also owe these to the brave freedom fighters who died for their freedom. They must do it for the Chitepos and all those combatants who died so that the Zimbabweans can have dignity and freedom.
The people of the Daffur Region.
We cannot forget our brothers and sisters who are dying in the Southern Sudan region of Daffur. Again we ask the Khartoum government to ensure that the crisis are resolved soon as Africa cannot develop with so many wars taking place on its lands.
Yours in the struggle for social justice and peace in Swaziland,
Ignatius Bonginkosi Dlamini
Secretary
P.O. Box 187
Simunye,
Swaziland
Southern Africa
Office 301 SNAT Co-op. Building, Manzini
Tel: (09268) 6075479/(09268) 3838718
E-mail: kweleza@yahoo.com
No comments:
Post a Comment