Archives: Endorsements

The International Movement for a Just World (JUST) joins hands with Churches in Palestine and Israel and other faith-based institutions and organizations everywhere in observing the World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel (WWPPI) from 21 to 27 September 2014.

The theme for this year “Let My People Go” carries a poignancy of its own. It has special meaning for the thousands languishing in Israeli jails.
The imprisonment of political dissidents anywhere in the world is a terrible injustice. When these dissidents are incarcerated in the prisons of an occupier, the injustice becomes an even more unconscionable act of oppression.

We know that among the thousands who are enduring the pain and agony of incarceration are women and children. Women have been humiliated and harassed in Israeli jails. The children will bear the deep emotional and psychological scars of their imprisonment for a long time to come.
JUST calls for the immediate release of all women and children from Israeli prisons. Their release should be unconditional.
Male prisoners should also be set free.

Freedom for all Palestinian prisoners by itself will not end occupation. But it is a vital step that should be taken now.
JUST, a multi-religious organization with a global reach, prays that justice — the plea of all the prophets through the ages — will triumph in the land of the prophets.

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar,
President,
International Movement for a Just World (JUST).

Malaysia.

27 August 2014.

TO: ALL THE HEADS OF STATES OF NATO COUNTRIES, AND OF RUSSIA AND THE UKRAINE, TO BAN-KI MOON AND THE HEADS OF STATES OF COUNTRIES ON THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL

At this very moment in history, when so many people and nations around the world are acknowledging the 100th Anniversary of our planet’s hapless stumble into World War I, great powers and their allies are ironically once again provoking new dangers where governments appear to be sleepwalking towards a restoration of old Cold War battles. A barrage of conflicting information is broadcast in the various national and nationalistic media with alternative versions of reality that provoke and stoke new enmities and rivalries across national borders.

With the U.S. and Russia in possession of over 15,000 of the world’s 16,400 nuclear weapons, humanity can ill-afford to stand by and permit these conflicting views of history and opposing assessments of the facts on the ground to lead to a 21st Century military confrontation between the great powers and their allies. While sadly acknowledging the trauma suffered by the countries of Eastern Europe from years of Soviet occupation, and understanding their desire for the protection of the NATO military alliance, we the signers of this global call to action also note that the Russian people lost 20 million people during WWII to the Nazi onslaught and are understandably wary of NATO expansion to their borders in a hostile environment. Russia has lost the protection of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which the US abandoned in 2001, and warily observes missile bases metastasizing ever closer to its borders in new NATO member states, while the US rejects repeated Russian efforts for negotiations on a treaty to ban weapons in space, or Russia’s prior application for membership in NATO.

For these reasons, we the peoples, as members of Civil Society, Non-Governmental Organizations, and global citizens, committed to peace and nuclear disarmament, demand that an independent international inquiry be commissioned to review events in Ukraine leading up to the Malaysian jet crash and of the procedures being used to review the catastrophic aftermath. The inquiry should factually determine the cause of the accident and hold responsible parties accountable to the families of the victims and the citizens of the world who fervently desire peace and a peaceful settlement of any existing conflicts. It should include a fair and balanced presentation of what led to the deterioration of U.S. –Russian relations and the new hostile and polarized posture that the U.S. and Russia with their allies find themselves in today.

The UN Security Council, with US and Russian agreement, has already passed Resolution 2166 addressing the Malaysian jet crash, demanding accountability, full access to the site and a halt to military activity which has been painfully disregarded at various times since the incident. One of the provisions of SC Res 2166 notes that the Council “[s]upports efforts to establish a full, thorough and independent international investigation into the incident in accordance with international civil aviation guidelines.” Further, the 1909 revised Convention on the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes adopted at the 1899 Hague International Peace Conference has been used successfully to resolve issues between states so that war was avoided in the past. Both Russia and Ukraine are parties to the Convention.

Regardless of the forum where the evidence is gathered and fairly evaluated, we the undersigned urge that the facts be known as to how we got to this unfortunate state of affairs on our planet today and what might be the solutions. We urge Russia and Ukraine as well as their allies and partners to engage in diplomacy and negotiations, not war and hostile alienating actions. The world can little afford the trillions of dollars in military spending and trillions and trillions of brain cells wasted on war when our very Earth is under stress and needs the critical attention of our best minds and thinking and the abundance of resources mindlessly diverted to war to be made available for the challenge confronting us to create a livable future for life on earth.
Why is this important?

It’s important because there is so much misinformation and disinformation in the media that we are careening towards a new cold war with Russia over this.

