[GPCA Updates] GP RELEASE - Green Party: US/NATO must withdraw from Libya, back African Union efforts to broker a resolution

[Green Party of California Updates]

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, August 22, 2011



The Green Party urges US/NATO to withdraw from Libya and support African Union
efforts to broker a resolution

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on foreign policy:
http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-foreign-policy.php


WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders urged an immediate US/NATO withdrawal
from Libya after the advance of rebel forces into Tripoli, and called on
President Obama to support a political solution to the crisis in Libya through
diplomacy, with the involvement of the African Union, Arab League, and United
Nations.

"The African Union's mediation committee offered a positive outline for an
immediate ceasefire, followed by negotiation without preconditions and
democratic elections in Libya.  This is the perfect moment for President
Obama, NATO, and the UN to support the efforts of the African Union to broker
a resolution.  All elements of Libyan society must be invited to the table to
determine the country's new direction.  The Libyan people must be allowed to
decide their own future," said Romi Elnagar, member of the Green Party of
Louisiana and the Green Party's International Committee
(http://www.gp.org/committees/intl).

"If US and NATO forces prolong military action and attempt an occupation to
stabilize Libya, the result will be more civilian lives lost and a disaster
similar to the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and the evaporation of
hopes for freedom and democratic self-determination for the Libyan people,"
Ms. Elnagar added.

See "African Union Statement on the NATO Invasion of Libya: It's Time to End
the Bombing and Find a Political Solution in Libya" by Dr Ruhakana Rugunda,
Uganda's Permanent Representative to the UN, New Vision (Uganda), June 17,
2011 (http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/757904).  According to the statement,
"Gadaffi accepted dialogue when the AU mediation Committee visited Tripoli on
April 10, 2011.  Any war activities after that have been provocation for
Africa.  It is an unnecessary war."

The Green Party opposed the US/NATO assault on Libya from the beginning
(http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=399) and Greens have strongly
criticized President Obama for public statements, after the beginning of the
attack, in which he changed the goal from "humanitarian intervention" for the
protection of Libyan civilians to ousting Gaddafi.  Attacking a country to
remove its leadership is a violation of international law.  The Libyan war was
also conducted without congressional approval, even after the US House in June
voted against authorizing continued military operations in Libya for one year.

The Green Party supports nonviolent resistance to oppression, as most
Palestinians have practiced for decades and Egyptians more recently, and
deplores the killing of unarmed civilians.

"The severity of bombing raids over the past few months suggests that Gaddafi
himself has been and may still be the target.  The bombing inevitably turned
indiscriminate and led to widespread civilian death and injury.  NATO's claim
of protecting civilian lives has become increasingly implausible.
Unfortunately, Secretary of State Clinton's refusal to grant the Libyan UN
ambassador a visa has censored Libya's own collected statistics on civilian
casualties resulting from the raids," said Farheen Hakeem, co-chair of the
Green Party of the United States.

Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party's 2008 presidential nominee, recently
conducted a fact-finding tour of Libya and reported on NATO's bombing of
civilians at Al Fateh University, Campus B, in Tripoli on June 9 in her blog
at Black Agenda Report
(http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/more-nato-humanitarian-interventionthe-bombing-al-fateh-university-campus-b).

Green Party leaders noted that, while attacking Libya in the name of democracy
and liberation, the US has withheld criticism of violent repression of popular
movements for democracy in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the Palestinian
territories occupied by Israel, which are US allies.

Greens have agreed with the call by the United National Antiwar Committee "for
an immediate halt to US intervention in regions and countries where mass
mobilizations are challenging oppressive regimes" (Statement on Libya,
http://nepajac.org/libya.htm) and warned against US efforts to co-opt
movements for democracy in African countries and force them to accept Africom
(United States Africa Command), a program to impose US military presence and
strategic objectives in African countries.

"The unprovoked assault on Libya has constituted a third war, with US troops
still occupying Iraq and Afghanistan/Pakistan, against the government of a
majority Muslim nation.  It has opened a dangerous new front in a wider
unending US war that is at least in part motivated by a desire to control the
planet's largest oil reserves in the coming decades.  These policies, unless
reversed, may eventually ignite a global conflict in this century of dwindling
oil resources and advancing climate change.  Already, the US has spent $3.7
trillion on wars during the past decade, draining sorely needed funds from
public services and other domestic necessities and aggravating the current
fiscal crisis.  It's time to retire the Bush-Cheney-Obama policy of military
aggression," said Muhammed Malik, co-chair of the Miami-Dade Green Party
(http://www.miamidadegreenparty.org) and a member of the Green Party's
International Committee.


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191
• Green candidate database and campaign information:
http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
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• Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus
• Video Page http://www.gp.org/video/index.php

Green Party International Committee http://www.gp.org/committees/intl/

"Libyan Deaths, Media Silence: Were Dozens Killed in Majer NATO Airstrikes?"
FAIR media advisory, August 18, 2011
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4379

Press conferences, forums, and other events at the Green Party's 2011 Annual
National Meeting in Alfred, NY, broadcast and archived on the Green Party's
Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus
• 2011 Annual National Meeting http://nygreenfest.org

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the
United States (Summer 2011 issue now online)
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog


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