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SOLIDARITY FAST STATEMENT of Jim Lawler
For release 2-22-99, A.M.
The injustice of the imprisonment of Leonard Peltier pales compared to the inhumanity of not allowing him to get his jaw fixed by a doctor he has confidence in.
My involvement in this hunger strike is my small way of supporting his right to eat like a human being, free of pain and discomfort.
END THE TORTURE OF LEONARD PELTIER NOW!
Ojibwa-Lakota American Indian Movement activist and political prisoner Leonard Peltier is suffering continuous, excruciating pain because the federal Bureau Of Prisons refuse him the medical treatment he needs. This is direct politically motivated torture.
For the purpose of calling attention to this torture and to help mobilize a campaign to end this, THE LEONARD PELTIER SOLIDARITY FAST/HUNGER STRIKE has been organized. At this time there are over 70 fasters taking part in this from across the U.S. and in Canada, France, Basque Country, Russia, South Africa, Spain and Italy.
We are asking everyone who can to send daily messages to: Ms. Kathleen Hawk, Director, Bureau Of Prisons, 320 First St. NW, Washington, DC 20534, fax; 202-514-6878; phone; 202-307-3198; e-mail khawk@bop.gov or swolfson@bop.gov. These messages should ask that Leonard be allowed treatment at the Mayo Clinic.
For more information on how you can join the fast/hunger strike, or do support work for it, please send a message to: the NWLPSN at:
bayou@blarg.net
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SOLIDARITY FAST STATEMENT of Fulton L. Arrington
For release 2-23-99, A.M.
It is an ancient tenet of our culture that when one of ours is afflicted the whole of the people suffers with him. We therefore stand with our brother Leonard Peltier, with our fasting, our prayers, our faith, our material possessions and our sacred honor, steadfast in the knowledge that there is no power of men, not even the unjust force of the world's last super-power that can withstand the spirit and faith of an entire people. We have proven this by rendering 400 years of genocide impotent. We are still here today and will be here tomorrow, fully prepared to pray, to struggle and to triumph.
Free Leonard Peltier -- Fulton L. Arrington
I knew about Leonard's Peltier's case through a newspaper and later through TV. It called my attention because of the injustice that had been commited. I begun then to work in a support group. The information we received often made our frustration bigger. Personally, I've always felt attracted by other cultures, specially the Native American People. I was very surprised that after the arrival of the white men in America, even now, those First Nations are still being opressed, in a country, the US, which wants to be the symbol of freedom, but which is in reality, a synonym of injustice.
Id' like to quote a famous sentence said by a famous writer, called Quevedo: "Where there is injustice, it is dangerouse to be right, to have the reason"...
I want to urge the US government to start the countdown. Give Leonard Peltier the treatment he needs.
J.J Bermudez
Pamplona
Basque Country
END THE TORTURE OF LEONARD PELTIER NOW!
Statement - FEB 24th morning- Basque Country
I knew about Leonard's Peltier's case through a
Ojibwa-Lakota American Indian Movement activist and political prisoner Leonard Peltier is suffering continuous, excruciating pain because the federal Bureau Of Prisons refuse him the medical treatment he needs.
This is direct politically motivated torture.
For the purpose of calling attention to this torture and to help mobilize a campaign to end this, THE LEONARD PELTIER SOLIDARITY FAST/HUNGER STRIKE has been organized. At this time there are over 70 fasters taking part in this from across the U.S. and in Canada, France, Basque Country,
Russia, South Africa, Spain and Italy.
Statemet Feb 24th evening - Basque Country
Hi:
First of all I wand give my congratulations, support, prayers and recognition for all people that are making hunger strike. I´m a fast striker. Ifyou are reading this, it would mean that Kathleen Hawk hasn't listened to our petitions yet.
Since i´m member of a LPSG, we have work in Leonard Peltier behalf, holding conferences, collecting signatures, or things like that. This is the first time i'm making something that it means a little real personal sacrifice, and i'm happy about it. There must be people which think this fast/hunger strike is getting us nowhere. I don't think so, i think we can get our objective. Now, we can't stop, becouse if we stop this campaing we couldn't make another one in the future, nobody will take us seriously. Is not too much to make one day of fast strike per week for Leonard Peltier when he can't eat. Is not too much to send a fax per day when Leonard Peltier has in prision for 23 years, only for being defending his People.