Initial Signatories for petition:
(Organizations for Identification Only)

Hon. Douglas Roche, OC, Canada
David Swanson, co-founder, World Beyond War
Bruce Gagnon, Global Network Against Nuclear Power and Weapons in Space
Alice Slater, JD, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, NY
Professor Francis A. Boyle, University of Illinois College of Law
Natasha Mayers, Union of Maine Visual Artists
David Hartsough, co-founder, World Beyond War
Larry Dansinger, Resources for Organizing and Social Change
Ellen Judd, Project Peacemakers
Coleen Rowley, Women Against Military Madness
Medea Benjamin, Code Pink
Brian Noyes Pulling, M. Div.
Anni Cooper, Peaceworks
Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance
Leah Bolger, CDR, USN (Ret), Veterans for Peace
Raymond McGovern, former CIA analyst, VA
Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance
Gloria McMillan, Tucson Balkan Peace Support Group
Ellen E. Barfield, Veterans for Peace
Cecile Pineda, author. Devil’s Tango: How I Learned the Fukushima Step by Step
Jill McManus
Steve Leeper, Visiting professor, Hiroshima Jogakuin University,Nagasaki University
Kyoto University of Art and Design
William H. Slavick, Pax Christi Maine
Helen Caldicott, Helen Caldicott Foundation
David Krieger, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Brigadier Vijai K Nair, VSM [Retd] Ph.D. , Magoo Strategic Infotech Pvt Ltd
Kevin Martin, Peace Action
Carol Reilly Urner, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
Ann E. Ruthsdottir
Kay Cumbow
Steven Starr, Senior Scientist, Physicians for Social Responsibility
Tiffany Tool, Peaceworkers
Sukla Sen, Committee for Communal Amnity, Mumbai India
Joan Russow, PhD, Coordinator, Global Compliance Research Project
Rob Mulford, Veterans for Peace, North Star Chapter, Alaska
Jacqueline Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation, United for Peace and Justice
Ingeborg Breines, Co-president International Peace Bureau
Judith LeBlanc, Peace Action
Felicity Ruby
Jerry Stein, The Peace Farm, Amarillo , Texas
Michael Andregg, professor, St. Paul, Minnesota
Elizabeth Murray, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East, National Intelligence Council, ret.: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, Washington
Robert Shetterly, artist, “Americans Who Tell the Truth,” Maine
Katharine Gun, United Kingdom
Dave Webb, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, UK
Amber Garland, St. Paul, Minnesota
John Feffer, Foreign Policy in Focus
Beverly Bailey, Richfield, Minnesota
Joseph Gerson, Convener, Working Group for Peace & Demiitarization in Asia and the Pacific
Stephen McKeown, Richfield, Minnesota
Dominique Lalanne, France
Bill Rood, Rochester, Minnesota
Tom Klammer, radio host, Kansas City, Missouri
Barbara Vaile, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Mali Lightfoot, Helen Caldicott Foundation
Tony Henderson, spokesperson for universal humanism, Hong Kong
Darlene M. Coffman, Rochester, Minnesota
Sister Gladys Schmitz, Mankato, Minnesota
Edward Loomis, NSA Cryptologic Computer Scientist (ret.)
J. Kirk Wiebe, NSA Senior Analyst (ret.), MD
William Binney, former Technical Director, World Geopolitical & Military Analysis, NSA; co-founder, SIGINT Automation Research Center (ret.)
Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, President of International Movement for a Just World

Please sign here:

http://diy.rootsaction.org/petitions/call-for-independent-inquiry-of-the-airplane-crash-in-ukraine-and-its-catastrophic-aftermath

Fred Dallmayr, Co-Chairman, World Public Forum “Dialogue of Civilizations”

In this year, 2014, we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I, that ferocious war in which “Old Europe” – the Europe of the “Belle Epoque”, the Europe of traditional monarchies and dynasties – was destroyed. For the peoples of Europe it was an immense bloodletting, epitomized by trench warfare and the battle of Verdun. The war also laid the foundation for subsequent catastrophes. While dubbed “the war to end all wars”, the concluding treaties of Versailles and Trianon ushered in a “peace to end all peace.” The conditions imposed on the vanquished in these treaties were so harsh and ill-conceived that resentment was bound to flare up and, after barely two decades, erupted in an unprecedented paroxysm of mayhem and destruction on a global scale.

