SG

Deborah Jackson of National Coalition of Black Lawyers
at Grenada conference.

U.S. military in
Caribbean threat
to peace — lawyer

By NORMAN FARIA
Tribune Caribbean Correspondent

ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada — A member of the U.S.-
based National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL)
has expressed concern about Washington’s increased
military presence in the Caribbean and has warned that
the build-up poses a danger to peace and security in the
region.

Speaking at a recently held ‘‘Conference on Interna-

tional Peace, Security and Solidarity in the Caribbean’’~

here, Deborah Jackson of the NCBL’s New York Chap-
ter argued that the Reagan Administration still saw the
Caribbean as a U.S. lake but that due to the heroic efforts
of such governments as the People’s Revolutionary
Government of Grenada, the implementation of this pol-
icy has not been an easy one.

Reagan No Better

‘The Reagan Administration is no better than its pre-
decessor. Indeed, the Carter Government, which vie-
wed itself as a champion of peace and human rights,
displayed its hypocrisy by its abhorrent policies towards
the liberation movements in Southern Africa, towards
Chile, and towards those fighting for peace and progress
in El Salvador and Nicaragua,” Jackson said.

Speaking as one of the organizers of the Grenada

parley, Jackson said that the meeting was designed to
Provide a forum for a comparative analysis of the press-
ing problems encountered in criminal law, property law,

the new international economic order and the law of the .

sea. :

Among the issues examined: ‘The Influence of the
U.S. navy on the constitutional development of Puerto
Rico’’; the role of the KKK”’ and ‘Terrorism’.

6,000 Lawyers Belong

Turning to the NCBL itself, Jackson said that the
organization was formed in 1968 by 17 Black lawyers and

has grown considerably since then with a present mem-.

bership of 6,000 attorneys in the U.S., Canada and the
Virgin Islands. She explained that it is a barristers as-
sociation designed to utilize the skills and services of its
Membership to attack institutional racism through the
mechanisms of the law.

NCBL lawyers have represented Angela Dayis.as well
as Martin Sostre and the Rev. Benjamin Chavis. In 1972,
the NCBL also placed before the United Nations a peti-
tion on behalf of the mother of slain ‘Soledad Brother’
George Jackson and all prisoners in the U.S. The peti-
tion alleged that conditions in U.S. prisons violated
international law and fell short of international minimum
Standards governing the treatment of prisoners.

After the latter action, the NCBL was granted formal

recognition at the United Nations as a Non-Govern-

oe,

mental Organization (NGO).

TRIBUNE PHOTON. FAHIA

: International focus

By TOM MORRIS

More U.S. moves
against Grenada

There seems to be no limit to

the outright meanness and .

stupidity of the current occu-
pants of the White House.

Casting around for more
building blocks with which to
construct its case for “Soviet
expansionism’, the Reagan
administration has targetted
Grenada’s airport construction
program as a danger to its sec-
Unity;

One of Grenada’s main in-
come sources is tourism. As
things now stand, the island’s
small airport is hopelessly out-
dated, good only for daytime
flights. The Revolutionary
government has launched a
campaign for funds and sup-
port to build a new, modern
airport as an important step to
building its tourist industry. In
this, they have won support at
home and abroad. :

One institution Grenada has
approached is the European
Economic Community Com-
mission where they’ve asked
for $30-million to help fund the
project. The meeting took
place in Brussels April 13-14.

And what does the U.S. de-
legate say during the discus-
sions on a project crucial to
Grenada’s © economic
development? He urged the

- EECC not to provide the funds

because ‘‘the airport could be
used for military purposes by
the USSR or Cuba.”

Grenada’s government has

voiced several complaints
about U.S. pressures and
threats. Washington has barely
concealed its hostility as the
revolution moves forward. _

But to suggest Grenada,

Revolutionary art on a Grena-
dian home.

with its 110,000 people living
on 133 square miles of territory
could threaten the USA is ab-
surd. To expect anyone to be-
lieve it could harm a country
27,181 times its size is plain
stupid.

The U.S. does, however,
want to throttle the project,

damage the economy and hurt ~

the new people’s government.

The Canada-Grenada
Friendship Committee has
wired the president of the
EECC urging him to resist this
crude U.S. move. It also wrote
to Ronald Reagan protesting
his policy which it called
“‘dangerous and provocative.”