We are not fighting for something strange, we are fighting in order that the self-confessed country of democracy, freedom and opportunities (USA), fulfill something so simple asHuman Rights. We have to remember to the US Bureau of Prisons that an inmate is a person and as such, has the same rights that the non-inmate people, Leonard Peltier has the right to receive medical tretament. We have to keep pressing the US Bureau of Prisons until Leonard Peltier is transfered to the Mayo Clinic. We have the possibility to win this round. If everybody continue sending faxes and making fast/hunger strike, there will be a moment in which Mrs Katleen Hawk will see clearly that to torture an innocent is not part of their work, .............or maybe yes?.
"Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere"
IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE-NEVER SURRENDER
Fermin Martin, member of Seven Sioux, Basque Contr
Statement from Rob Ervin 2/23/99
O'siyo,
Too much talk & Too much technology make us weak. Only action can help our brother. Get off your computers and get into the streets! Mitakuye Oyasin
Golanuh nuhwat
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Hunger Fast Statement of Jesse Alt, February 25, evening
In recent years, the topic of human rights has become a major focus of public discussion in the United States, and a popular subject for much political rhetoric. It is a welcome development that the media and politicians in this country have begun to champion this cause, but too often they overlook the humanitarian abuses of this government. The many voices that are so critical of China, Cambodia, and Iraq- and justifiably so- are silent when the United States' human rights record is in question . While guarding the rights of international political prisoners is certainly important, a campaign that ignores domestic human rights violations indicates political posturing more than a concern for human welfare.
The case of Leonard Peltier, an inmate at Leavenworth Prison, and a recognised political prisoner, clearly illustrates this double standard. According to his supporters, Peltier is suffering great pain following surgery at the Springfield Clinic for recurring tetanus which actually worsened his condition. The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has not provided any evidence refuting this accusation, yet it continues to deny him transfer to another clinic for corrective surgery. The BOP's continued refusal of Peltier's treatment is nothing less than torture!
Why, if Dr. Keller of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota has offered to perform the necessary surgery for free, does the BOP refuse to transfer him? The torture he is enduring right now is an attempt to silence and punish a political dissident. For twenty-three years Peltier has languished in Federal Prison for defending the Pine Ridge reservation from wealthy corporations. The U.S. Government's continued torture of Leonard Peltier brings up serious questions about the extent of political freedom in this country and undermines any authority it may have on human rights. Ultimately, "our" Government has proven that its primary interest is upholding the power of a wealthy minority. Unless enough voices are raised in protest, this trend will continue unchecked.
END THE TORTURE OF LEONARD PELTIER NOW!
My statement from Barcelona
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Feb 27th, morning
Gorka Ramos Hervella
(from Barcelona - Catalunya Country).
Dear Friends, Sisters & Brothers,
I write you from one of the most cosmopolitan cities of a little country which is whithin the Spanish State: Barcelona.
Mi name is Gorka. It's a name of very old sound and warrior passion, which belongs to a language the Spanish dictatorship tried to eliminate, forbidding its very existence. This is a story which Native Peoples of North America know very well, the depraved effects of this story are still creating suffering between many people around the world. Our brother Leonard is one of this people.
I'd like to have the words from languages today unknown, Old words from the Kiowas, the Lakotas, Ojibwe words that would burst with the thunder strength, that would be quickly spreaded by the wind, that would carry the sound of the water to the dessert lands, and the roar of the sea and the open sky; But in our worlds we don't call anymore the fury and the happiness of the elements, we just produce sleepiness, build jails and put gags and straps in the faces and bodies of the worthy and smart people.
