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BILL MEANS BEPLEIT ZAAK VAN LEONARD PELTIER BIJ DE VERENIGDE NATIES.
Het United Nations Forum on Indigeous
Issues 12 th Session, beëindigde gisteren zijn twee weken durende sessie in
New York. Verleden week kregen verschillende vertegenwoordigers van Amerikaans
Indiaanse stammen de kans om het forum toe te spreken. Bill Means, Lakota, die samen met zijn broer Russell actief was in het
AIM sprak het forum toe op woensdag 22 mei.
Means pleitte voor de
vrijlating van Leonard Peltier die reeds 38 jaar in de gevangenis zit voor de
zogenaamde moord op twee FBI agenten. Peltier is voor velen in en buiten de USA een politieke gevangene.
Onder de supporters van Leonardd Peltier zien wij de namen van de Dalai
Lama, Moeder Teresa en bisschop Desmond Tutu en vele andere prominenten.
Thank you Madame Chair.
Madame
Chair, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
suffers much from actual implementation by States. The Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues itself, as well as the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples, the Special Rapporteur, all receive almost on a daily
basis, reports on lack of respect and implementation of our now recognized
rights.
These
reports are invariable accompanied by reports of the persecution of our indigenous
human rights defenders. In order to effectively implement the Declaration, we
must protect our people who promote the implementation of our rights many times
in the face of state persecution.
Many of our
defenders are killed or imprisoned for decades. Their families are also victims
of this persecution. We raise the case of Leonard Peltier, as the cornerstone
of our unity as nations, cultures and peoples is respect for the rule of law
which was violated in his case. Without our insistence upon obedience to the
rule of law, this institution and virtually all of its conventions and
decisions are deeply threatened.
Indigenous
Peoples throughout the world recognize that the human rights of Leonard
Peltier, a proud Dakota Ojibway man, were severely violated in a manner that
defrauded and insulted the judicial process, a fundamental breach of
International Law.
Indigenous
Peoples throughout the world know that Leonard Peltier has been persecuted and
deprived of his liberty based upon the most lethal weapon a nation may wield to
threaten the cornerstone of our fair dealings as sovereigns the intentional
presentation of false evidence in a court of law.
The courts
of the United States have refused to correct this injustice, yet the legacy of
unclean hands is still haunting. Indeed, the United States Senior Circuit Judge
Gerald W. Heaney declined to grant Leonard Peltier a new trial in the face of
the many injustices, including extradition by fraud, yet for ten years prior to
his death, Judge Heaney publicly pleaded with federal officials to release
Leonard Peltier in consideration of the violations of human rights regarding
his incarceration that are well documented in the public record.
There are
many Leonard Peltiers in the world today. There are many Leonard Peltiers in
the making. We ask that the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
to reaffirm the rights of Indigenous Peoples, to understand the need, in the
interests of the rule of law, for the implementation of the Declaration. We ask
that the Permanent Forum do a study on Indigenous human rights defenders that
have been killed or languish in prison in order that the world understand the
enormity of the problem and the real impediments to the implementation of the
United Nations Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples be fully
understood.
Omataquiasin,
for all my relations,
Bill Means
Alice Holemans (NAIS) LPDOC chapter coördinator Flanders,
Belgium
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