TURKEY • AROUND THE WORLD trary, currents that have had difficulty in coming together in other circumstances manage to coexist within the IHD. • Has the IHD also considered the question of the repression against the Kurdish people, to the extent of course that the Turkish laws permit this?
For us, human rights apply to everyone, regardless of their ethnic group, language, religion, convictions, sex and so on. In eastern and southeastern Anatolia, grave infractions of human rights are taking place. Among others, there is the problem of the right to speak your mother language. The Kurdish language has been banned, and people have been imprisoned for speaking it. Kurdish prisoners have found themselves forbidden to speak any other language than Turkish with their visitors.
I think, however, that these problems will soon be overcome. Here, of course, I am only concerned with the humanitarian aspect of the question. Political demands are not our province. We reject any discrimination and mistreatment of anyone, regardless of their views or political • Do you have links with other humanitarian organizations abroad?
We are not affiliated to any international organization. Any affiliation to an international body requires prior authorization from the government. Nonetheless, we are in contact with Amnesty International, the World Human Rights Federation and so on. Clearly, the defense of human rights broad international solidarity, and we of course have no intention of confining our activity within national or regional bounds. • The repression in Turkey has had little impact in West Europe, and it would be hard to say that international solidarity is adequate. How do you explain this?
European public opinion is not really aware of the problems in Turkey. It has also to be recognized that the repression in Latin America and South Africa is still worse than in Turkey, and that the peohave managed to get their message across better. Clearly, in Turkey we have prob-
I also think that the economic and political ties that the European governments have with the Turkish regime play a negative role, in the sense that these governments have no interest in getting involved in quarrels with their NATO ally and economic partner.
It is therefore important that humanitarian, democratic, political and trade-union organizations become more aware of the problems of human rights in Turkey 26 and start to put pressure on their governments. * International Viewpoint #170 • October 2, 1989
WORLD
SRI LANKA Sinhala chauvinists murder internationalist ON MAY 31 M.K. Mettananda, a Sri Lankan trade unionist and a member of the United Socialists, a sympathizing organization of the Fourth International in Sri Lanka, was murdered by the Sinhala chauvinist organization, the JVP (People's Liberation Front). According to a statement signed by Gunasena Mahanama, Secretary of the United Socialists,
"was not only a working class leader, but also a genuine revolutionary internationalist.
"He was a deadly foe in the fight against racism. As a true Marxist, he believed in the uninterrupted struggle of the working class in its historical role to overthrow capitalism and emancipation. With this end in view he organized the working class movement away from such narrow tendencies like caste, religion and racism.
"This was a potential danger to those fanatical tendencies carrying the mantle of majority Sinhala chauvinism and directing their operations at the Tamil minority. Though he served at Tangalle, noted for JVP terrorism, he never retreated from his political positions. By murdering such an indefatigable warrior of the workers' movement, the JVP has rendered an immortal service to the capital-
"The murderers entered comrade Mettananda's home from both the front and rear entrances on the night of May 31.... He was shot many times and his body stabbed in five places".
The JVP buried him, but "his comrades proposed to dig up the grave and remove the body to the headquarters of the GCSU [the trade union for which Mettenanda worked]. His revolutionary col leagues paid their last respects to this great son of the working class movement, sang the Internationale' and saluted him with full revolutionary honours....
"While condemning this dastardly murder...the most important task now is for the oppressed masses under the leadership of the working class to defeat the pseudo-socialist tendencies that are being fostered to perpetuate capitalist rule. It is necessary to direct the people's struggle on a true class basis and wipe out this racialist monster.
"We salute the memory of comrade Mettananda." * THIRD WORLD DEBT Campaign launched ON JULY 8 a massive demonstration and concert in Paris called for the cancellation of the debts of the third world coun tries, a boycott of the apartheid regime in South Africa, and the independence of
Launched on the initiative of the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire (LCR -French section of the Fourth International), the demonstration, concert and meeting on the following day gained widespread support from working class organizations and their members in France. Many cultural and political personalities both from France and worldwide gave their support to these events (see TV 166 and 168 for details).
The success of July 8 in France confirmed the message of the demonstrations against the International Monetary Fund (IMP) meeting in Berlin in autumn 1988. In the advanced capitalist countries many people, especially young people, are ready to to express their feelings of international solidarity when they can do so in a way which brings together egalitarian, democratic and anti-imperialist demands.
The same sentiment that found expres sion in the "Third World Aid" concerts or anti-apartheid solidarity, took on a more directly political form on July 8, taking up slogans aimed directly at the heads of state of the seven richest countries who were to assemble in Paris the following
July 8 also showed that sections of the workers' movement are involved. Although trade unionists were not present in large numbers on the march, they gave political support to the initiative, while the articles that have appeared in the trade union press and the echo in the workplaces show that it is possible to get the workers' movement to take up the debt issue.
Third Worldist, Christian and Green currents organized a "counter-summit of the poorest countries" on July 15 at the same time as the seven were meeting. Some of these forces were also on the
July 8 demonstration, and a link was established between the two initiatives. There is no contradiction between demanding the immediate cancellation of the debt and discussing the way to resolve the economic and political problems that would remain after the cancellation of the debt.