Since Occident became in the chasing shadow of the "dazzling" and mistaken north american society, politicians from all of these countries within the Occidental order, have become theirselves in the most skilled magicians, able to manipulate with thier tricks the big genocides of human beings. Only the awaked consciousnesses of the armyless warriors are able to avoid being amazed by the magic of the showy semblances of a new world. That's why the struggle is a constant state of steady awareness against the deceit. The tricksters pretend to change the history of the Peoples, to change it into the history of the great powers, or the great nations, or the great multinational corporations. The North becomes the universe with a shining totalitarism of apparent democracy. But its blaze can't keep hidding anymore the shadows that grow and flood, threatening with gobbling up the humiliating shine of its light. The justice and dignity are part of that threat, because as shadows, their shine is more powerful and boundless than the veil with which the apparent reality try to get surrounded by.
A few days ago I fasted to try to be a tiny spot of light which claims for attention and which serves as a reference in this forgotten world of shadows. Many lighthouses all around the world are beginning to reflect the shine of a justice for many years forgotten in the humid darkness of the cruel prisons of Amerikkka. Inside one of those cells, a man who become a myth against his willing, mantains since 23 years the pulse of the struggle for the justice and dignity, against the pathetic mausoleums of arrogance and money.This man has a name. He's our brother Leonard Peltier. And his struggle has joined to the struggle of so many other men and women who are in a vil prison, like Mumia Abu-Jamal (our beloved brother in the death row), the Move, Sundiata Acoli, Ashata Shakur (in the shutting up of the exile), Carmen Valentin, Silvia Baraldini, Xose Tarrio, ...and all those names that so many emotions and memories are able to call forth, and in the opened wound of our heart they are the inspiration of our fight for freedom.
I don't know how to pray, since being a kid I fought against the religion which wanted my death to save me. I am a warrior for freedom, for life, nothing special, cause neither I have the courage of the audacious, nor the leadership of the winner, nor the destructive power of the armies of killers of this world. The only thing worthy in me is what people has taught me, that the only sense of this life is the freedom and the relationships that the human beings learn to build with it. When I was young, when I was only 16 and although the humiliating misinformation during the spanish dictatorship, the world could'n stop the yell of the Wounded Knee siege, and the long walk to Washington, and it was between those years when I become aware of that atraction that, from my very childhood, had felt for those strange beings that always appeared as the image of a wounded beast. It was then when I suddenly realized that were they who really had discovered the human being, that in the deepest oblivion, dwelt in me. This worry led me to Leonard Peltier, pursued and tortured by the descendants of those who hushed up the trot of the buffalos in the prairie, the same who bury any trace of the origin of life in America under the lapidary shine of their money, to put later their history, so bastard and haughty. And here I am, trying to help to mend the circle with other brothers and sisters, trying to help Leonard to recover the health that vil and criminal shutting up has stolen him. And meanwhile, these days, between fasting, faxing and e-mailing, the remembrance brought me the words of struggle said by another man, made myth too against his willing, "Che" Guevara, who said: "the true revolutionary is guided by deep feelings of love" and this is th only crime comited by Leonard: to be a revolutionary who felt a deep LOVE for his people.
Mitakuye Oyasin
Gorka
P.S: I have a little Lacandona forest in an unknown place of my heart. Where sometimes I heard, between voices and laughs, the zapatista children playing. Their faces made of maize, hidden by the mask of a big smile, are the main happiness of their heart-beat, because the 1st World, who thought was the owner of the rest of the world, saw how a tiny but revolutionary peninsula scaped and the world became a little more indigenous.
VIVA ZAPATA!!!!
TIERRA Y LIBERTAD!!!!
END THE TORTURE OF LEONARD PELTIER NOW!!!!
(Sorry friends, sisters & brothers, I am not speak english. Thanks to my wonderful friend Pilar for this translation, she alwais is helping me from Basque Country, and thanks for all for your patience and your encouraging words. Specials thanks to my beautiful wife Sonia, she is an whole-hearted)
Apreciad@s amig@s, herman@s;
Os escribo desde una de las ciudades más cosmopolitas, de un pequeño país que está dentro del estado español; Barcelona. Mi nombre es Gorka. Es un nombre de sonido muy antiguo y de pasión guerrera, que pertenece a un idioma que la dictadura española pretendió eliminar, prohibiendo su existencia. Esta es una historia que los pueblos nativos de norteamérica conocen muy bien y cuyos perversos efectos, aún hoy en día están sufriendo muchas personas y pueblos de los seres humanos. Nuestro hermano Leonard Peltier es una de ellas. Quisiera tener palabras de lenguas hoy desconocidas, antiguas palabras de los Kiowas, los Lakotas, palabras Ojibwee que estallaran con la fuerza del trueno, que llegasen rápidamente transportadas por el viento, que llevasen el sonido del agua a los parajes desérticos, y el rugir de los mares y los cielos abiertos; pero en nuestros mundos ya no convocamos la furia y las alegrías de los elementos, sólo producimos sueño, construímos cárceles y colocamos mordazas y correas en los rostros y en los cuerpos de los seres dignos y despiertos.
