People's Democracy

Hyderabad Anti War Assembly Declaration

WE are delegates from social movements, organisations, political parties, networks, and coalitions of workers, peasants, women, students and other sections from Asia, Africa, Europe and North America who are struggling for global peace and justice and are committed to equality, solidarity, and diversity. We are engaged in our own campaigns and struggles against imperialism, colonial occupation, militarisation, nuclear weaponisation, US bases and corporate led globalisation, and against all wars, including internal wars.

In the quest of the US for military and economic domination of the world, West Asia is the strategic battleground. Iraq and Palestine are the two critical focal points of aggression and resistance. The liberation of the Iraqi and Palestinian people from occupation and war is crucial to building global justice and a more equitable world. Their struggles are ours.  

US attempts for global hegemony are through establishing US bases around the world, subverting all global international institutions, international humanitarian laws and democracy while institutionalising an unequal world through unfair trade and intellectual property rights regime. The US is also attempting to impose its control over world’s agriculture by controlling production of seeds by global MNCs. The Iraqi and Palestinian peoples’ right to their national wealth and food and agricultural systems is being undermined. One of the earliest orders that the Occupation in Iraq passed (Order 81) was prohibiting Iraqi farmers from keeping their own seeds in the name of protecting plant breeders’ rights. This assembly asserts the right of all farmers all over the world to control their agriculture and seeds.

We condemn the use of torture by occupying powers and dictatorial regimes against those who are asserting their democratic right of protest. The people of Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan have been particular targets of this violence. Women are routinely singled out for rape and other forms of sexual violence. We demand prosecution and deterrent punishment of all such sexual assaults under war crimes.

We demand the abolition of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction such as chemical and biological weapons. No production of such weapons should take place and all such stockpile of weapons destroyed. The United Nations has ceased to fulfil its original purpose for which it was set up and needs to be restructured and democratised.

IRAQ

The last 20 months of brutal occupation of Iraq by US forces and its allies have shown a growing resistance by the people of Iraq. The victims of this occupation are the Iraqi people, with children, old people and women falling victims in large numbers to the so-called “pinpoint accuracy” of American missile and bomb attacks. Independent reports (e.g., in The Lancet, the British medical journal) have put the Iraqi dead at more than 100,000. The Falluja offensive alone last month has killed more than 6,000 people and reduced most of the town to rubble. To hide daily war crimes being committed in Iraq, independent media is being eliminated; in any offensive the media is the first target followed by medical personnel who can give news about the dead and dying of such offensive.

The US project of converting Iraq into a client state by handing over power to the Allawi government in June, 2004, in preparation of holding elections in January 2005, is unravelling rapidly. Increasingly, large sections of even the domestic opinion in the US are now coming to realise that the people there will not accept the neo-conservative agenda of direct imperialist intervention. The torture of prisoners in Abu Gharib prison, the complete absence of any evidence to show Iraq had WMDs and the admission now by the US and the UK governments that Saddam Hussein’s government had no links with Al Qaeda, have removed whatever legitimacy the Iraq invasion may have had.

Meanwhile, the US is attempting to privatise and liberalise Iraq’s economy in complete violation of international law. Iraq’s oil sales are being used to pay for its own occupation and continued subjugation.

We support the legitimate right of the people of Iraq to resist the illegal occupation of Iraq by all means

We call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of US and "coalition" forces from Iraq

We demand that the US and its allies be held accountable for its illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, including human rights violations and attempts to change Iraq’s economy

We oppose the attempt by the US to legitimise its occupation through a fraudulent election in Iraq

We endorse that an independent National Constituent Assembly outside the control of occupying powers be set up

We demand that those violating human rights in Iraq must be treated under the International War Crimes Tribunal

We demand that there be no privatisation of Iraq’s assets by occupying powers or handing over of its assets to foreign control

We condemn all attacks anywhere on innocent civilians

We demand the release of all Iraqi political prisoners

We demand that the Government of India has no relationship with the puppet regime in Iraq

PALESTINE

This Assembly totally condemns Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, which has lasted for four decades in violation of international law, international humanitarian law and numerous United Nations resolutions. We demand an immediate end to the occupation of all the territories captured by Israel in 1967. We fully affirm the right of the Palestinian people to establish their own state, with Jerusalem as its capital, without any restrictions on their sovereignty.  We equally affirm the right of Palestinians to resist the occupation through all legitimate means and support the intifada.

