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Internal Peace * Sitcha * Malik * Hidankyo * LFAS


10 May 2005


"Internal peace is an essential first step to achieving peace in the world.
How do you cultivate it? It's very simple. In the first place by
realizing clearly that all mankind is one, that human beings in
every country are members of one and the same family."


-- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

1) Update to Free Richard Sitcha
2) Native Burial/Dumping Ground Under Siege
3) Malik Akili ~ Appeal for Parole ~ "Predetermined"
4) A-Bomb Survivors for 2005 Nobel Peace Prize
5) Sign on to UN Ocean Noise Petition

Editor's Notes:


The top Dalai Lama quote is as complicated as it gets for achieving peace in our world today. And with that in mind this issue begins with an update on Richard Sitcha, seeking your supportive actions. Item 2 is local to the people living around Greenfield, MA, and an issue that should be important to all. Human Indian remains are being mistreated in a place known for a massacre of a village by Captain Turners on May 19th, 1676. The majority of the 300 Native American victims of the attack were women, children, and elders. The Town of Greenfield's Conservation Commission is holding a public meeting May 24th (7:00pm - Gfld Police Station) on the issue of 10 acres of land where Native American bones are believed to have been dumped. Item 3 is an update from my dear friend, Malik Abdullah Akili. This item contains news of his winning an appeal on the recent denial for his parole, based on his being "targeted" by corrupt law enforcement. Item 4 is on an issue about the human spirit, like the phoenix, rising from the ashes of darkness. The Nihon Hidankyo is an organization of Hibakusha — survivors of the A-bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the subsequent H-bomb testing in the Bikini Atoll. Flyby News is one of many Organizations supporting their receiving the Nobel Peace Prize award in 2005, which is the 60th Anniversary of the dropped Atomic Bombs on Japan. The focus of this group is for healing, the abolition of atomic bombs, for a peace-justice future for all. Please, if you know of anyone influential, please help us support such a choice for PEACE to honor the release of a negative past for an honorable future. Item 5 is on actions you can take to have your Oranization sign on to Stop Underwater Noise Pollution, which will be presented at the U.N. in June.



A fragrance uncovered by earth in extreme times
motions an empty stillness to watch and listen,
and bathe within the radiance of an unscathed vision
where peace triangles inner dimensions where joy
bounces about, effortlessly, and love yearns to play..
Imagine wholeness watching, waiting, participating,
truth glistening into an embrace, awakening justice and
a dove's descent to prove beyond measure a child's journey
beyond the rainbow, beyond the comet, into a time- kept
mystery revealed, inner guidance, knowing what to do next
after the clamor of making / using atomic weapons.
Abolition ~ the time is Now!


Jonathan Mark
05-10-05



1) Update to Free Richard Sitcha


This following is from Carl Doerner < cdoerner@surfglobal.net >

"..As Suzanne and four others of us were settling down to preview Fidel Castro (the recent PBS production) for inclusion (exclusion, it turned out) in our June Cuban On Film Festival in Shelburne Falls, we received a call from one of our Reel World committee members, Ellen Kaufmann. She was at Logan preparing to fly west when she spotted John Kerry.

In proper paparazzi form, she dashed after him and tapped on the window of the car which he had entered. Kerry spooled the window down. As she describes the scene, she told Kerry about Richard's circumstances and all the while his driver was making notes about what she said on his hand.

This being the second time one of us has addressed him directly about Richard, it may be sinking in, and may be dawning on his people that we are ubiquitous.

Yesterday I CC'd a toughened letter to Kennedy's aid Tom Crohan, and today I will send ( and forward) a similar, hard-edged letter to Kerry's aide Roger Lau.

Let's be inspired by this chance encounter and Ellen's persistence and continue to call/e-mail sentiments to these offices (Kennedy's Tom Crohan @ 617-565-3170, Kerry's Roger Lau @ 617-565-8519). As we try to introduce a habeas motion in Hartford, we need to expand this contact list to include Senator Dodd (in this mode I have only DC number 202-224-2823). Albert, could you send a detailed account to Dodd's CT office, including the erroneous filing in the First District.

Albert's persistent research points to House International Relations Committee concern about human rights in Cameroon, and down that committee member list is Congressman William Delahunt who represents Mass 10th District, including Plymouth. So Delahunt should be a target of calls and e-mails (www.house.gov/house/memeberWWW.shtml) for contact information.