Desde que Occidente se transformó en sombra persecutoria de la "deslumbrante" y falsa realidad de la sociedad norteamericana de los Estados Unidos, los políticos de todos estos países del orden occidental, se han convertido en hábiles prestidigitadores, capaces de manipular con sus artimañas los más grandes exterminios de la humanidad. Sólo la conciencia despierta de l@s guerrer@s sin ejército, son capaces de no dejarse fascinar por la magia de los ostentosos simulacros de un mundo nuevo. Es por eso que la lucha es un constante estado de permanente alerta contra el engaño. Los embaucadores, pretenden cambiar la historia de los pueblos, para convertirla en historia de las potencias o de las naciones o de las grandes multinacionales. El Norte se universaliza con un resplandeciente totalitarismo de aparente democracia, pero su resplandor, no puede por más tiempo seguir ocultando tras de sí unas sombras que crecen y le desbordan, amenazando con devorar el humillante brillo de su luz. La justicia y la dignidad forman parte de esa amenaza, porque como sombras, su resplandor es mucho más poderoso e infinito que los velos de los que se rodea la aparente realidad.
Hace unos pocos días hice un ayuno para intentar ser un diminuto punto de luz que reclama la atención y sirve de referencia en este olvidado mundo de las sombras. Muchos faros en todo el mundo empezamos a irradiar el brillo de una justicia olvidada en la húmeda oscuridad de las crueles cárceles de Amerikkkka. Ahí adentro, un hombre, convertido en mito en contra de su voluntad, mantiene desde hace más de 23 años el pulso de una lucha por la justicia y la dignidad y contra los patéticos mausoléos de la soberbia y el dinero. Este hombre tiene un nombre, el de nuestro hermano Leonard Peltier. Y su lucha se une a la de tantos otros hombres y mujeres que están en un vil encierro, como Mumia Abu-Jamal (nuestro querido hermano encerrado en las mazmorras de la muerte), L@s MOVE, Sundiata Acoli, Ashata Shakur (en el encierro del exilio), Carmen Valentín, Silvia Baraldini, Xosé Tarrío, ... y todos aquellos nombres que tantas emociones y recuerdos son capaces de despertar, y que en la herida abierta de nuestros corazones, son la inspiración de nuestra lucha por la libertad. No se rezar, porque desde muy pequeño luche contra la religión que deseaba mi muerte para salvarme. Soy un guerrero por la libertad, por la vida, nada especial, pues ni tengo el valor de los audaces, ni la iniciativa de los triunfadores, ni el poder destructor de los ejércitos de asesinos de este mundo. Lo único importante en mi, son las personas que han sabido enseñarme que el único sentido de esta nuestra vida, es la libertad y las relaciones que los seres humanos aprendemos a construir con ella. Cuando era muy joven, tenía aún 16 años, y pese a la humillante desinformación de la dictadura española, el mundo no pudo callar el grito de la okupación de Wounded Knee, ni unos años después, la marcha a Washington y fue entre esos años cuando empezó a despertar conscientemente el sentimiento de atracción que desde mi primera infancia sentía hacia unos extraños seres, que siempre aparecían como la imagen de la bestia herida. Fue entonces cuando, sorprendentemente me dí de que eran ellos los que realmente habían descubierto el ser humano, que en el ignorado olvido, habitaba en mí. Esta inquietud me llevó hasta Peltier, perseguido y torturado por los descendientes de los que silenciaron el estruendo del trote de los búfalos por las praderas, esos mismos que entierran todo vestigio del origen de la vida de América bajo el lapidario brillo del dinero de sus rascacielos, para después poner el suyo, su historia, tan bastarda y soberbia. Y aquí sigo y aquí me encuentro, intentando ayudar a construir el círculo con otros hermanos y hermanas para que Leonard pueda recuperar esa salud que le han arrebatado en ese vil y criminal encierro. Y mientras tanto, estos días, entre ayunos, faxes y e-mails, el recuerdo me traía las palabras de lucha de otro hombre y mito a la fuerza ("Che" Guevara), y que dijo; "... el revolucionario verdadero está guiado por profundos sentimientos de amor...", y este es el único "crimen" que cometió Peltier; ser un revolucionario que sintió un profundo AMOR por su pueblo.
