Angolan Anti-Militarism Initiative for Human Rights

Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany - founded in November 1998, active since January 1999

The "Antimilitaristic Angolan Initiative for Human Rights" is a anti-war action group by Angolans within and outside Angola and is supported by foreign nationals sympathetic to its aims. We invite new members to join forces and become active in the group.

IAADH is a human rights action group. It works according to the principles of grass-roots democracy. These principles are realized in its organisational structures and are applied to all proceedings and dealings within or outside the group. The initiative sees itself as an antimilitarist or anti-war organization independent of party politics but nevertheless taking sides: It speaks up for the concerns of the agonized people of Angola who have been tormented for decades if not centuries.

We, the founders of the initiative, firmly believe that after more than three decades of armed strife from which noone has emerged victorious nor defeated the use of arms will never resolve the war in Angola. It is precisely this war which lies at the root of the misery on the entire territory of Angola; it is this war which brings about the hunger and the impoverishment of the people who have been heavily traumatised by massacres and expulsion from their native land, by flight and mining of the ground.

Thus we sharply condemn both the continuing warfare and the permanent abuse of humnan rights in Angola. Our initiative will publicly denounce those nations responsible for supplying the eternal warriors with arms or supporting a military decision in favour of on of the warring parties. We call for an immediated stop to all forms of collaboration on their part.

IAADH stands for a new politics in Angola in which all those social groups and organizations participate which advocate a peace process on the basis of human rights and peace education. We furthermore call for a complete revision of the constitution - the laws of which partly date back to colonoal times - in order to equally guarantee and protect freedom and the right to live in security to all citizens within Angola. Finally we call for a complete constitutional ban on every kind of war-promoting propaganda and action, and on all forms of ethnic, political, social, cultural, racial or economical discrimination.

We are a non-violent resistance movement promoting a civil society in Angola. The distribution of firearms to the civilian population for political purposes and for the preservation of power must be stopped, since it turns out to be suicidal for the nation and the population at large.

IAADH believes that conscientious objection which in Angola so far has been persecuted with death penalty or longterm prison sentences is one of the ways in which every Angolan may help to bring about peace. It thus tries to spread the word in its different forms. Our group is convinced: The more men and women publicly declare their unwillingness to fight in a war - and thus refuse to kill in whosoever's name - the better the chances to find a peaceful solution to the conflict and achieve the liberation of the Angolan people.

The Angolan Antimilitaristic Initiative for Human Rights pursues the following objectives:

1. Defense of human rights and basic civil rights for all Angolans in Angola
2. Researching, documentation and publication of violations of human rights committed against Angolans within and outside Angola
3. National and international campaigns to increase sensitivity towards civil and human rights issues in Angola
4. Foundation of national networks within and outside Angola to promote true peace, to fight against war and militarism, and to support peace initiatives and human rights groups in the country
5. Increasing public awareness leading to the foundation of an active pacifist movement and a national initiative for conscientious objectors fighting against compulsory recruitment in Angola; this initiative will be supported by both parents and children who for conscientious, political, religious or other reasons object to military service.
6. Calling for the construction of a radically democratic civil society which clearly separates political parties from the state, which guarantees the rule of law by an independant and impartial judiciary, and which promotes transparency in politics. In particular the IAADH is committed to:
7. the freedom of the press and free expression of opinion and the promotion of an alternative and grass-roots media competence and culture (all citizens regardless of their political, religious, social or ethnic affiliation should have access to the public media)
8. the fight against corruption deeply rooted in Angolan politics; against war criminals and all persons guilty of human rights violations or complicity therein; against rapists and arsenists of all denomination and against the widespread custom of impunity
9. the fight against poverty, misery, lack of tolerance and racism; increasing civil participation in social and political decision-making leading to a humane development in an Angola with a future.

IAADH - (Angolan Antimilitarist Initiative for Human Rights)
Yorckstrasse 59, D-10965 Berlin Germany
e-mail: ari@ipn.de
http://www.snafu.de/~usp/iaadh.htm