Greens Demand Invitation of Afghan Women to Bonn Talks

THE GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES

MEDIA RELEASE

For immediate release:

Tuesday, November 27, 2001

Contacts:

Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576,

nallen@acadia.net

Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624,

scottmclarty@yahoo.com



GREENS DEMAND INVITATION OF AFGHAN WOMEN TO BONN

TALKS ON THE FUTURE OF AFGHANISTAN

Outraged at the exclusion of the Revolutionary

Association of the Women of Afghanistan, Greens

call democracy impossible without representation

of women

U.S. Green Party officers travel to Europe for

meetings with Green members of European

parliaments and other Green officials and the

European Federation of Green Parties



WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Activists and organizers of

the Green Party of the United States are

demanding that women be represented in

international talks on the future of Afghanistan

beginning this week in Bonn, Germany. Party

members were angered to learn that the

Revolutionary Association of the Women of

Afghanistan (RAWA), which has worked to end the

suppression of women's rights and abuse of women

in Afghanistan by both the Taliban and the

Northern Alliance, was not invited to join U.S.

officials, United Nations representatives, and

five Afghan groups in the talks.

"This shows how women have been continually

marginalized in the peace process," said Annie

Goeke, chair of the International Committee and a

Pennsylvania Green. "It is imperative that RAWA

takes part in this meeting as they clearly

represent one of the most significant voices of

the Afghan society."

"These women have proved to the whole world their

right through all the work and risks they have

done in their struggle to bring democracy,

freedom, human rights and women's rights to the

Afghan society. They have been able to develop a

network of human and political relationships with

the Western world. And they have an important

role in creating the hope in the future

Afghanistan by knowing how to manage to spread

the knowledge of health and education among the

women."

RAWA has issued an urgent request for

international action to secure an invitation to

the meeting which may otherwise place control of

Afghanistan into the hands of two alleged Afghan

war criminals, Burhanuddin Rabbani and General

Dostrum of the Northern Alliance. Not a single

woman was invited to join 1,200 representatives

of various Afghan ethnicities, religious groups,

and political factions at a peace and unity

conference in Peshawar last month.

Resolution 1325, which calls for the involvement

of women in all of the implementation mechanisms

of conflict resolution, was unanimously adopted

by the U.N. Security Council last year.

The current exclusion of Afghan women bodes ill

for the future of women and women's rights in

post-war Afghanistan, regardless of the outcome

of the Bonn talks, and calls into question

President Bush's respect for women's rights in

the U.S. Greens call upon the Bush

Administration to ensure that any new government

in Afghanistan provide equal rights to women,

including direct representation of women's

groups.

"The Bush administration must end the terrorism

inflicted upon women in Afghanistan and elsewhere

on a daily basis," said Mark Dunlea, Vice-Chair

of the Green Party of New York State. "The U.S.

should not provide financial or political support

to any country that does not quarantee full

rights to women. It is very troublesome that the

Northern Alliance, with its long history of

abusing and oppressing women, has been given such

a dominant political role as the result of

Ameria's military intervention."

"RAWA has struggled for freedom of Afghanistan

and they belong to the civil Afghan society, and

therefore have the right to represent their

country and their gender," added Annie Goeke.

Ms. Goeke and two other officers of the Green

Party of the United States are currently in

Europe for meetings with international Green

organizations. Dean Myerson, the party's

Political Coordinator, is in Paris to meet with

Les Verts, the French Green Party; Steering

Committee member Tom Sevigny is going to Budapest

for a meeting of the Council of the European

Federation of Green Parties.

Myerson, Sevigny, and Goeke will also attend two

days of meetings, beginning Tuesday, November 27,

in Brussels with Green members of European

parliaments and other Green officials.

International action in support of peace and

democracy in Afghanistan will be among the major

topics at these meetings.



MORE INFORMATION

The Green Party of the United States

http://gp-us.org

Revolutionary Association of the Women of

Afghanistan http://www.rawa.org

European Federation of Green Parties

http://www.europeangreens.org



END