Here the focus should be on instances of abusive treatment at the jail, denial of Bible to a devout Catholic and request to urge Kerry to be involved. Call Olver with the same message.

Carry on, all.........C

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The following overvirew and links is also posted under Campaigns @ FlybyNews.com

Free Richard Sitcha -- In April 2001, Richard Sitcha fled Cameroon after being imprisoned and tortured by the government’s security forces due to his involvement with the political protests against the Bepanda Nine killings. Fearing for his life, Richard applied for political asylum as soon as he arrived in the United States. The United States government granted Richard asylum in January 2003. Life was looking up for Richard—he could now realize his dreams of going back to school and bringing his wife and two children to the US. On September 18, 2003, however, the US government revoked Richard’s asylum and arrested him in the courtroom. He has been in jail, without charge, ever since that date. For more on the case of Richard Sitcha see FreeRichard.com and Traprock Peace Center's page to help free US detainee, Richard Sitcha.



2) Native Burial/Dumping Ground Under Siege

From: Friends of the Wissatinnewag

"Monique Fordham" < maf@nativenewengland.org >
Subject: Meeting on the 10 acres postponed 'till Tues. 5/24/05
Date: Sat, 7 May 2005

Dear Friends,

The Town of Greenfield has scheduled the Conservation Commission meeting on the 10 acres for Tuesday, May 24th, beginning at 7pm at the Greenfield (MA) Police Station.

This is a very important meeting due to the fact that the Conservation Commission has jurisdiction over the fate of the wetlands.

To recap, the town paid for a wetland delineation study last December that determined that 80% of the 10 acres are wetlands, but the filled area in the center of the parcel, where sworn eyewitness reports say Native American skeletal remains removed from Wissatinnewag (right across the street) were dumped and bulldozed is not.

Last winter, the owner of the 10 acres allowed multiple dumpings of contaminated snow scraped from roadways and parking lots to be dumped on the 10 acres. These huge piles, blackened with road oil and gasoline, then melt and the contaminated water flows into the surrounding wetlands, which is in violation of the State Department of Environmental Projection's guidelines.

Recent reports indicate that the Conservation Commission will allow this sort of polluting of the area to continue as long as the contaminants are dumped on the filled area where the burials were dumped. Aside from the obvious fact that is desecrating the burial area, allowing dumping onto a filled "island" surrounded by wetlands ignores the fact that the contaminants will spill over into the wetland area. Is our town Conservation Commission, as many have asserted, now comprised primarily of people who either don't know or don't actually care about conservation?

The Friends of Wissatinnewag need you to be there with us on Tues, May 24th, 7pm at the Greenfield Police Department, to show the town that people are concerned about the fate of this 10 acre area - for both the wetlands and the burials.

Oliwini!

Monique Fordham
Friends of the Wissatinnewag



3) Malik Akili ~ Appeal for Parole ~ "Predetermined"

From Malik Abdullah Akili
via letter to Jonathan Mark

"..Received yours of 3-30-05, along with the latest flyby. Thank you for both. I appreciate the information concerning myself in the flyby. It's been such a long time since you have printed anything regarding me. So, I was taken back. It's nice to be remembered. How can I thank you enough?

I believe it was Camus who wrote that "real generosity" toward the future lies in giving all to the present. This, he says, grows out of an intense love for the earth, for our brothers/sisters, for justice. I embrace this principle. By giving all to the present we reject fear, despair and defeat.. We work to repair the breaches of the past. We strive to carry out the principle of transformation, and through long struggle, in Camus' words, "to remake the soul of our time."

Finally, after a long struggle, I have some good news that may mean something or may not.

I appealed my last parole board's decision to hold me for another 24 months - based on the fact that the decision was "predetermined." In other words, I was "targeted," because of my political history as a former member of teh Black Panther Party.

My case is living proof of that. I didn't do anything on April 9, 1994, when they came to kill me, not arrest. What messed them up in 1994 when they came out there armed for war, had planned to exterminate me, but because the house was full of people, they failed.

Therefore, I was a target then, as I am today and was when I appeared before the parole board in October, 2004.

Going back before the parole board will only give them some other reason to give me another two-year-hit. It's all apart of a game and I am being used as a tool in their game... I specifically charge that the People, who hold me Captive, is practicing practicing a form of genocide against me and so many other Afrikan Male Prisoners of Social Consciousness, through behavior modification and counterinsurgency and low intensity warfare techniques throughout its penal system, i.e., the State and Federal prisons.

