Another Man's Freedom Fighter
By Hamid Golpira
24 June,
2008
Tehran
Times
Nelson Mandela is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who is respected across the globe for his efforts to liberate South Africa from apartheid, but he is also still officially on the United States' terrorist list.
As they say, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
Now some members of Congress are trying to pass legislation to remove the former South African president from the U.S. list of terrorists by his 90th birthday on July 18.
Well, Mandela and the other members of the African National Congress were never terrorists for progressive people anyway and we don't care if the United States is able to partially save face by removing Mandela's name from its terrorist list on time for his 90th birthday.
As a matter of fact, it would be almost impossible for the U.S. government to redeem itself after having sided with the racist apartheid regime and against the democratic aspirations of the South African masses for so many years.
And it is truly absurd that Mandela is still on the terrorist list.
"The former South African president and some in the now-ruling African National Congress are still blacklisted under U.S. laws and need special permission to enter the United States more than a decade after the apartheid struggle ended," according to a recent Reuters report.
"Strict security measures passed by Congress after the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States kept the ANC's 'terrorist' label because it used armed force as part of its campaign against apartheid," the report added.
So what was the ANC to do? Not use armed force in their resistance to the oppression of the apartheid regime? Do U.S. officials believe the ANC should have held tea parties to liberate their country?
And why are members of the French Resistance who fought against the Nazis not on the U.S. terrorist list? Didn't they use armed force?
All this shows that there is no proper definition of terrorism in the United States.
Apparently, according to U.S. law, people fighting for their freedom who use armed force are terrorists, especially if they are not lackeys of the United States.
However, no matter how many innocents they kill and no matter how many war crimes and crimes against humanity they commit, the U.S. government never labels dictators like Augusto Pinochet of Chile or outfits like the Contras of Nicaragua or the Blackwater mercenaries currently operating in Iraq as terrorists.
U.S. officials have even called them democratic forces and freedom fighters.
Obviously, the international community and the United Nations should formulate a definition for terrorism as soon as possible and make it part of international law. And afterwards, they should censure governments that make up their own definition of terrorism in order to persecute individuals and organizations that they deem to be enemies.
The ANC was only put on the United States' terrorist list because the U.S. government was opposed to the liberation movements of Africa at that time.
So happy birthday Nelson Mandela. We never thought you were a terrorist and you'll always be a freedom fighter for us.
