Copyright © 1999 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved
From Jim Bomford & Ray Stark
Copyright © 1999 Bomford/Stark
Announcement of a 7 hour prayer vigil at the U.S. Embassy, Grovesner Square, London, on October the 2nd 1999, in conjunction with at least 6 other vigils happening around the world, and the Navajo’s own sacred ceremonies in Arizona.The U.S. Government is currently carrying out a policy of complete genocide in North eastern Arizona - against the people of the peaceful Navajo Indian Nation in the name of big business. Billions of dollars worth of coal have been discovered under their land, so they are being forced to vacate their sacred areas, and watch as their burial grounds are bulldozed in front of their very eyes.
The "land" they are being forced to move into is downstream from the site of America’s WORST nuclear waste spillage accident, which happened in 1979. The radiation in that area has been measured to be SECOND to that of the "Chernobyl" disaster in Russia. In just the first six months after having arrived in the "new lands", 4,000 of the Navajo people were dead. That was back in 1980,.. the remaining population have since been ravaged by diseases, the most horrendous birth defects in their children being born there, extreme heart-break from being separated from the sacred lands that are so close to their culture, and an early death.
About 4,000 still remain to be illegally evicted from their lands. Despite breaking international human rights laws, governing both freedom of religion, and their right to practice and continue their traditional rural ways, new laws have been "invented" to legalize the actions being performed against the Navajo (Dine'h) people.
The people that remain are mostly elders, their ages ranging from 60 to 92, they are traditional in their ways,.. rearing sheep and grazing their cattle, and have lived off the land in these parts for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Their attachment to the land is a major part of their cultural identity, ...they do not know how to survive and live in cities and towns according to the demands of modern society, many of them cannot speak English. Now they are being forced to move by laws they neither understand nor are explained to them,... they live daily under threats and abuse from the authorities around them.
The U.S. Government is permitting all this to happen, using "puppet" organizations like the Hopi Tribal Council in order to disguise their actions as "another Indian range war", when the fact is, that the Hopi Nation too are suffering as those who have been living alongside the Dine'h since time indefinite, as they have modern industrialization forced upon them and their ancient ways, and into their villages and towns, by Peabody Coal Company.
The Hopi are shocked at the conditions they see their neighbors being forced to live under.
* Their animals are taken away, and being deliberately starved.
* They have been refused to make any repairs on their houses - so much as even mending a broken window, the threat of Jail hangs over them if they do.
* They have been forbidden to gather and collect firewood, despite the fact that it gets down to minus 30 degrees in the wintertime.
* Their houses are regularly raided and searched, and any firewood found is confiscated.
* In a desert environment, their water supply is cut off, the pipes are dug up, sealed off, and removed. There are many other abuses taking place here, including the investment made by the Hopi Tribal Council in training, as well as, arming a SWAT assault group to threaten and intimidate these elderly residents even further into forcing them to move!These actions are illegal, as the relocation act governing them was passed without a hearing held, besides the numerous human rights' abuses, and have been funded by over 350 million TAXPAYER dollars, without the knowledge and consent of the US public. Now the promise has been made that this issue will come to it's "conclusion" by February 1, 2000.
Please help us stop these actions by joining with us in protest outside the US Embassy on October 2nd, at 12 noon, and running on from there throughout the day.
This is a peaceful demonstration, and is part of a world-wide concentrated effort happening outside embassies in SWEDEN, JAPAN, the NETHERLANDS, here in England, as well as other nations, and right across the United States including NEW YORK, WASHINGTON D.C., and LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.
These simultaneous, world-wide demonstrations are not only to protest the human rights violations and ethnic cleansing being conducted by the United States government against the Dine'h in Arizona, but also to protest the media blackout and lies being told by the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) to the American public and to the world about what is REALLY going on there!
We have only months to go now, before the February 1, 2000, arrives!
For more details about the prayer vigil here in London, or for more information about the genocide of the Dine’h, please contact:
Jim Bomford, phone: 01248-450168 ~ E-mail: mongoose@gn.apc.org
Or
Ray Stark, phone: 01703-633806 ~ E-mail: Eagleseestruth@Hotmail.com"Let's do it before we don't do it!"
There will be places for people to stop overnight in London, and hopefully, there will be food! The elders ask that candles and drums be brought and that respect be shown to the authorities.
If you can help the elders financially, please send the funds to the following account:
Bank of America
Pacific Palisades Branch
15314 Sunset Boulevard
Pacific Palisades, CA 90272, USA.Account Name: Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs
Account Number: 09380 - 32876
Routing Number: 121000358Please have the bank officer write on the wire instructions that funds are allocated for Sovereign Dineh Nation.
Related paths: Big Mountain Dineh Relocation Resistance
Contact Information:
The press contact for Sovereign Dine'h Nation (SDN),
the grassroots body of the Dine'h (Navajo), based in
Arizona is: Carol S. Halberstadt, phone: 617-332-0290;
E-mail: carol@migrations.com Carol can provide extensive
background and current information, liaison contacts with
people on the land, a full press kit, including resource
list of experts for the press to consult with, and so on.Sovereign Dineh Nation
P.O. Box 1968
Kaibeto, AZ 86053
E-mail: dinetah29@aol.com
Phone: 520-673-3461
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