I charge the Amerikkkan government with genocide. In clear unequivocal terms, I charge the Amerikkkan government with genocide against the Captive Afrikan Black People in Amerikkka who are perpetually under siege.

I'll be going back before the parole board in April. I'll let you hear the outcome.. Take Care.

I am in struggle,
Malik

[Editor's Note; This following is from Malik dated April 19th.]

Dear Jonathan --

I received your 4-13-05 letter, along with the flyby with Geronimo's message: "Johnnie was a beautiful brother -- which I felt was quite heart touching for me. Is it possible for you to send me the full context?

Yes, I want you to publish the things I wrote concerning my last parole hearing about my being targeted by the police and the parole board. I think that People need to know the truth!

And though they may not truly understand or relate to what all this means.. Still.. At least.. They'll have a better idea from my point of view.

You know, when I was first arrested, I was real bitter. I didn't come in touch with this bitterness until recently. It was extremely difficult for me to let go of that bitterness. Why?...most of us haven't been educated to understanding what hate and bitterness do to us.. It not only tears our body down, but also the damage it does to our general outlook to life, its surroundings and the people of the world.

Since letting go of this emotion of hate/bitterness, I have come to feel a greater sense of freedom -- NOT in the sense of physical freedom, but internal freedom -- which brings about the highest form of liberation any human being can reach!

Again, thanks for the letter and the powerful flyby newsletter..

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For FN archives on Malik Abdullah Akili, see:
A Nation Behind Bars: the buried talents of a population



4) A-Bomb Survivors for 2005 Nobel Peace Prize

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker humanitarian service organization, has nominated an organization in Japan that represents Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. Nihon Hidankyo is an organization of Hibakusha — survivors of the A-bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the subsequent H-bomb testing in the Bikini Atoll.

Founded in 1956, Nihon Hidankyo has worked for the abolition of nuclear weapons and the care and compensation of Hibakusha by the Japanese government. With chapters in all 47 prefectures (administrative districts) of Japan, one of Nihon Hidankyo's objectives is to improve current policies and measures on the protection and assistance for survivors. Its officers and members are all atomic bomb survivors.

Over the years, Nihon Hidankyo has help build the worldwide nuclear abolition movement and has testified at numerous United Nations sessions on nuclear test bans, nuclear non-proliferation, and disarmament. In recent years, Nihon Hidankyo has worked with a range of Japanese and other nongovernmental organizations to organize citizens' conferences focusing attention on the consequences of nuclear war and advocating for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

In its Hibakusha Declaration for the 21st Century, adopted at its annual conference in 2001, Nihon Hidankyo states: "We want to open the "door to peace" before our lives end, to a Japan where the constitutional ideals prevail and a 21st century without war or nuclear weapons. The Door should lead to a Japanese Government that will acknowledge its responsibility for war, provide State compensation for the A-bomb damage and establish the country as a nation rejecting nuclear weapons and war. And it should lead to a U.S. that will apologize for dropping the atomic bombs and embark on the abolition of nuclear weapons."

August 6 will mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. To commemorate the anniversary and underscore the dangers of nuclear weapons Nihon Hidankyo is planning an international conference that month.

There are Hibakusha in countries around the world, including: Korea, Russia, Pacific Islands, China, India, Pakistan, and the United States. Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba of Hiroshima identifies three major contributions of the Hibakusha: first, "they were able to transcend the infernal pain and despair that the bombings sowed and to opt for life;" second, by telling their story they have "effectively prevented a third use of nuclear weapons;" and third, "they have rejected the path of revenge and animosity that lead to extinction for all humankind" and have, instead, worked to create a future of hope.

For additional information about Nihon Hidankyo: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hidankyo/nihon/english

For the original AFSC press release, see:
www.commondreams.org/news2005/0127-02.htm

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HIDANKYO is playing a major role in the movement against A and H bombs. Not only taking part in a number of peace events during summer, HIDANKYO sends its representatives all over Japan, who bear witness to their A-bomb experiences, helping to promote the public opinion for a ban and the elimination of nuclear weapons. Internationally, HIDANKYO sends many Hibakusha to other countries, who appeal the prevention of nuclear war and the abolition of nuclear arms, and inform people around the world of the damage caused by the A-bomb damage, thus helping to develop peace movement everywhere in the world. By these contributions, HIDANKYO was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1985 and 1994.

For more information on the HIDANKYO Organization, visit:
www.ne.jp/asahi/hidankyo/nihon/english/index.html



5) Sign on to UN Ocean Noise Petition

STOP THE NAVY NOISE!

