Re: [Marxism] Greek revolutionaries criticize pseudo-independence, call for real independence for Kosova Albanians

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Patrick Scott wrote:
>If we followed argued a similar argument to the one
>that Louis is proposing over Kosovar in relation to
>Palestine today we would end up supporting the Israeli
>state against the Palestinians. After all hasn't Hamas
>sent out countless suicide bombers to blow up Iraeli
>civilians and doesn't it favourably refer to the
>Protocols of the Elders of Zion in its charter?


Well, maybe the left should have supported the Miskito Indians as 
well since the FSLN was suppressing their rights at exactly the same 
time the Serbs were attacking the Kosovars.

The Washington Post, June 8, 1984, Friday, Final Edition
OAS Study Says Miskito Indians Suffered Abuse From Sandinistas
By Alma Guillermoprieto, Washington Post Staff Writer

Nicaragua's Sandinista government has repeatedly violated the basic 
rights of Miskito Indians living there, including instances of 
"illegal killings" and torture, according to a report released 
yesterday by the Organization of American States (OAS).

The report, prepared by the OAS' human rights commission, also said 
that the ruling Sandinistas have used emergency military authority to 
"detain hundreds of Miskitos, without following legal formalities and 
without allowing any judicial remedy." It called on the government in 
Managua to thoroughly investigate documented abuses.

But while the report indicated continuing unconfirmed charges of 
rights violations, it said most serious violations took place between 
late 1981 and mid-1983. It added that "significant advances" have 
been made in improving human rights for the Miskitos since then.


The result of a two-year study, the document does not substantiate 
charges by anti-Sandinista Miskito rebel groups and the Reagan 
administration that the Nicaraguans have "implemented a policy of . . 
. ethnocide" against the 80,000-member Indian community.

The Inter-American Human Rights Commission of the OAS is charged with 
investigating allegations of rights abuse by OAS member nations. 
While its investigations are normally initiated by charges from 
nongovernmental sources, this one was initiated in February 1982 at 
the request of the Sandinistas. The request followed reports that 
they had abused and forcibly resettled the Indian community from its 
traditional homeland in eastern Nicaragua, near the Honduran border.

The Sandinistas subsequently asked the commission to facilitate a 
friendly resolution of their differences with the Miskito community. 
According to sources close to the commission, it was the failure of 
those efforts that led to release of the report.

Its publication yesterday coincided with the presence in Washington 
of Stedman Fagoth, head of MISURA, the largest of two anti-Sandinista 
Miskito guerrilla groups. Fagoth, whose Honduras-based group has 
launched a series of armed attacks against government forces in 
northeastern Nicaragua, is here to lobby for Congressional approval 
for continued CIA funding for his group.

The report noted that "the existing climate of conflict in the 
Honduran-Nicaraguan border region directly affects the observance of 
human rights." A source involved in commission deliberations said 
yesterday, "As long as tensions continue between the two countries, 
we don't see how the Miskitos' situation can improve."

After enduring centuries of abuse and neglect under the ousted 
pre-Sandinista government of Anastasio Somoza and his predecessors, 
the Miskitos' conflict with the Sandinista regime has catapulted them 
to world attention.

They are a people indigenous to the Caribbean Coast of Central 
America, who live primarily in small villages in Honduras and Nicaragua.

While most Nicaraguans are of mixed Spanish and Indian blood, 
Catholic and Spanish-speaking, the Miskitos were colonized by the 
English and evangelized by the Germans in the 19th century. An 
estimated 70 percent of them speak no Spanish, and most belong to the 
Protestant Moravian Church.

Hostility between the Miskitos and the Sandinistas, who came to power 
in 1979, was almost immediate, as the Sandinistas sought to impose 
nationwide land reform and collectivization of many sectors of the 
economy. The first outbreak of armed activity by anti-Sandinista 
guerrillas along the Atlantic Coast in 1981 created further upheaval.

It was during this period, in December 1981, that the most serious 
human-rights abuse documented by the commission report occurred.

According to the report, eyewitnesses said the Sandinista Army 
rounded up 35 to 40 Miskitos in the village of Leimus following an 
antigovernment rebel attack. The following day, they were taken out 
of jail in groups and "summarily executed."

While accounts of another, more recent killing were found to be 
untrue, the report said, other similar reports could neither be 
confirmed nor disproven.

Despite repeated urgings by the OAS commission, the report stated, 
two Sandinista military commanders identified as those responsible 
for the Leimus massacre were "totally and definitely acquitted" of 
the alleged crimes by a military court.

Beginning in 1982, to cut off rebel supplies, the Sandinista Army 
relocated the population of 42 primarily Miskito villages, setting 
the houses on fire and killing domestic animals. The OAS commission 
found that rebel military activity "demonstrates that there was a 
real and imminent threat to the security of the state," which could 
justify the forced relocation of 8,500 Miskitos to government-operated camps.

However, the report blamed the Sandinistas for the arbitrary fashion 
in which the "traumatic" relocation was carried out.

Fagoth and his supporters have said that "at least 393 Miskitos were 
killed" by the Army in the course of this exodus. The commission 
report mentions the death of 75 Miskito children in a helicopter 
crash during the relocation, but stated that no evidence could be 
found of other fatalities during this time.

Many Miskitos fled to Honduras to escape relocation or the armed conflict.




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