殺人不見血

殺人不見血

MJS 快速反應組

委內瑞拉危機，前聯合國調查員指，美國經濟制裁在屠殺委內瑞拉人民。

現代的經濟制裁及封鎖，好比中古時代的圍城。

二十一年前，當第一名聯合國調查員到達委內瑞拉，該調查人員已經指出，根據國際法，該等制裁是非法的和可構成人道罪行。

前特別調查員，在今年三月聯合國公職任滿，批評美國對委內瑞拉的經濟貿易戰，損害當地經濟，屠殺當地平民。

當美國和英國支持瓜爾多在成百上千支持者前自己宣誓就職成委內瑞拉總統時，加強了當地緊張情勢。歐洲各國要求委內瑞拉從新進行＂公平公正＂選舉。俄羅斯和土耳其仍然支持馬道羅總統。

Mr De Zara’s, 一名前聯合國人權委員會秘書長及國際法專家在往年九月公開人權委員會委內瑞拉報告時表示，該份報告被聯合國忽視及未引起應有的積極討論。

他指出，美國經濟制裁是屠殺，特別當制裁的結果落在社會上最貧窮的人，因得不到食物和藥物而死亡，這已經是違反人道主義。制裁本身就是要加劇經濟轉變，制做前期民主革命環境。

在2017年尾，當他進行資料蒐集時，他發現因委內瑞拉過渡依靠石油，差的管理和貪污情況，嚴重影響委內瑞拉經濟。但同時指出，美國，歐盟和加拿大的貿易戰，是委內瑞拉經濟危機的重要因素。 

他指出根據國際刑事法院羅馬規約第七項，美國的制裁可能已經觸犯人道罪行。

美國的制裁因得不到聯合國安理會的支持，是非法的。

現代經濟制裁和封鎖好比中古時代圍城戰爭。

Mr de Zayas 指出二十一世紀的貿易制裁，不單使一個城市，更可以使一個主權國屈服。

相關的制裁在馬道羅再次當選時變得更為嚴苛。

往下英文版有更多资料

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現在大家應明白經濟制裁是一種武器，一種戰略

中國為什麼要有大躍進，結果大饑荒，餓死人，因有錢有物資也換不到糧食。

也要明白霍英東先生是新中國英雄，因在韓戰時，國際對中國實施制裁，中國得不到戰時所需物資如抗生素，霍英東先生冒險偷運軍事物資和提供英軍海上封鎖位置，救活了不小中國人。

大家可以想像古巴的苦況。(所以我只抽古巴雪茄，食伊朗腰果。哈哈哈，好一個借口）

美國的手法，是要先使一個地方內亂，然後用當地培養的傀儡，推行民主變革，實質攻城掠地搶奪物資。

美國可以透過制裁，可以透過傀儡政棍，可以透過非政府組織NGO ，再加上西方媒體，進行殺人不見血的勾當。

美國對可以制裁的國家制裁，但像香港，因香港提供了一個貨品出口市場給美國，不能制裁，只能透過香港所謂民主政客，加深社會矛盾，引發不安不穏局面。所以香港的一大班政棍，神棍，律棍，社棍，媒棍，是何等的低劣，只是為美國向香港市民背後插刀的賤種。

不幸有一班自稱是愛國者，加入謾罵政府的行例，加深社會矛盾，為美帝做便易貨而不自知。政府有問題是要改的，但惡毒的咒罵無補於事。情感的宣洩引起負面的社會後果。美國在掩著半邊面笑中。可能因此，不用吹灰之力，擺平香港。硬的佔中來不了，就用軟的所謂自家人謾罵，反正亂倒香港便是。

委內瑞拉正好為我們上一課，美國就是要你內亂，從中取利。利？香港的儲備，中國的經濟，物資和政局。

大家好好的想一想。

https://www.independent.co.uk/…/venezuela-us-sanctions-unit…

Venezuela crisis: Former UN rapporteur says US sanctions are killing citizens

‘Modern-day economic sanctions and blockades are comparable with medieval sieges of towns’

The first UN rapporteur to visit Venezuela for 21 years has told The Independent the US sanctions on the country are illegal and could amount to “crimes against humanity” under international law.

Former special rapporteur Alfred de Zayas, who finished his term at the UN in March, has criticized the US for engaging in “economic warfare” against Venezuela which he said is hurting the economy and killing Venezuelans.

The comments come amid worsening tensions in the country after the US and UK have backed Juan Guaido, who appointed himself “interim president” of Venezuela as hundreds of thousands marched to support him. European leaders are calling for “free and fair” elections. Russia and Turkey remain Nicolas Maduro’s key supporters.

Mr De Zayas, a former secretary of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) and an expert in international law, spoke to The Independent following the presentation of his Venezuela report to the HRC in September. He said that since its presentation the report has been ignored by the UN and has not sparked the public debate he believes it deserves.

“Sanctions kill,” he told The Independent, adding that they fall most heavily on the poorest people in society, demonstrably cause death through food and medicine shortages, lead to violations of human rights and are aimed at coercing economic change in a “sister democracy”.

On his fact-finding mission to the country in late 2017, he found internal overdependence on oil, poor governance and corruption had hit the Venezuelan economy hard, but said “economic warfare” practised by the US, EU and Canada are significant factors in the economic crisis.

In the report, Mr de Zayas recommended, among other actions, that the International Criminal Court investigate economic sanctions against Venezuela as possible crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute.

The US sanctions are illegal under international law because they were not endorsed by the UN Security Council, Mr de Zayas, an expert on international law and a former senior lawyer with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said.

