Amnesty International Officially Supports Genocide!!!

[Lucky]

Official statement, people don't lose this quote! They're saying that they prefer the 'simplicity' of a genocide to the confusion of a war. Yes, they are saying that.


This was posted on CGN earlier: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_319251.html

Gun control's best friend

By Dimitri Vassilaros
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, April 1, 2005

The slaughter, rape and torment of the citizens of
Darfur would end if humanitarian aid included guns.
Darfur is a Texas-size region of Sudan. The Sudanese
government and its militia proxies have killed roughly
70,000 civilians, raped and mutilated untold numbers
of others and caused about 3 million refugees to live
in camps.

Sudan could teach Serbia a thing or two about ethnic
cleansing.

This carnage has been going on since 2003. The Sudan
People's Liberation Army, a small band of
revolutionaries from Darfur, were the only excuse the
government needed to wage war on unarmed citizens in
the region, who also happen to be fellow Muslims.

As I was reading story after story about the horrific
treatment of the innocents by government-backed
forces, I always wondered why there was no mention of
the victims fighting back.

"Some do defend themselves," said Bill Garvelink,
acting assistant administrator for the Bureau for
Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance in the
U.S. Agency for International Development. The United
States has given about $600 million since 2003.

"But Sudan has helicopters and AK-47s. People in the
camps have machetes," Garvelink said. International
treaties covering humanitarian aid prohibit giving any
side arms to defend oneself; otherwise no aid workers
would be allowed to bring in supplies to a troubled
region.

But Sudan is not allowing aid workers much access
anyway so the refugees are caught in the middle, he
said.

Amnesty International prefers to end the genocide by
moral persuasion instead of self-defense.

"We at Amnesty International are not going to condone
escalation of the flow of arms to the region," said
Trish Katyoka, director of Africa Advocacy. "You are
empowering (the victims) to create an element of
retaliation.

"Whenever you create a sword-fight by letting the poor
people fight back and give them the arms, it creates
an added element of complexity. You do not know what
the results could be."

But we do know what they are now.

Self-defense could exacerbate the situation, Katyoka
said. "Fighting fire with fire is not a solution to
the genocide. It is a dangerous proposition to arm the
minorities to fight back."

Better they should be slaughtered.

Katyoka hopes the United Nations can do something --
someday -- to stop the killing. She also hopes Sudan's
leaders are charged with crimes against humanity in
the International Criminal Court. But at this rate,
will there be any eyewitnesses left to testify?

Even Dr. Ali B. Ali-Dinar, founder and director of the
African Studies Center at the University of
Pennsylvania -- who was born and reared in Darfur --
does not believe in arming the victims.

"That could create a vicious cycle of violence,"
Ali-Dinar said. "The cycle now is mainly orchestrated
by the government. Give guns to the traumatized and it
will definitely get out of hand. There is no limit
then, for them to stop."

He, too, hopes the international community comes to
the rescue -- someday.

(Ali-Dinar will be speaking 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday at
the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, 5700 Forbes
Avenue in Squirrel Hill. There is no charge for
admission. It is sponsored by the Pittsburgh Darfur
Emergency Coalition.)

Darfur is one more reminder that gun control is
genocide's best friend.

Dimitri Vassilaros is a Trib editorial page columnist.
His column appears Sundays, Mondays and Fridays. Call
him at 412-380-5637. E-mail him at
[email protected].

 

[El Tejon]

Considering the purpose of AI is to aid and abet socialism and genocide, I do not see this as surprising.

 

[griz]

Interesting. By hoping the UN can "do something someday" I am assuming they mean the UN would enforce the ruling with...well, force. Why is it ok for a powerful country or the UN to threaten force but defensive use of force is bad?

 

[Glockfan.45]

My God I can't believe what I just read. Did you copy that story from the Onion ? "We at Amnesty International dont condone self defence. It is better to be raped, and murdered than defend yourself or your family". I mean WTH, where does their logic come from? :banghead:

 

[1911Tuner]

Logic

Quote/Question:

>I mean WTH, where does their logic come from?<
**************

From the determination to control and subjugate the masses, old bean. Much easier to handle a large dog once his teeth are pulled.

 

[hoji]

But that could never happen here

 

[Durruti]

Preferring one thing to another does not equate to support of the former. For example, I'd prefer to be shot in the leg than in the head, but that doesn't mean I support being shot in the leg.

What they said is wrong and disgusting, but there's no need to exaggerate.

 

[Lucky]

I don't see it that way. I'm no expert on war crimes, but aiui you can be guilty by going along with something that's horribly wrong. You can claim afterwards, at your trial, that you just tried to go along to get along. But these Amnesty foks are supporting genocide, in both definitions of support. They're providing materiel aid for the genocide to occur, and their ideology chooses it as a better option than resistance.

I'm trying to think of an analogy involving the same situation happening with individuals, but it's just too absurd. I suppose if you were attacked walking down the street, and a crowd formed, but instead of the fight ending the crowd held you down and gave the attacker a glass of water. And then afterwards the crowd tells police they were just impartial witnesses.

 

[ozwyn]

You did notice this was published April 1, 2005, right?

