The Humanists have expressed their lament for the loss of human life and demand the total retreat of foreign troops in Afghanistan. “All foreign troops including those from Spain, constitute an occupying force and should retreat immediately. We demand that the Government give these orders without delay.”, declared Pau Segado, General Secretary of the Humanist Party.

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Pressenza, Madrid, 2009-09-08

Pau Segado and Nacho Martinez, General Secretary and Secretary of Institutional Relations, respectively, of the Humanist Party in Spain, held a press conference to declare the position of this party about the grave events that have recently occurred in Afghanistan, where 13 people have lost their life in confrontation with troops from Spain, as well as nearly a hundred deaths caused by a bombing several days ago.

Meanwhile, when other parties are discussing who in the Congress is responsible for the conflict, Pau Segado declares: “Each time the violence continues to blind humanity, the Humanists grieve. These deaths, a direct consequence of foreign troops in Afghanistan, never should have happened. All of these foreign troops, including those from Spain, constitute an occupying force and should retreat immediately from Afghanistan. We demand that the Government give these orders without delay.”

Responding to another question, Nacho Martinez upheld: “The Government has to explain in great detail what happened in Sabkaz. It is strange how the explanation of the deaths is justified as keeping at bay common thugs. It seems incomprehensible that the behavior of these “thugs”, in spite of their inability to cause harm to the objectives, should have to suffer such a harsh punishment, and be under attack for over six hours.”

Martinez also maintained: “NATO and the rest of the countries deploying soldiers to Afghanistan are responsible, not only for these 100 deaths but also another 1,000 other civilian deaths and an indeterminable number of those, who, in order to deny their rights to live, are labeled as insurgents. This is not a peace keeping force but rather a killing machine. And meanwhile more gas is thrown on the fire; the Afghanis die of hunger and are victims of corruption and fraud of their governing bodies and officials. What the Afghans need is international economic help investing in health, education, and infrastructure and diplomatic assistance so that the conflicting factions develop discourse to find solutions to end their conflicts.

Pau Segado ended the conference, stating: “These actions definitively put into question the moral state of the Government and, specifically, its president. If the troops retreat now, we can agree that, although the consequences up to now are irreparable, all of this has been a grave error. If, on the contrary, troops are maintained and augmented in Afghanistan, with the risk of more deaths, we contend that, in reality, nothing has changed in The Moncloa since Aznar cooperated with the massacre of Irak.” In this sense, Segado showed his concern for the declaration of the Government announcing the possible deployment of more troops to Afghanistan.

(Translation provided by Hope Jolles)

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