“Modern-day economic sanctions and blockades are comparable with medieval sieges of towns.

“Twenty-first century sanctions attempt to bring not just a town, but sovereign countries to their knees,” Mr de Zayas said in his report.

The US Treasury has not responded to a request for comment on Mr de Zayas’s allegations of the effects of the sanctions programme.

US sanctions prohibit dealing in currencies issued by the Venezuelan government. They also target individuals, and stop US-based companies or people from buying and selling new debt issued by PDVSA or the government.

The US has previously defended its sanctions on Venezuela, with a senior US official saying in 2018: “The fact is that the greatest sanction on Venezuelan oil and oil production is called Nicolas Maduro, and PDVSA’s inefficiencies,” referring to the state-run oil body, Petroleos de Venezuela, SA.

Mr De Zayas’s findings are based on his late-2017 mission to the country and interviews with 12 Venezuelan government minsters, opposition politicians, 35 NGOs working in the country, academics, church officials, activists, chambers of commerce and regional UN agencies.

The US imposed new sanctions against Venezuela on 9 March 2015, when President Barack Obama issued executive order 13692, declaring the country a threat to national security.

The sanctions have since intensified under Donald Trump, who has also threatened military invasion and discussed a coup.

After backing Mr Guaido on 23 January, Mr Trump said, “I will continue to use the full weight of United States economic and diplomatic power to press for the restoration of Venezuelan democracy.”

Venezuela has also described US sanctions as illegal. In 2018, foreign minister Jorge Arreaza said they were “madness, barbaric, and in absolute contradiction to international law”.

Since 2015 around 1.9 million people have fled the country and on 23 October 2018 inflation reached 60,324 per cent, while the civilian death toll is unknown.

Despite being the first UN official to visit and report from Venezuela in 21 years, Mr de Zayas said his research into the causes of the country’s economic crisis has so far largely been ignored by the UN and the media, and caused little debate within the Human Rights Council.

He believes his report has been ignored because it goes against the popular narrative that Venezuela needs regime change.

“When I come and I say the emigration is partly attributable to the economic war waged against Venezuela and is partly attributable to the sanctions, people don’t like to hear that. They just want the simple narrative that socialism failed and it failed the Venezuelan people,” Mr de Zayas told The Independent.

“When I came back [the UN and media were] not interested. Because I am not singing the song I’m supposed to sing so I don’t exist … And my report, as I said, was formally presented but there has been no debate on the report. It has been filed away.”

The then UN high commissioner, Zeid Raad Al Hussein, reportedly refused to meet Mr de Zayas after the visit, and the Venezuela desk of the UN Human Rights Council also declined to help with his work after his return despite being obliged to do so, Mr de Zayas claimed.

He told The Independent the office gave him the “cold shoulder” because they were worried his report, which is now published, would be too independent.

“They are only interested in a rapporteur who is going to … do grandstanding, is going to condemn the government and ask for regime change. And I went there to listen. I went there to find out what’s actually going on,” Mr de Zayas said.

A spokesperson for the office of the UN high commissioner said: “The 56 Special Procedures – of which Alfred de Zayas was one – are independent, as well as very numerous, and so it is not a practice for the high commissioner to meet with them individually to discuss their reports. It would be physically impossible for him … to do so.”

The spokesperson said the actions of the Venezuela desk are more “complicated” then Mr de Zayas described, adding, “calling for regime change is not our business”.

Ivan Briscoe, Latin America and Caribbean programme director for Crisis Group, an international NGO, told The Independent that Venezuela is a polarising subject, dividing those who support the socialist government and those who want to see a more US-aligned business friendly regime replace it.

Briscoe is critical of Mr de Zayas’s report because it highlights US economic warfare but in his view neglects to mention the impact of a difficult business environment in the country which he believes is a symptom of “Chavismo” and the socialist governments’ failures.

He said even if the sanctions are lifted, the country could not recover under current government policies, adding that Mr de Zayas’s report is the result of a “lawyer trying to understand the nature of supply and demand, and it didn’t quite work”.

But, speaking before the news of Guaido’s coup attempt, Briscoe acknowledged rising tensions and the likely presence of US personnel operating covertly in the country.

“Yes, something is going on. Yes there is talk of a military intervention. Which would be a very bad idea. But the fact of the matter is that the plan has been conceived in the context of the humanitarian crisis,” he said.

Eugenia Russian, president of FUNDALATIN, one of the oldest human rights NGOs in Venezuela, founded in 1978 before the Chavez and Maduro governments and with special consultative status at the UN, spoke to The Independent on the significance of the sanctions.

“In contact with the popular communities, we consider that one of the fundamental causes of the economic crisis in the country is the effect that the unilateral coercive sanctions that are applied in the economy, especially by the government of the United States,” Ms Russian said.

She said there may also be causes from internal errors, but said probably few countries in the world have suffered an “economic siege” like the one Venezuelans are living under.

The sanctions are part of a US effort to overthrow the Venezuelan government and instal a more business friendly regime, as was done in Chile in 1973 and elsewhere in the region, Mr de Zayas said.

“I’ve seen that happen in the Human Rights Council, how the United States twists arms and convinces countries to vote the way they want them to vote, or there will be economic consequences, and these things are not reflected in the press,” the former high-ranking UN official told The Independent.

“What’s at stake is the enormous, enormous natural resources of Venezuela. And I sense that if Venezuela had no natural resources no one would give a damn about Chavez or Maduro or anybody else there,” Mr de Zayas added.

https://www.independent.co.uk/…/venezuela-us-sanctions-unit…