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We Charge Genocide.
Part IV
Your Excellency:
For the National Black United Front (NBUF), permit me first to congratulate you on your ascension to the position of secretary-general of the United Nations. We are aware of the wealth of experience and expertise you have gained through more than three decades of service with the United Nations, and believe that you are extremely qualified to guide it into the 21st century.
We are writing this letter to formally request a meeting with you, Tuesday, May 27, at 4 p.m., so that we can formally submit to the United Nations our "Declaration of Genocide by the U.S. Government Against the Black Population in the United States." This declaration, as a petition that we are asking people of African descent in the United States to sign, charges the United States government with violating the human rights of, and committing genocide against, 40 million people of African descent in the United States. Some words of explanation are in order.
Friday, Oct. 25, 1996, NBUF, of which I am the national chairperson, held a press conference in Chicago to announce the launching of our campaign to submit petitions to the United Nations charging the United States government with genocide. Thus far, thousands of people, and many organizations, have joined this campaign throughout the United States by signing our petition/declaration. We have also received support from African people around the world.
Additionally, dozens of non-governmental and community-based organizations, attorneys, professionals and individuals are lending support to this human rights and genocide campaign by helping draft our preliminary indictment/complaint titled "We charge the United States government and its co-conspirators with violating the human rights of, and committing genocide against, 40 million people of African descent in the United States, and five billion other oppressed peoples worldwide." This effort is being coordinated under the editorship of Bob Brown, co-publisher and CEO of Pan-African Roots, and Atty. Lionel Jean-Baptiste, representing the Chicago chapter of the National Conference of Black Lawyers.
This preliminary indictment/complaint will be formally presented during the week of May 20 to the United Nations through its charter-based, treaty-based and extra-conventional mechanisms and structures at the United Nations office in Geneva. It will be also formally presented, along with the petitions/declaration, to...