Protest letter to President Musharraf,

We have heard about the arrests of Farooq Tariq and other members of Pakistan Labour Party at September 27, 007 in Lahore . And to our surprise, we were confirmed that this is the third time in the last three months. We write this letter to express our protest to General Musharraf Regime and all his security apparatus.

Peaceful demonstrations of groups of unarmed people, rejecting the second presidential nomination of Musharraf, is a political expression that does not tolerate any kinds of repression. Only an authoritarian government could act that way. And by really doing so, we think that this even confirm the rightness of the rejection by the Labour Party of Pakistan toward the second presidential nomination of Musharraf. We believe that authoritarian government, whose violating the political rights of the people should not, in any way, be given mandate and trust to lead the nation in the future. Putting the Anti-Terrorist Act as a charge against these political activists has shown us further that the government of Musharraf is using the George Bush’ War on Terror instruments to forcibly strengthen his undemocratic power. We demand our comrades released at this very moment. We also strongly demand that other political prisoners must be released as well. Autoritarian government should have no place anywhere in this world at this 21^st century of the human civilization.

We express our comradely symphaty to our comrades-in-arrest as well as their families. We hope that they could be released immediately so that they could go back to their struggle and their families. In the mean time, let us then strengthen our solidarity and political relation to continue our struggle against imperialism, both at home and all over the world.

Agus Priyono

Chairperson of Papernas

Labels: Internationalism, Statement