But it is the demand for the immediate cancellation of the politically, economically and morally unpayable debt that can form the backbone of a broad campaign.
This is the idea behind the "Bastille Appeal" issued by the united collective coming out of July 8. The appeal aims to bring together everybody throughout the world who agrees with the demand for the immediate cancellation of the debt. It is hoped to get several million signatures, organize mobilizations at every meeting of the IMF, the Group of Seven and the Club of Paris, and react to every popular revolt against IMF-imposed Next year, the summit of the seven will take place in June in the United States.
Why not simultaneous demonstrations in the USA, and in several capital cities in Europe, Latin America and Africa? No quiet life for those responsible for world hunger! This is what the collective that has come out of the July events proposes to every organization that is prepared to unite for a massive mobilization against
SWEDEN Socialist Party paper fined THE WEEKLY of the Socialist Party (SP, Socialistiska Partiet, Swedish section of the Fourth International), Internationalen, was sentenced for libel on July
The case arose out of two Internationalen articles dealing with the lack of investigation of possible involvement of police officers in the murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, who was shot in a street in central Stockholm on February 28, 1986 (see /V 165).
The Attorey-General prosecuted Internationalen for aggravated libel, accusing the paper of describing the policemen as accomplices in the murder. Internationalen strongly denied that the paper had any such purpose. In late July a 48 year old vagrant and drug-addict, Christer Peterson, was sentenced for the murder. Before Peterson's sentence many Swedes were convinced that he innocent, and doubts remain even after the verdict against him.
The wide-spread doubts about drug-addict's guilt helped make the news media interested in the trial against Inter-
Stockholm morning papers, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska
Internationalen editor Hakan Blomq vist, and Svenska Dagbladet published an editorial criticizing the prosecution argument that police officers should be treated in a less critical fashion than other citizens. The day before the trial a support
AROUND THE WORLD spoke.
The prosecution wanted a jail sentence for Blomqvist. According to the prosecutor, material in both articles should be characterized as aggravated libel. In the trial four policemen were heard. They were effectively cross-examined by Internationalen's defence attorney, Lars Viklund. He showed that the paper had reason to report information on their strange conduct and that the policemen had probably not suffered the psychological damage they tried to convince the court about.
The prosecution called Jörgen Almblad, prosecutor in the Palme murder investigation, as a witness. The intention was that he should describe how thoroughly all information concerning possible police involvement had checked. The feeling amongst the audience was that his vague and contradictory statements gave the opposite impression.
The jury found the information in one of the articles to be legally justified. Passages in the other article were considered to be libellous, but did not amount to aggravated libel. The court and jury agreed that Internationalen should pay the policemen a tenth of what they had demanded. Both sides had to pay their own costs, and a small fine was imposed on Blomqvist. In all, Internationalen will have to pay 50,000 Swedish crowns (about 50,000 French francs or £5,000).
Internationalen considers the judgement unjust, but far less dangerous to freedom of speech than if the line of the Attorney-General had won support from the court. The Socialist Party and Hakan Blomqvist are considering an appeal. *
Gunnar Wall NICARAGUA Lesbian and gay collective A SMALL lesbian and gay contingent took part in the massive rally marking the 10th anniversary of the Nicaraguan revo-
E TIERS
1г пис auloura hul c'est
LA RETTE
LE TIERS
MANZE meeting for Internationalen held in Stockholm. Among the speakers was well-known Swedish author Jan Myrdal, noted documentary filmmaker Maj Wechselmann and Lars Isaksson, radical chairperson of the printers union at Svenska Dagbladel Håkan Blomqvist himself and representatives of two other papers which were prosecuted for writing about the Palme murder also lution (see /V 169 for full report). "For a first experience and without much prior organization, I'd say this has gone well," commented Rita Arauz, a Nicaraguan les-
Rita is one of the leaders of a Nicaraguan lesbian and gay collective currently working with the Health Ministry on a sex education project aimed at promoting safer sex practises and avoiding the spread of AIDS. The Health Ministry supports this crucial work, but has no funds to carry it out.
This Nicaraguan and gay collective needs supporters abroad to show practical solidarity with their work. For further information contact PRESENTE! Unit W55 TEC 506, High Road Tottenham, London N17 9TA, Britain. * [From The Pink Paper 85, published in
Bureaucracy finds
International Viewpoint #170 • October 2, 1989
USSR ment for national rights with "foreign intervention,"
of the Western usually
"special services." Zhukov says in his next to last paragraph:
"The statement of the CC of the CPSU, states with stern directness what serious results a further strengthening of the negative processes in the Baltic, which are aggravated and supported by foreign instigators, could have. This affair could go as far as direct intervention in the life of the Baltic republics, as was already undertak-
THE SOVIET CENTRAL PRESS has been quick to enlist
Western allies in its campaign to warn the national-democratic movements in the USSR against going "too far." For example, a TASS dispatch published on the front page of the September
9 Pravda featured the following quotation from a leading voice of English right-wing Toryism, a publication used to decrying the difficulties that stiff-necked small nations can cause for
"great powers":
" 'The leaders of the nationalist movements in the Baltic republics, the Daily Telegraph wrote unambiguously, 'should not exaggerate the importance of their problems for the entire world.' "
GERRY FOLEY