[www-features] FEATURE PROPOSAL / "Cyprus: No Troops to Lebanon"

Tue Aug 22 21:44:05 PDT 2006

Hello www-features group,

I'm a member of the editorial collective of Cyprus IndyMedia writing on
behalf of our group to suggest a Feature article.

The Proposed Feature article is below.
The material contains html code.

I do not have access to the editing or admin tools to post it. If the
www-features work group agrees to publish the Feature, we will need your
help to post it.

The original article is here:
http://english-cyprus.indymedia.org/newswire/display/230/index.php
and here:
http://english-cyprus.indymedia.org

The material is below, under a double line like this: ============

Thanks very much,
Sue Scandale,
Cyprus IndyMedia volunteer

==============================

Header :
________

<a href="http://beirut.indymedia.org">LEBANON</a>/<a
href="http://cyprus.indymedia.org">CYPRUS</a> : CEASEFIRE - PEACEKEEPING
OPERATIONS - SELF-DETERMINATION

Title :
_______

Cyprus: No Troops to Lebanon

Picture :
_________

http://english-cyprus.indymedia.org/usermedia/image/10/wide-marchhead-2-cropped-300.jpg

Abstract :
__________

by Cyprus Indymedia
<a href="mailto:
Imc-cyprus at lists.indymedia.org">Imc-cyprus at lists.indymedia.org</a>
21 Aug 2006

We collectively endorse the political analysis, the positions and
concerns expressed in the following article regarding the involvement of
Cyprus in the Lebanon crisis.
We say No Troops to Lebanon.

Editorial Collective ~ Cyprus Indymedia
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ </b>

It's no longer mere speculation - it is almost certain, or at least
there is a strong public impression that the troops to "pacify" Lebanon
will transit through Cyprus.

The Government has already sent invitations internationally, formally
now a kneeling supplicant hoping to be "taken into consideration" by the
international forces that wield the might and the authority to step
their boots onto whomever they please. There goes "little miss Cyprus"
licking around for influence, wanting to be seen, to be noticed. "Oh,
what a good girl. How co-operative".

Body :
______

It must be underlined that what we are talking about is not the areas of
Cyprus under British occupation - Her Majesty's United Kingdom's
Sovereign Bases. We are talking about all of the ports and airports
under the full control of the State. The Government has officially
stated that it has offered the "entire infrastructure" of Cyprus for the
transfer of the troops to Lebanon, and for their supply operations.

Even worse, the Government has offered to send Cyprus army officers to
Lebanon as members of the "peacekeeping force".

Seeing that the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon has left the issue of the
Lebanese Resistance pending (mainly, the future of the Hezbollah
forces), and taking into consideration that a large number of the
Lebanese political formations consider the "peacekeeping" troops
undesirable, whom does the offer of the Cyprus Governmnent serve? Or
whom exactly does it aim to serve?

The Resistance in Lebanon and its allies, the many political
organisations and a vast amount of the population who support it, have
stated categorically that if the aim of the "peacekeeping" forces is to
disarm the popular Resistance, then their presence will be considered as
an invasion and occupation, the forces will be considered hostile to
Lebanon, and that fighting will ensue immediately. What is Cyprus
looking for, trying to get tangled up in this labyrinth of anomaly?

It is honourable that together as a People and State we've done our best
participating in the humanitarian aid efforts, in the rescue operations
and in the efforts to stop the massacres and to stop hostilities through
political mobilizations, diplomatic initiatives, etc.  However, there
has to be a limit in collaborating with the powers of international
imperialism.

We say Yes to clearly delimited co-operation for humanitarian
rescue operations and protection of our neighbours, yes, and by
all means and resources available to us as a people. But No - clearly
and absolutely no - to collaboration in military operations that are
nothing less than intervention in our neighboring country.

<b>Neutrality?</b>

Let's add symbols to the equation. There exist armed and well organised
fascist and nationalist forces in Lebanon who seek an ethnic cleansing
in order to "purify" their country from Palestinian refugees. They seek
to anihilate them.
<a href="http://www.phoenicia.org/imgs/phoeniciancolontradeposts.jpg"
target="_blank"><img
src="http://ellinika-cyprus.indymedia.org/usermedia/image/4/phoeniciancolont
radeposts-cropped.jpg"

align="right"></a>
Regardless of the fact that we haven't the slightest idea of their
existence in Cyprus, these political forces consider the Palestinians as
an abomination and as a corruption of the "pure Lebanese blood" while
they consider us Cypriots as their "Phoenician brothers sharing the same
blood and roots" with the Lebanese. This supposed Phoenician "blood
purity preserved through the aeons" by the Cypriots, symbolises
important things for some people in Lebanon.

Does it sound like nonsence? It might be. But let's also take into
calculation everything else that we all know that's unquestionable.
Peacekeeping forces can only produce work in a context where there is
mutual acceptance and acknowledgement of their neutrality. Within the
Eastern Mediterranean region, not even the newly arrived powers who have
only a recent and very short presence in our area, such as the USA, have
been able to maintain neutrality in the conflicts. How then could
Cyprus, with thousands of years of a shared history with Lebanon,
achieve that? How will the Government be able to maintain a genuine
neutrality when it can not even maintain the appearance of neutrality?

The conflict in Lebanon is directly connected to:
- local versions of the modern crusade that has been launched by the
pseudochristian countries against Islam,
- nationalist and national conflicts of many people with multiple
cultural identities,
- class war at a local, regional and global level,
- war for the extermination and survival of entire peoples,
- war for the control of resources (oil, land, water),
- war for the geopolitical superiority of regional and global powers,
- war for the sake of war, that is, the preservation of war driven by
the element of profits for the munitions and armaments industry
(military-industrial complex).