Cables also went to UN
secretary-general Kurt Wal-
‘dheim and Canada’s External
Affairs Minister MacGuigan
asking for support.

The Grenadian revolution is
just two years old and has al-
ready felt the cold hand of
Washington, just as has the
new Nicaraguan revolution
which saw U.S. economic aid
programs cancelled recently.

But both nations have the
support of all honest people
who follow their progress with
admiration.

No place to hide
if atomic war starts

Anyone who has bought (or
partially bought) the argument
that some of us will survive a
major nuclear exchange may
be interested in facts brought
out by the medical profession.

Looking at:what nuclear war -

might mean, a gathering of
physicians from several coun-
tries describe a scene so appal-
ling only a certified maniac
could opt for war.

They tell us that a one mega-
ton bomb would kill every
third person in a city of a mil-
lion inhabitants. The blast

_would demolish all structures,
all services would collapse.
~Deep burns would be suf-
fered by persons within a six-
mile radius. Tens of thousands
would suffer radiation damage.
The numbers of killed and in-

jured would create a disease.

factor beyond scope.

Looking after the wounded
would be _ impossible:
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
showed that 50-90% of all doc-
tors would be killed. Those left
could hardly help — there
would be a lack of blood, oxy-
gen, drugs, hospitals, trans-
port ... ete

That’s a one megaton.blast.
The world’s stockpile is 20,000
megatons.

Hiroshima aftermath. ..thereis
no hiding place in a nuclear war
say the world’s physicians.

Then, for the basement
bombshelter freaks, there’s the
small matter of the destruction
of the earth’s atmosphere. Nu-
clear war, say the physicians,
would induce unpredictable
results on the biosphere lead-
ing to the termination of some
biological species and uncon-
trolled multiplication of others.
There’s no way to predict thé
outcome, they stress.

Climatic effects due to the
obliteration of the ozone layer
(a layer about one to two kilo-
metres thick) would be tre-
mendous. The layer protects
animal life and vegetation
against ultraviolet radiation.

Research indicates 10,000
megatons would destroy
30-50% of the ozone layer.

Ottawa’s largesse
a thing of beauty

External Affairs in Ottawa
has announced it is donating
$3.75-million for
‘‘Kampuchean relief’. This
works out to just over one dol-
lar per Kampuchean.

The ‘‘aid’’ will go directly to
the refugee camps on the
Thai-Kampuchean border de-
spite all evidence it winds up in
Khmer Rouge pockets for ter-
ror raids against the Phnom
Penh government.

Ottawa’s humanitarianism is
a thing of beauty. Canada still
recognizes Pol Pot, although
his regime killed 3-4 million
people. The $3.75-million in
‘‘aid’’ can also be compared to
Toronto’s police budget of
$233-million of which $2.7-mil-
lion is tagged for the city’s 59
police horses. ~

That’s one dollar per
Kampuchean, $45,762.50 per
police horse.

Christians outline peace tasks

KIEV (APN) — Two Canadians were among the de-
legates to a Christian Peace Conference working com-
mittee meeting held recently in Kiev — the capital of the
Ukrainian SSR. The CPC unites the international

-movement of Christians for peace and social justice from

86 countries. a

Winifred Seigel and Marguerite Carroll joined rep-
resentatives of Christianity from all continents in a dis-
cussion of the peace-making tasks of the church and

Christians in the present international situation.

The Conference participants declared their support
for the peace initiatives advanced at the 26th CPSU
Congress, which include concrete measures to limit and
reduce nuclear weapons in Europe — such as a mora-

torium on deployment of medium-range missiles — as
well as proposals for a peaceful settlement of conflicts in
different parts of the world.

Speaking at a press conference, Dr. A. Filaret, Met-
ropolitan of Kiev and Galich said, ‘‘We are concerned
and disappointed by the so-called ‘tough line’ of the
United States with regard to the USSR. We hope the
U.S. leadership will display a sufficient degree of politi-
cal reason to accept the hand that is being offered them.”

The Kiev meeting stressed that the Christian Peace
Conference will continue to support the initiatives of the
United Nations and other international organizations on
questions of disarmament and human rights.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 24, 1981—Page 9