Resolution of the Anti-imperialist Camp Assisi 2003

For a popular tribunal on the "black list of terrorists"!

The pre-emptive and permanent war against any opposition to the US-led imperialist world order does not only target states like Iraq but also social and national liberation movements as well as revolutionary organisations. The US and their allies are persecuting their opponents on all fields, destroying the most elementary democratic achievements.

The most appalling example is the new type of concentration camps built in Guantánamo and possibly elsewhere for which the US leviathan declares itself accountable to nobody. With the creation of the new category of "enemy combatants" the US follow Nazi Germany with its category of "Untermenschen" (subhumans). Both notions degrade human to subhuman beings depriving them of the most elementary human rights. The US keep celebrating themselves as the herald of human rights but actually they repeal the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 commonly regarded as the foundation of human rights forming part of the US constitution. In Guantánamo inmates can be kept indefinitely without the right of due process. Those who are granted the grace of a court procedure before a military tribunal without basic judicial requirements such as a defence lawyer of one´s choice can face capital punishment against which appeal is impossible. Without exaggeration the Guantánamo-type prisons can be called annihilation camps.

Another example is the so-called tribunal in The Hague. It´s creation already constituted a violation of international law as the UN security council arrogated itself the right to jurisdiction which according to the UN charter is an exclusive prerogative of national states. It is paid by the aggressor states of NATO and serves one single purpose: to justify their imperialist attack on Yugoslavia and to force the victims of the aggression to declare themselves to be the aggressor. Whereas an indictment of NATO was declared to be out of scope of an institution which carries the official name "International Criminal Tribunal on Yugoslavia".

And there is the "Black list of terrorist organisations" declared by the US. The European Union slavishly followed its transatlantic masters and imposed itself such a list by 2002. The list has been decided and is constantly emended by the EU bureaucracy which has not been elected and is accountable to nobody. No legal action against a listing is possible. Therefore the list violates basic democratic and judicial rights.

The Black List includes all Palestinian armed organisations thus violating the UN charter which stipulates the right of armed resistance against an foreign occupant. Furthermore it lists a wide range of liberation organisations and/or their militants like the Basque Batasuna, the Turkish Revolutionary People´s Liberation Front (DHKC), the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) or the Filipino New People´s Army (NPA).

Particularly alarming is the case of Jose Maria Sison, a historic leader of the Filipino revolutionary movement. He was granted political asylum to the Netherlands which the Dutch government tries to deny him retroactively referring to the black list to which he is personally included. His bank accounts have already been blocked. Sison was party to the peace talks with the Filipino government representing the popular forces. By listing him the EU took side with the oligarchy and the army.

Recently also the Palestinian Hamas, the strongest Palestinian political resistance organisation was included to the list following several other Islamic organisations fighting the American Empire. Thus the EU officially subscribes to the crusade against the Islamic world striving for its self-determination. By outlawing Hamas the EU bans not only the right to self-defence but also the right to free political expression.

The black list paves the way for curbing the basic civic rights to expression, coalition and press in Europe. This is not only proved by to suppression of Batasuna representing some 20% of the Basque electorate expressing the legitimate wish for national self-determination but also the German witch hunt against the Kurdish Worker´s Party (PKK) which is also listed. All those in Germany expressing sympathy or let alone support for the Kurdish freedom struggle can be persecuted for support of terrorism. The black list is reinforcing this anti-democratic legislation.

The black list is frontally directed against the Anti-imperialist Camp as many of the listed organisations form part of it or are in close co-operation. The Anti-imperialist Camp is striving to organise a popular tribunal where the incriminated movements will be judged be the public. They will get the possibility to present their cases and to explain why they are not terrorists but freedom fighters and why the main terrorist powers are the US and Israel. Also representatives of the EU will be invited to defend their choice.

For the unalienable right to resistance against imperialism!
Defend the basic democratic rights to free political expression!
Repeal the black list!