Activist E-Mail Alert for Navy LFA Sonar Campaign

International Marine Mammal Project, Earth Island Institute

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Posted on behalf of the NGO coalition working to constrain human noise in the oceans
[EXCERPTS]
If you represent an organization with concern for human noise in the ocean we need your support on the Ocean Noise Petition to the UN. Please forward this call to all Organizations you know.

OceanCare

******************

To All NGOs
Call for Support on Deadly Ocean Noise

Dear Friends,

The issue of intense, human-produced underwater Ocean Noise has rapidly been emerging as a critical new area of environmental and political debate.

Over the past two decades, a dismaying sequence of marine mammal strandings has occurred in almost every region of the world's oceans. Whales of multiple species, as well as dolphins, have stranded and usually died in Greece [1996]; the Bahamas [2000]; Madeira, Spain [2000]; Vieques, Puerto Rico [1998, 2002]; Mexico [2002]; the Canary Islands [1985, 1988, 1989, 2002, 2004]; the northwest U.S. [2003]; Hawaii [2004]; Australia and New Zealand [2004]; and North Carolina, U.S. [2005]. This year on the 2nd of March, 80 rough-toothed dolphins stranded in the Florida Keys, all on the same day.

Each of these mass-strandings has now been correlated with naval maneuvers, the confirmed use of high intensity military sonar, or the use of high-powered "air guns." These technologies produce a source level of up to 235 decibels, or one trillion times louder than the sounds whales have been shown to avoid.

The Causes

The primary focus of attention in the cetacean strandings is the extremely loud noise generated by intense Low-Frequency [LFAS] and Mid-Frequency Active Sonar now increasingly utilized by the Naval military forces of several nations. Other extreme noise sources also suspected of causing harm, include the sonic blasts produced by commercial "Air Guns" used for oil and gas exploration, and used for geological surveys.

The sound produced by the intense Naval sonar is extraordinarily loud. This is not the gentle 'ping... ping... ping...' of the old sonar that we all heard in Hollywood movies. Instead, it's a massive blast of noise that that can continue up to 60 seconds and reach 235 decibels. That's the equivalent of the sound that would be heard by a person standing 10 feet away from a Saturn V rocket blasting off -- or 10 billion (!) times the noise level at which human hearing is considered at risk.

Call for Action

Clearly, this will be an intense political battle, against forces that have significant economic and political strength. The NGOs working on ocean noise request your organization's support in communicating with governments and the public. They ask if you can

Sign your organization onto the Petition to the United Nations and its Member States for Action on Underwater Noise Pollution which will be presented at the U.N. in June.

www.asms-swiss.org/deutsch/lfas/pdf/ECSO-Pet-02-E.pdf
available at: www.oceancare.org/

Contact the Coalitions

For those interested, the NGOs active on Ocean Noise invite you to consider joining one of their coalitions as they continue to push governments and plan public campaigns. Feel free to ask any of them for additional information:

The North American Ocean Noise Coalition [NAONC]
contact: Marsha L. Green, PhD
marshagreen@oceanmammalinst.org
tel. + 1 610 670-7386
www.oceannoisecoalition.org

The European Coalition for Silent Oceans [ ECSO]
contact: Sigrid Lˆşber
slueber@oceancare.org
tel. + 41 01 780 66 88
www.oceancare.org

The South American Marine Working Group [SAMWG]
[El Grupo de Trabajo Marino de Amˆİrica del Sur]
contact: Elsa Cabrera
yayais@ccc-chile.org
www.ccc-chile.org/

We Can All Take a Stand

Standing up to the forces that are producing deadly ocean noise technologies will be complex battle. But it's a battle worth fighting for many reasons. At a time when many governments are under intense pressure to retreat from democratic intergovernmental negotiations, and too many critical decisions are being taken out of the public view, it's vital that all governments be reminded that its citizens care about issues and have a right to be heard.

Thanks for your attention, and for your support in helping protect ocean ecosystems and the beautiful and intelligent creatures who peacefully live in them.

Best wishes,
Michael Strauss
Executive Director
E A R T H M E D I A
320 East 54th Street, 3H tel + 1 212 355-2122
New York, N.Y . 10022 fax + 1 212 421-3395
www.earthmedia.org-summit earthmedia@igc.org



Visit FN's resources on the U.S. Navy's experimental use of active sonar systems and its impact on sea life.



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