Just checking...

 

[Molon Labe]

Did some googling. It appears this story is over a year old.

Can anyone verify the quote given by Ms. Katyoka?

 

[jlbraun]

"Self-defense could exacerbate the situation, Katyoka
said. "Fighting fire with fire is not a solution to
the genocide. It is a dangerous proposition to arm the
minorities to fight back.""

I have said much the same thing before. Us, the Western world, prefer genocide over civil war because it's not on our TV screens as long.

An interesting theoretical question would be:
"If there were an organization whose stated purpose was to supply minorities at risk of genocide with rifles, handguns, ammo, and training, would you support it?"

 

[Thin Black Line]

From the determination to control and subjugate the masses, old bean. Much easier to handle a large dog once his teeth are pulled.

and

But that could never happen here

and

You did notice this was published April 1, 2005, right?

From FM 3-06 Urban Operations, October 2006 edition:

DISTRIBUTION RESTRICTION:
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
....
The goal of modern warfare is control of the populace, and terrorism is a particularly appropriate weapon, since it aims directly at the inhabitant. In the street, at work, at home, the citizen lives continually under the threat of violent death. In the presence of this permanent danger surrounding him, he has the depressing feeling of being an isolated and defenseless target. The fact that public authority and the police are no longer capable of ensuring his security adds to his distress. He loses confidence in the state whose inherent mission is to guarantee his safety. He is more and more drawn to the side of the [insurgents], who alone are able to protect him.
....
9-12. Shaping operations establish and maintain the conditions for executing decisive operations. In urban stability or civil support operations, shaping operations always include information operations (IO) that influence perceptions and maintain legitimacy. Often, various participants, and their potentially divergent missions and methods, are involved. Army commanders must coordinate their planning and efforts (early and continuously) to ensure that their decisive, shaping, or sustaining operations are not working against other agencies’ efforts and operations—agencies that may have the lead role in the operation. Thus, a critical shaping operation may be to establish the coordination to help develop a common purpose and direction among agencies, particularly those that may experience continuous personnel turnover during the conduct of a lengthy operation. In some instances and with some organizations and agencies, particularly nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), genuine unity of effort may not be achievable; however, recognizing the differences in aims and goals will allow Army commanders to conduct operations with less friction. Commanders should actively request and include NGOs and appropriate governmental agencies in mission readiness exercises or any other training for stability or civil support operations.

 

[MatthewVanitas]

I don't agree with AI on this issue, but can we take the High Road here and refrain from

-- misquoting (plenty of accurate damning quotes in the article without putting words into anyone's mouth)


-- misleading statements (AI does not "officially support genocide", that's a ridiculous statement. They may have "wrongheaded policies that abjectly fail to prevent genocide", but at no point did anyone at AI (that I know of) say "let's support some genocide today".)

-MV

 

[Thefabulousfink]

I am sure all the people who have been shot or hacked to death are glad that they didn't escalate the violence in the region by fighting back.

I am glad that the members of Amnesty International can sleep better at night knowing that poor people are dying with a smile on their faces and prays in their hearts for AI keeping the level of violence one-sided in this conflict.

Edit: It seems to me that, while finding a peacful and diplomatic end to the violence is laudable, the more immediate concern should be saving the lives of the civilians. If that means arming them and fighting to a cease fire, so be it. I would rather die fighting to protect my home and family than die standing around waiting for some foreign organization to come in and save me.

 

[Zero_DgZ]

Sounds like a choice deployment area for all those Liberators that never got used in WW2.

 

[Thefabulousfink]

Liberators? Heck lets send them RIA and Norinco 1911's.

 

[Lucky]

MattewVanitas:

Support
http://m-w.com/dictionary/support

Endure, advocate, corroborate, maintain: Which of those definitions of support does not apply to Amnesty International's official position?

They do not want the situation to change from 1 side having all the guns to civil war or some other form of armed conflict where more than 1 side is armed. That is official. If they have to choose between genocide and civil war, they choose genocide. Period.


Whiny hippie: 'But they don't want genocide to happen, they want peace and love.'

OGFY. If you drop your neighbours little dog in the tiger cage at the zoo, you'd argue that you didn't want the little yappy dog to get eaten, you wanted the tigers and the dog to all get along. It's not your fault the dog was dismembered, you don't support that happening.


If you choose between Coke and Pepsi, are you not supporting Pepsi? I don't care if it's not your first choice, it's your choice.

 

[Malone LaVeigh]

I probably don't agree with AI's position on this but also agree that the hysterical OP and predictable knee-jerk responses fall far short of recognizing that there can be a lot of complications and consequences that we don't happen to be able to see. Arms shipped to one side or another in 3rd-world conflicts have a bad habit of ending up in hands we might later wish they weren't in. I know that's hard to see when the side you're sympathetic to is getting annihilated, but groups like AI are committed to international law and diplomatic processes to get things done. Doesn't mean I always agree with the way they are doing things, but to suggest that it's a plot to give the world to the red menace is a bit far-fetched.

 

[Art Eatman]

OT. Misleading thread title. APS.

Art