Guilty Of Doing Good
By Brkic Sulejman
“Every man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do” Voltaire
From the
narrow
window of my
small cell,
I see trees
that are
smiling at
me
and rooftops
crowded with
my family.
And windows
weeping and
praying for
me.
From the
narrow
window of my
small cell--
I can see
your big
cell!
Samih al-Qasim, from “End of a talk with a jailer”
27/06/08 "ICH" -- - Here in Tokyo, Japan, 3 peace activists, Toshiyuki Obora, Nobuhiro Onishi and Sachimi Takada were found guilty on April 11, 2008 by the Supreme Court of putting anti-war fliers into the mail boxes of the families of the Japanese soldiers who were dispatched to Irak on the orders of Uncle Sam to assist the shameful U.S.-led coalition in its illegal invasion and occupation of Irak to free it of its oil.
For a detailed account of this injustice, please read these articles by David McNeill in The Japan Times and on Japan Focus:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20060214zg.html
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20080520zg.html
(with the interview)
These 3 activists were found guilty, their actions were found illegal for opposing an illegal war in which their country has taken part.
" The
decision by
President
George W.
Bush to go
to war in
Iraq was
ILLEGAL
because it
didn't have
U.N Security
Council
approval,
according to
Secretary
General Kofi
Annan in an
interview
with the BBC
World
Service on
Wednesday 15
2004. On
Wednesday
after being
asked three
times
whether the
lack of
council
approval for
the war
meant it was
illegal, he
(Annan)
said: " From
our point of
view it was
ILLEGAL."
The
crime I’m
writing
about is of
course the
rape of Irak
by the of
course
U.S.-led
coalition of
the willing
to kill and
plunder.
These 3
activists
did jail
time, 75
days, for
opposing an
illegal war
that has led
to the death
of over 1
million
Irakis, and
counting, to
rob them of
their oil!
And the
criminals
who have
caused their
death, who
have taken
part in this
Supreme
International
Crime are
prancing
around free.
To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole. Robert H. Jackson, 1945-46
A student of mine the other day here in Tokyo was all excited and happy because she went to the Opera and there, guess who she saw enjoying Don Giovanni? Koizumi himself! Koizumi is the former Prime Minister of Japan and a war criminal since he has led his country into this illegal war on Irak. There he was, at the Opera, enjoying Don Giovanni while Irak is burning and bleeding! I feel rage burning inside me while writing this piece.
The 3 activists were found guilty by a judicial system of a country whose government, ignoring the will of the majority of its people opposed to the war, has taken part in the Supreme International Crime. They, who are opposed to this illegal war, were found guilty by a lackey judge who is an accomplice in this illegal war. Could anyone really expect anything else than a guilty verdict?
What is the Left that lives in the belly of the beast doing about this?
I once wrote a piece advocating the inclusion of violence as one method among others used by us on the Left to fight against whatever capitalist and imperialist institution and their leaders is promoting the horrible, horrible kind of crime against humanity that is taking place in Irak before our greedy eyes.
I sent my piece to a socialist website on which I was a kind of a regular and was banned from it soon after. I was told that the kind of actions I had in mind to fight against the illegal actions of our Western imperialist governments (including Japan) would be … llegal.
“It
is the
collective
responsibility
of the
citizens in
a modern
State to
ensure by
all means
necessary
that its
government
adheres to
the rule of
law, not
just
domestically
but
internationally”.
Karl
Jaspers
Brkic Sulejman