Mitakuye Oyasin!
Gorka
P.D.
Tengo una pequeña selva lacandona en un ignoto territorio de mi corazón, donde a veces escucho entre voces y risas, jugar a los niños y las niñas indígenas zapatistas. Sus rostros de maíz cubierto por el pasamontañas de una enorme sonrisa, son la principal alegría de sus latidos porque el mundo, que se creía dueño de todo el mundo, vió como se le escapaba una minúscula y revoltosa península y el planeta se volvía un poquito más indígena.
VIVA ZAPATA!!!!
TIERRA Y LIBERTAD!!!!
END THE TORTURE OF LEONARD PELTIER NOW!!!!
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
***********************************************
- "La Injusticia en cualquier sitio,
es una amenaza para la Justicia en todas partes"
- "Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere"
***********************************************
- Libertad LEONARD PELTIER!!! - FREE LEONARD PELTIER!!!
- Libertad STANDING DEER!!! - FREE STANDING DEER!!!
- Stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal
- Libertad para MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!!! - FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!!!
- CONTRA LA PENA DE MUERTE - AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY
- NI UNA EJECUCION MAS!!! - NOT ONE MORE EXECUTION!!!
- Libertad para tod@s l@s pres@s politic@s
- FREEDOM THE MOVE & PUERTO RICAN PRISONERS
- FREEDOM FOR POLITICS PRISONERS & P.O.W.
- Stop a la brutalidad policial.
- Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation
- Working to end the racist death penalty, to abolish prison slavery, and to extend democracy to all.
Take another brick from the wall!!!
02 - 28 - 1999 00,00 hours
Fast has started again in Barcelona - Catalunya Country.
Ona Move,
Dear friends, brothers & sisters
My fast has begun again, my best wishes of health and freedom to all, specially to Leonard Peltier.
The world is watching!!!
Gorka
Faster's Statement - March 2 - PM
When I first heard that Leonard Peltier was suffering and could not eat, I began to write and ask for his treatment. It is difficult to admit that after all this time of his suffering, no one has done the right thing...here...in a place where we claim to have humanitarian ethics. Easier said than done.
Many of us have chosen to give up food to protest Leonard Peltier being denied FREE medical care from the Mayo Clinic. We join him in his hunger and we remember his pain. There are even more supporters who believe in this so strongly that our voices have joined around the world to ask for immediate treatment of our brother.
I have written to Amnesty International and they sent me a whole packet of information for they know that Leonard Peltier is an innocent man and a prisoner of conscience. They have also asked for his treatment and his release.
Only the U.S. government and the Bureau of Prisons seems to be deaf, dumb and blind in this area. It is like they want to kill Leonard Peltier. We, as people who love him, cannot stand silently by as this genocide continues.
Many, like me, have some family members that are related to Leonard and other family members who were the white invaders of this once pristine land. Once there was a real spirit in this land...forests from sea to sea while we today cut the last stand of ancient redwoods. For money. We have no spirit of this place when we can do that.
Leonard is a symbol to most of us of the injustice and the danger that this government might represent to any one if we are not diligent in protecting our legal and constitutional rights. All are created equal. Justice for all, not just some.
I offer a poem that I wrote for Leonard and for Anna Mae Aquash to express some of the sadness and respect that surrounds these two, whose loss is unspeakable.
We love you Leonard. We will never give up. Never.
Let Leonard be treated at the Mayo Clinic Now!
In The Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Heal and Free Leonard Peltier and
Never Forget Anna Mae Aquash and All Who Have Died.
Aileen Terra
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