Political Prisoners, International Law and Crimes of the U.S. Government

BY JAAN LAAMAN

Readers of this magazine know that 4strugglemag is a voice of political prisoners in the U.S. While much of the writing deals with the war and growing police state, the Bush government, and other injustices of U.S. imperialism, we do cover and update issues and cases of political prisoners. The focus is on the views of political prisoners, but our pages are open to insightful voices of all revolutionary minded prisoners and activists outside. We do define political prisoner by international law standards, as those women and men who are in captivity because of their political beliefs and opinions and/or because of their actions in support of these beliefs.

Many younger readers and readers overseas are probably not aware that the U.S. government has been found guilty of holding and abusing political prisoners within its own prisons across the U.S. A “Special International Tribunal” acting under United Nations authority and the jurisdiction of international law and UN conventions was convened and met between December 7 and 10, 1990, in New York City. This Tribunal, which was open to the press and public, dealt with “The Violations of Human Rights of Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War in United States Prisons and Jails.” A panel of noted inter-national judges (including U.S. judges), heard detailed testimony from many witnesses and experts and received substantial paper documentation. After a full review this Tribunal found the U.S.A. government (then under the presidency of the old George Bush), guilty of holding and sometimes abusing and torturing political prisoners, and ordered their immediate release. Of course the U.S. government did not comply with this Tribunal order and in fact many of the same women and men discussed in that case, continue to sit in prisons across the U.S. today.

We are printing the whole Tribunal finding, list of judges, witnesses, etc. This is an important document that all revolutionaries and social justice activists should be aware of.

This is not the only case in recent times where the U.S. government has been found in violation of international law and its own law. Just recently a UN commission found the U.S. government guilty of torture and other Human Rights violations in its prison in Guantanamo Bay.

In 1992, on the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s journey to the Americas, another internationally sanctioned Tribunal was held that dealt with “Indigenous Peoples and Oppressed Nations in the USA.” The U.S. government was again found guilty by another international panel of judges and ordered to release all its political prisoners. Most of these women and men still languish in U.S. prisons today. 4strugglemag will reprint this second tribunal verdict in our next (no.8) issue.

While there is clear legal evidence in the following document, it is also very informative and not hard to read or comprehend. It presents a concise explanation of some of the illegalities committed by the U.S.A. against us, the people of this country.