The commemoration of the great European war should not be the occasion for finger-pointing and posthumous recriminations – an exercise which, although dear to some historians, can only stir up nationalistic resentments. The much more fruitful and beneficial outcome of the commemoration is (or should be) the determination to keep Europe in the future free from warfare on its soil. This is the basic purpose of the European Union and the Council of Europe and of the whole process of European integration during the past half century. This means that Europe should be a zone of peace.

Unfortunately, there are developments which threaten to undermine the role of Europa as a peace zone. The greatest danger is that Europe might become the victim of “great power” rivalry. There are ominous danger signals in the present crisis in the Ukraine. Although the solution of the crisis is patently simple and obvious – the “federalization” of the country (which has repeatedly been proposed) – there are forces at work seemingly opposed to a peaceful solution and bent on pushing the country into civil war, and even into an all-out war between West and East. Given the latter horizon, the crisis takes on the character of another “proxy war” between big powers – similar to the proxy war which has raged in Syria, but now much closer to the European heartland. In some political circles, one already talks about a possible war between America and Russia, even though this may result in nuclear war (a possibility that is now openly accepted in the same quarters).

In this situation, one has to ask: who is going to be the most likely and most immediate victim? Given its location between America and Russia, Europe is bound to be the site of the most direct and immediate nuclear devastation. This means: it is time for Europe to wake up from its slumber and from its pliant submission to great power politics. As Juergen Habermas rightly pleaded some time ago: Europe has to develop its own foreign policy. The first step should be to bring pressure to bear on all sides to stop the proxy war in Ukraine. Europe should do everything possible to induce contestants in the Ukraine to assemble around a table and to negotiate fair terms of peace. This would be the proper European way to commemorate 1914.

Endorsed by:

Chandra Muzaffar, President, International Movement for a Just World (JUST), Malaysia
Vladimir Kulikov, Executive Director, World Public Forum “Dialogue of Civilizations”
Hans Kochler, President, International Progress Organization, Austria

In recent times, Sri Lanka has seen a rise in ethnic tensions fuelled by the Bodu Bala Sena ( BBS). For some months, the BBS has been inciting hatred against religious minorities; resulting in intermittent attacks on churches, mosques and the occasional attack on businesses owned by Muslims . BBS monks have also been caught on video threatening violence against their moderate colleagues who advocate tolerance.

However, in the last few days, the situation appears to have escalated dramatically. The violence began after a speech by BBS Galagoda Atthe Gnanasara at a BBS rally in Aluthgama, which came three days after a smaller clash resulting from an accident between a Muslim youth’s motorbike and a bhuddist monk’s car.

Muslim homes and mosques have been stoned. A curfew has been imposed in the coastal town Beruwala, where Deputy Minister Faizer Mustapha (a muslim minister in the current government) “is currently blockaded in at the Nallemiyah Arabic College in Beruwala with an armed mob standing outside to attack those within, reports just coming in from the ground said.” Eyewitness accounts tell of Muslims being pulled off local buses and being beaten.

Sadly, there are also reports of three Muslims being shot to death near Walipitiya Mosque by the violent mobs.

The violence has now spread to Dehiwala, in the capital Colombo, where the Harcourts Pharmacy has been attacked. The vast majority of the Bhuddist population in Sri Lanka are against the actions of BBS. But, the inaction of the government has led to blood shed in the country, again.

We call upon the Sri Lankan government to take immediate action to ban the BBS and bring the perpetrators of this violence to justice. Sri Lanka has just emerged from a 35 year ethnic war, and has been enjoying peace in recent times. We do not want Sri Lanka to be dragged into another ethnic conflict resulting in the deaths of innocent people, and another generation growing up with a backdrop of war.

You can sign in here.

SIGN to say U.S. Hands Off Russia and the Ukraine!

We, the undersigned people from various countries around the world, including the USA, express our great dismay about President Obama’s list of sanctions on top Russian officials. The world in 2014 does not need a new Cold War. It needs de-escalation instead of a spiral of sanctions. The solution of the Ukrainian and Crimean crisis is dialogue and diplomatic efforts which include all parties concerned instead of individualized sanctions.

We consider it to be a particular mistake to “sanction” Vladimir Yakunin who is not only President of Russian Railways but also the founder and president of the World Public Forum – Dialogue of Civilizations which enjoys consultative status in United Nations’ ECOSOC. For more than a decade Vladimir Yakunin has devoted a lot of efforts and activities to dialogue among different religions, cultures and nations as the alternative to armed conflicts. He has stood up against hatred, xenophobia, antisemitism as well as Islamophobia.

