Bono Praises Sen. Lantos as U2 receives Human Rights award at Chile's National Stadium
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Press release, 02/27/2006
"The broad range of human rights organizations present at the ceremony clearly show that human rights in the 21st century need to look beyond prison walls and into the lives of women, men and children marginalized through discrimination and poverty, deprived of basic human rights. Human rights concerns in Chile and in all the Americas are not just a thing of the past, we need to understand what that means for us today" said Margarita Byler, Amnesty International Senior Director of International Mobilization - in Chile on behalf of Irene Khan, Amnesty International Secretary General.
Amnesty International's representatives noted how thousands of people in Chile and across the Americas continue to suffer grave human rights abuses - including torture, injustice, discrimination and lack of access to basic rights such as work, health, land and education.
"Who is accountable for those human rights abuses? It is those governments who defend the use of torture and ill treatment; those governments, corporations and armed groups who persist in abusing the rights of the very people they claim to protect or in whose defense they claim to act." Said Margarita Byler.
"There are still people in this country that are silent, they're sick with their secrets. Their secrets are making them sick. I would like to say to them, this is the moment, the beginning of a new Chile, to set you free from those secrets," Said Bono, leader of U2.
"US Congressman Tom Lantos was, as a child, taken to the death camps in Hungary, by the Nazis. He said that the things that haunted him the most in his life was not the brutal treatment of the Nazis but the things that haunted him later on his life were the faces of the passers by, who saw them as children being put on trains and sent to the concentration camps. The mute faces. The silence. Not asking questions..."
"So, when it comes to the poor that you have in Chile, I would like to say that we will not turn away because we know where these people are going. We will go down to the train and we will lie on the tracks and that is our job as artists and as human beings," said Bono.
Sunny Sun-Downer comments: And Yet Mr. Lantos, you have the nerve to silence & have illegally arrested brave U.S. Citizens who are doing something to counter what haunted you. These Code Pink Organization members are the very "passers-by" you were asking for when you were being shipped off to the German concentration camp.
Ms. Ali-Fairooz and these women have the opposite of "the mute faces...", the opposite of "the silence, not asking questions..."! that Bono told the world has haunted you... THEY ARE "going down to the trains & laying down on the tracks..." because nobody else will...
NOW this is what I find REALLY IRONIC & OH-SO-HYPOCRITICAL Mr. Lantos: You, just a week before at Capitol Hill, gave deep words of praise to the world's most famous yet most humble War Protester: His Holiness Dalai Lama of Tibet, in your speech at the Congressional Medal of Honor Award Ceremony that came about from legislation that YOU CO-AUTHORED!!!
And you've continually pressed for sanctions against the repressive Myanmar military regime and heralded the cause of human rights on many other fronts here in the U.S. & internationally.
Are certain wars alright but others not?
So all I can do is continually ask you, Mr. Lantos... "What part of 'War is a violation of Human Rights'' do you not understand!?!"
I was "Shocked & Awed" when I saw the name of the Calif. Senator that I had nothing but praise for the week before- for his praise of the Dalai Lama... apparently siding with the Cheney-BushCo. Administration against letting these brave "passers-by" exercise their 1st Amendment Rights! But that would coincide with the U.S. President-select likewise giving nothing but praise to the world's most famous Buddhist Monk for his struggle for peace & human rights for the Tibetan people at the same ceremony, and a week later asking for another $196.4 BILLION MORE for his War-Based-On-Lies... wouldn't it?
-Sunny Sun-Downer
ConchusTimes.org
`Bloodied' anti-war protester gets in face of `criminal' Rice
Oct 25, 2007 04:30 AM
WASHINGTON�An anti-war protester waved blood-coloured hands in U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's face at a congressional hearing yesterday and shouted "war criminal!" before being pushed away and detained by police.
"The blood of millions of Iraqis is on your hands!" yelled protester Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz of the Code Pink organization.
Rice, an architect of U.S. President George W. Bush's Iraq policy, appeared unfazed by the incident, which occurred when she entered a House of Representatives meeting room to testify at a hearing on U.S. Middle East policy.
"Out!" shouted the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Representative Tom Lantos, as security men and police hustled the woman away. The California Democrat also ordered the removal of several other Code Pink activists.
Capitol police said later five people were arrested, including Ali-Fairooz, who was charged with disorderly conduct and assault on a police officer.
Meanwhile, two Code Pink activists who were denied entry into Canada because their arrests for protesting the Iraq war landed them on an FBI-run database say they will try again to enter the country today.
The activists and their supporters presented petitions Tuesday at Canadian consulates in several U.S. cities, demanding Canada reverse what they say is a policy that keeps foes of the Iraq war from visiting.
Ann Wright, a retired
U.S. Army colonel and diplomat, was turned back at the border along with fellow Code Pink member Medea Benjamin on Oct. 3. She said they plan to fly to
Ottawa today in the hopes of attending a public forum organized by NDP MP Alexa McDonough.
For videos of the event & great ideas on how you can "Stop The Next War Before It Starts:
http://www.codepink4peace.org/
Ambassador of Conscience Award 2005 (Real Media)
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