Food for thought!
ANEWVOICE - 22.05.2003 11:34
A short open letter to Indymedia's
After having witnessed the mass demonstrations peace activists held against an intervention in Iraq, where millions of citizens rallied to the streets to defend the Iraqi people from agression, I find myself lost for words and perplex as to why such a silence in the face of the slow but increasingly bloody war which is taking place in Congo.
Dear Indymedia's (as in Indymedia activists and co.). After having witnessed the mass demonstrations peace activists held against an intervention in Iraq, where millions of citizens rallied to the streets to defend the Iraqi people from agression, I find myself lost for words and perplex as to why such a silence in the face of the slow but increasingly bloody war which is taking place in Congo. My question is, how can you claim to be an activist when you pick and choose which conflicts are the best to defend. Where are the demonstrations, where are those who want to pressure their Governments to intervene, where are those who should be in Congo acting as human shields for poor and in this case really poor Congolese civilians, babies, children, women, old men, entire families. You often have the balls to use haphazardly the words of genocide and mass killing within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but what about in the case of Congo. Real genocide, real horror. This is not to say that there are no hoorors in other parts of the world, but some conflicts duly require and deserve to be called humanitarian emergenicies with a big E. Many of you claim that the media abuses and misdirects the public, so I guess you don't have to wait for the hypocritical media to begin defending the poor Congolese. No it should be you! Africa needs you! And where are you all? with your African drums, and your dread locked afro-rasta hair? Yes this is a good question. You all seem to have fallen silent, silent, silent. I am not sure what to make of this silence and what this silence ultimately implies about your movement. One answer could be that you are just fashion victims, yes victims of a fashion. It was fashionable to hang posters and flags with 'PACE' written for Iraq, it was fashionable to demonstrate in the streets of Europe for Iraq, it was fashionable to hate the US for Iraq (or for peace vice-versa). Has your energy run out? Can you sleep well at night knowing that a small Congolese boy has lost his entire family under his eyes, all macheteed to pieces. Are you not willing to risk your lives (and here you would really be risking your lives) for the Africans? Do they not deserve the same level of involvement as the oppressed Muslims around the world. Are you not ashamed in this time of mass killing in Congo, to have only about one comment a day on Indymedia discussing the topic of Genocide in Congo? The aim of this article is to provoke you into having a reaction, into caring and into involvement. Where are all you self-righteous activists? where are you???
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