I apologize for any duplicate postings.
Tom Mathews,
Member, Sierra Club national Genetic Engineering Committee
-------------------------------------------------------------
Subj: sign-on letter re/Zambian "crime"
Date: 02-12-18 22:53:12 EST
From: [log in to unmask] (Kristin Dawkins)
Dear friends, Please help circulate this sign-on letter to Tony Hall, the
US Ambassador to FAO who said African leaders rejecting GM food aid should
be charged "for the highest crimes against humanity in the highest courts
of the world." The Reuters article is below, for your review.
Signers should send their organization's name and country please to
<[log in to unmask]>. Thank you! -Kristin
=============================================
TO: Tony Hall
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization
Dear Ambassador Hall,
We the undersigned citizens of many countries on every continent deplore
your inflammatory remarks (Reuters News Service, December 9) suggesting
that African leaders who reject genetically engineered food aid should be
tried "for the highest crimes against humanity in the highest courts of the
world." This reckless comment reeks of hypocrisy and bad political judgment
and has no legal basis in international law. It serves only to further
damage the reputation of the U.S. government already suffering for its
unilateral, aggressive and abusive foreign policy. An apology is in order.
The U.S. has never supported the highest court in the world, the
U.N.-sponsored International Criminal Court. To the contrary, it sought to
prevent its existence and since its establishment in July 2002, the U.S.
has used intense diplomatic pressure to weaken its implementation by other
countries. To invoke this institution now in challenging Zambia and other
African nations over their sovereign right to reject foods that European
countries and many others have similarly rejected is utterly disingenuous.
In fact, the only country depriving Africans of much-needed food relief is
the U.S., when it insists that its donation of $51 million be spent ONLY
for U.S.-sourced grains. The purchase of non-genetically engineered food
from other African countries, Brazil, China, Hungary, Russia and other
regions as yet free of genetic contamination would readily alleviate the
impending famines and at the same time stimulate agricultural productivity
and economic development in these regions. In fact, some 70% of all corn
produced in the U.S. is still not genetically engineered - so we could even
procure what the Africans prefer from our own farmers.
You criticize African leaders for protecting their people, while our
government sends food aid containing StarLinkTM, a variety of genetically
engineered corn that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved
for human consumption in this country. Perhaps the U.S. should be tried for
this crime against humanity.
Why should Zambians be expected to eat food that Americans, Europeans and
others will not? Why should any people be expected to eat food that has not
been adequately tested by the manufacturers or the U.S. government for
safety in humans, especially if this untested food will comprise two-thirds
of their daily caloric intake? Why should Zambians ingest genetically
engineered corn that may affect the stomach lining and cause allergies, and
contains an antibiotic-resistant gene - when their immune systems are
already weakened by malnutrition?
Your crude remarks seem intended to divert attention from a far more
troubling issue: the political reasons that the U.S. government is foisting
genetically modified corn on people in need around the world, not just in
drought-stricken Africa, when supplies of conventional grain are available.
The U.S. has a corn surplus here, because genetically engineered foods are
rejected in many commercial markets. Do you also propose that the leaders
of these countries be tried for high crimes against the U.S.?
A cynical food aid strategy that dumps unsaleable corn in vulnerable
communities, relieves the U.S. of these burdensome stocks while giving
Monsanto and other biotechnology companies a boost by destroying competing
sources of non-genetically engineered grains from the world marketplace.
Mr. Hall, you have sacrificed a fine reputation as an advocate for the
hungry to serve Monsanto and the rest of the biotechnology industry that
has captured the voice of the Bush Administration's White House.
Zambian President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa invoked the sovereign rights of
governments to protect their citizens. He said that foods untested for
human consumption posed "a danger to the lives of citizens" and that the
import represented an immediate possible threat of "contaminating local
indigenous and hybrid seed stocks" needed to reconstruct the region's
agricultural capacity and food security. His view is shared by more than
100 other governments around the world that have signed the Cartagena
Protocol on Biosafety and the Convention on Biological Diversity - both
international treaties negotiated under auspices of the United Nations.
It is also shared by those of us signing this letter below, on behalf of
XXX organizations from XX countries. Are we also to be tried for high crimes?
Sincerely,
XXX
Cc: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell
U.S. Undersecretary of State Alan Larson
U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Andrew Natios
U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Jacques Diouf
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Jaime Mello Viera
U.N. High Commissioner's Office Special Advisor on Food Jean Ziegler
===================================
FROM REUTERS: 9/12/02
US calls food aid refusal a crime against humanity
BRUSSELS - African leaders who refuse to accept food aid due to fears of
genetically modified products are committing crimes against humanity and
should be put on trial, a senior U.S. official said.
He said Europe, which has effectively banned the development and import of
new genetically modified crops, should do more to help millions of people
facing famine in southern Africa and reassure them over the safety of such
crops.
"People that deny food to their people, that are in fact starving people to
death should be held responsible...for the highest crimes against humanity
in the highest courts in the world," Tony Hall, U.S. Ambassador to
United Nations food agencies, told reporters.
His words were principally directed at Zambia, which has banned GM food,
and to some extent Zimbabwe, where he said red tape was delaying food
shipments although it had in principle accepted aid.
He said up to 15 million people were facing food shortages in southern
Africa.
Hall, who recently visited Zimbabwe and Malawi, said he was in Brussels to
press the European Union to step up efforts to avert the looming famine.
He called on the EU to do more to persuade southern African countries that
GM food was safe.
"The EU has made some great statements (on the safety of GM food), at the
same time there are people who have thrown a lot of doubts, who have been
neutral," he said.
"We cannot be neutral on this issue...We need strong statements. We are
beyond this discussion (on GM) here."
The EU's approach to genetically modified foods has been wary, partly due
to consumer fears about safety.
The bloc has refused to license any GM strains for use in the EU since 1998
pending regulations aimed at ensuring consumers can avoid GM foods if they
wish.
EU environment ministers will hold talks on the issue next week which could
open the way for such goods to be more easily imported and produced.
Hall said the EU should also boost efforts to help southern Africa by
increasing financial and food contributions.
Story Date: 9/12/2002
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