In such a context, how can Cyprus present itself as neutral, or to
actualize genuine neutrality?  Along with the reputation of being "pure
blood Phoenicians", we have millenia of good and bad relations with our
neighbours.

There is a bridge connecting Cyprus and Lebanon with family bonds, the
Maronite community.

There also exist in Lebanon the Druze people whose roots go back to the
"peacekeeping" forces of Alexander of Macedonia, and whose militia had
an involvement in the recent civil war in Lebanon.

In a straight line between Cairo and Beirut there are undersea oil and
gas reserves that Cyprus is seeking to exploit commercially.

And there are several centuries of history during which troops from
England, France, Italy and other countries that are "brethren in Christ"
have used Cyprus as a base from which to raid Lebanon - with a tolerance
and co-operation by our local rulers.

In such an environment, how can Cyprus act without stepping on a mine
that might explode subtle and delicate religious, ethnic, cultural
balances or conflicts in pursuit of resources and power?

Who among our superstar politicians will win the hearts of our Lebanese
neighbours in such a way so that they will perceive the actions of the
Cyprus Government as friendly instead of what they really are, an
opportunistic and profiteering alliance with powers undesirable in
Lebanon? Our lovable Minister of Foreign Affairs?

How can the Government maintain a face of neutrality in our relations to
Lebanon when it cannot even gain the trust of and convince its own
citizens that it has not sold out the country to global Capital?  Is
there a Cypriot - either GreekCypriot or TurkishCypriot - who is not
disturbed by the alliances of the Government with the imperialist forces
to slaughter Iraq?  Is there a Cypriot who does not feel shame and
injustice that our country has been handed over by our leaders as a
sacrifice on the altar of the Holy Dollar?

With the continued "ingenious" manoeuvres by our politicians and given
the history and the power of highly charged symbols, any Cypriot
military person participating in a "peacekeeping" mission in Lebanon can
very easily become entangled in conflicts, stirring up ethnic and
religious hatreds which none of us wishes to symbolize.

Is this what we want?

Which family in Cyprus - either GreekCypriot or TurkishCypriot - would
feel comfortable if the "peacekeeping forces" policing us on the Green
Line in 1974, '67 or '63 were from Lebanon?  Or belonged to Hezbollah?
Wouldn't their presence here poison the relations between our people?

What is Cyprus looking for, trying to get tangled up in this labyrinth
of anomaly?
For what?

We know the answers.  Like it or not, the leaders of the country are
signaling openly to all of us that the only policy they want to navigate
is a course based on prostituting our country to the operations of
global imperialism in the hope of receiving remuneration, in the hope of
an "exchange of favours".

Morality, the social, political and spiritual values that should be
guiding the relations between neighbouring peoples ...oh who cares! What
need do we have of commerce, of cultural relations, of alliances with
our neighbours when we can get "favours" much more easily from the
powerful masters of the planet selling off our country to the Empire's
forces so that it can step from here onto anybody's throats it wants?

Let them all come through Cyprus - "please, please, this way", our
rulers say - please butcher our neighbours in Afghanistan, slaughter
them in Iraq, "pacify" them in Lebanon. "Step right this way, please."

"We're on your side", say the rulers of Cyprus to the globe's powerful,
us and the "entire infrastructure" of our country.

<b>Prerequisites</b>

There's only one possible set of circumstances by which the "gracious"
offer by the Government would be rendered fair, and capable of being
compatible with a sense of neutrality. If it were by invitation by the
 whole of Lebanon.

If all of the political, popular and party fronts and alliances, plus
the formal leadership of the Resistance and the Government of Lebanon
say "please, we ask for your assistance, please let those troops come
through your country because we the Lebanese want them - send
your own troops too, help us", well yes, then, the picture would be
entirely different.

But as things stand now, what is reality? Has the Government of Cyprus
received permission or an invitation by the People of Lebanon for its
actions? From whom did it get permission to co-operate with those
foreign troops which tomorrow might easily become entangled as
occupation forces against our neighbours?

 From what we know, only the headquarters in Washington and London have
given such "permission".

Three thousand years of undesirable armies in our country, merciless
butchery and "noble" integration of Cyprus into regional and global
Empires have taught us nothing? Must we be subjected to more slaughter
in order to be reminded that Peace is founded on justice for the Peoples
and that justice, in turn, is always founded on Self Determination?

If those prerequisites are not fulfilled to show clearly a respect to
the principle of Self Determination for the People of Lebanon, we say
No to the Troops.

Petros Evdokas,
Editorial group, Cyprus IndyMedia
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  </b>

<b>Signatures
Collective or Individual Signatures?</b>
http://english-cyprus.indymedia.org/mod/info/display/signatures/index.php

The above is a group translation of an article written in the
hellenic/greek language,  originally published here:
http://ellinika-cyprus.indymedia.org/newswire/display/247/index.php

Photo: Thanks to <b>Solon A.</b> and <b>M.</b>

</b>Related Readings</b>:

Here's the Why and How
"We believe he has fallen victim to the arrogant thinking which is very
popular among many of the petty politicians in Cyprus. It's an old game,
as old as the Empire: good- hearted, well- meaning people who think that
they can use and manipulate the Beast "toward Peace", who end up being
themselves manipulated and used in cruel and callous ways resulting in
disasters for our people. And disasters for our neighbours. Over and over":
http://english-cyprus.indymedia.org/newswire/display/34/index.php

<b>Phoenicia</b>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenicia

Phoenician, what's in a name? 
http://www.phoenicia.org/noframe.html

<b>Phoenician Colonies</b>
http://www.phoenicia.org/colonies.html

<b>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ </b>