Many people around the world know of and greatly value Dr. Yakunin’s extraordinary and tireless work for peace and justice and the resolution of conflicts.

He exemplifies the great potential that the Dialogue of Civilizations can offer towards peaceful coexistence in our world. Dr.Yakunin has always spoken out forcefully for the protection of the environment, sustainable growth, ecology, non-violence, social entrepreneurship and value-led education. He continues to inspire and empower others to develop their hidden strengths.

His efforts are appreciated throughout the world, including the United States of America. We want Vladimir Yakunin to continue without interruption and hindrance his work for a better and peaceful world where dialogue can prevail.

We demand that Dr. Yakunin enjoys free access to all United Nations Headquarters, including New York, as president of an INGO with consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council.

Walter Schwimmer, Former Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Vienna, Austria
Fred Dallmayr, Professor at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
Kamran Mofid, President, Globalization for the Common Good Initiative, Coventry, UK
Raffaele Marchetti, Professor of Political Science, LUISS Guido Carli, Rome, Italy
Piotr Dutkiewicz, Professor of Global Politics, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Jens Wendland, Professor University of Arts, Berlin; foreign Professor Journalistic faculty MGU, Moscow
Fabio Petito, Professor of International Politics, Sussex University, UK
Hans Koechler, President, International Progress Organization, Innsbruck, Austria
Steve Szeghi, Professor of Economics, Wilmington College, Ohio, USA
Dimitri Kitsikis, University of Ottawa, Fellow, Royal Society of Canada, Honorary President, The Dimitri Kitsikis Public Foundation, Ottawa, Canada
Chandra Muzaffar, President, International Movement for a Just World (JUST), Malaysia
Alberto Melloni, Director of the John XXIII Foundation for religious studies, Bologna, Unesco Chair for religious pluralism and peace, Italy
Akeel Bilgrami, Sidney Morgenbesser Chair in Philosophy, Professor, Committee on Global Thought, Director, South Asian Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
Vincenzo Scotti, President of Link Campus University and former Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Italy, Italy
Marco Emanuele, Supervisor of the website Linee strategiche (a narrative of global complexity) in collaboration with Link Campus University, Italy
Mario Lettieri, Former Undersecretary of Economics of Romano Prodi’s government, Rome Italy
Paolo Raimondi, Economist, Editorialist of the Italian Economic Daily ItaliaOggi, Rome Italy
Tiberio Graziani, President, Institute of Advanced Studies in Geopolitics and Auxiliary Sciences (ISAG), Director of “Geopolitica”, Italy

In anticipation of the Pope’s May visit to the Holy Land, an Open Letter signed by more than 200 bishops, clerics, members of religious orders, and theologians from several faith traditions, was delivered to Pope Francis on March 5, 2014.

Initiated by Friends of Sabeel- North America, the letter asks the Pope to publicly:

• speak out against the Israeli military’s program of kidnapping, detention, and systematic abuse of Palestinian children;
• call on Israel to respect international law, end its occupation of Palestine, and terminate its brutal siege on and blockade of Gaza;
• ask other nations to address policies toward Israel that have allowed the abuses of occupation and colonization of Palestine to fester for so many decades and to demand justice, accountability and the implementation of international law.

Click here for more information. 

If you would like to sign on behalf of an organization, please click here. 

The World Public Forum “Dialogue of Civilizations” follows with growing alarm the unfolding events in Venezuela. The Forum condemns in the strongest possible terms any involvement of “el Norte” in efforts to topple the duly elected government there. We vividly remember the foreign-supported coup against the government of Salvador Allende in 1973, a coup followed by 17 years of military dictatorship resulting in a staggering number of executed and “disappeared” people. In light of the recent events in the Ukraine, we feel that one foreign-engineered “regime change” disaster is enough in 2014. We urge all participants to refrain from actions which seem to be pushing our world steadily closer to a new World War.

To endorse please click here

WPF Executive Committee Statement on the Events in UkraineThe World Public Forum “Dialogue of Civilizations” observes with alarm the unfolding events in the Ukraine. The Forum condemns in the strongest possible terms the involvement of foreign powers in attempts to topple the duly elected government in Kyiv and to replace it with a puppet regime. We urge Western powers to refrain from sanctions and the threat of sanctions and to return to the basic principle of democracy: namely, that political change is to be sought through a democratic process at the ballot box, not through bullets in the streets. We urge all powers involved to reflect on the possible consequences of their actions which seem to push the world steadily closer to a new World War.

We also appeal to the people in the streets to come to their senses and to return to the Gandhian path of nonviolent political action.