In the interim period, while the illegal occupation lasts, this Assembly welcomes the advisory judgement of the International Court of Justice, calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention to immediately develop practical mechanisms for dismantling of the Apartheid Wall. In compliance with that judgement, Israel must ensure that all aspects of that convention regarding the obligations of the occupiers are fulfilled in letter and spirit. The wall built by Israel across the West Bank has cut off the Palestinian people from each other and deprived them of their lands and orchards. The Palestinian territory is being cut up into a number of enclaves, with large Israeli settlements established on lands confiscated from Palestinian people, as part of a policy of annexation of the occupied territories to Israel.  This Assembly calls upon the ‘International Community’ to recognise that Sharon’s plan of so called “unilateral withdrawal” from Gaza and parts of the West Bank is in fact a plan to annex part of the Palestinian territories and turn the rest into economically and socially unviable Bantustans. This will only perpetuate the Occupation and eliminate the chances for any just and lasting peace.

The Bush Administration has recently declared its support for the Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands, further declaring that the US does not expect Israel to return to the borders of 1967 and no longer recognises the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.  This deepens the unconditional support that the US has given to the Zionist regime, in utter violation of numerous resolutions of the Security Council and General Assembly of the United Nations. This Assembly condemns in entirety this US-Israeli axis.

We demand the end to the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine and all other occupied territories  

We denounce the racist and colonial character of Zionism, Israel's State ideology

We demand an immediate end to the policy of targeted assassinations of Palestinian leaders by Israel

We demand that the Right of Return for all Palestinians be fulfilled. Until then, Palestinian refugees in the Diaspora and internally displaced Palestinians need to be granted full economic, political and social rights.  

We demand the dismantlement of the Apartheid Wall and all settlements.  

We demand the release of all Palestinian political prisoners

We demand that the Government of India immediately cease its developing military ties with Israel

We call for an international boycott and sanctions against Israel and demand from the Government of India that it implement this policy of boycott and sanctions until Israel vacates all the occupied territories.

OTHERS

We condemn the attempts to divide people and demonise different sections of the people on the basis of their religious and other identities. In the name of combating “terrorism”, various governments use such divisions to attack the democratic rights of the people and criminalise all dissent. We condemn all such attacks on democratic rights of the people in all countries including India. We stand for a just solution for Kashmir, Naga people and the North East, and the Tamil speaking people in Sri Lanka through a political process and in consonance with the wishes of the people. We also demand for repeal of all draconian laws in India such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the release of all political prisoners. We welcome the on-going Indo-Pakistan dialogue and hope that both countries will carry the peace process forward.

Gathered in Hyderabad at a critical moment in history, we commit to continue waging a struggle against the occupation of Iraq and Palestine, corporate-led globalisation, and dictatorships anywhere in the world, including in West Asia and in other Arab countries. This is the first time that such gathering of Anti War Coalitions from all over the world has met in India to connect the global Anti War movement to India’s historical role in such struggles. We express our solidarity with the people in West Asia who are fighting for democracy and social, economic, political and civil rights and who are suffering repression. We also commit ourselves to building international solidarity on Iraq and Palestine through common campaigns and common action programmes. On March 19/20, the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, we call for a massive worldwide demonstration against the occupation of Iraq. This Assembly calls upon the global resistance to enlarge the scope of the current struggle, particularly in the countries that are a part of the US coalition of occupation, not only to protest but also to shut down the US war machine.

(December 19, 2004)