President Obama, Peace and respect will not come via pentagon!

Even after the downfall of former President Bush’s favorite dictator Musharraf, the misery of war is continuing in the hills of Pakistan. More than a half million people have fled from the killings by US-NATO forces and the Pakistani army in the Swat Valley. These miseries have been shown to the world, and again Pakistan has to spend loaned money to carry out its humanitarian tasks. These suffering people are the ones who really are looking for a change from Washington. That change, we believe, cannot happen unless foreign troops leave the region. This change needs leadership who believe in humanity and peace with justice, and who will not use national security and the so-called “war on terror” to justify foreign aggression. President Obama, as a student of law, you can only carry through this change if you are willing to bring to trial your predecessor who began these wars and ignored the Constitution.
Zardari was chosen President after the assassination of his wife, Benazir Bhutto, who made a secret deal with dictator Musharraf to fulfill the dirty goals of the West when she was in exile. That deal led to the National Reconciliation Order (NRO), under which those who looted the country of billions of dollars and committed murders, including the leaders of MQM, had the charges against them dropped so that they could commit their crimes again. President Zardari has the lowest ratings and is famous for denying his own words. He delayed for one month signing the deal with Sufi Mohammed to become law, which started the new fighting between the Pakistan army and the people of MWFP.
President Ahmed Karzai of Afghanistan personally knows the sacrifices of the Pakistani people for Afghani refugees and freedom fighters (who were supplied by U.S. imperialism for their own interests). The 7 years of invasion and of occupation has not brought peace and prosperity to the common Afghani people and now you are running with the warlord General Faheem as your vice-presidential candidate.
We hope that the meeting in Washington last week between Presidents Obama, Karzai and Zardari will bring peace in the region, so that the U.S. will stop spending $100 million a day on its 40,000 troops in Afghanistan and so that Pakistan will save the billions it is spending for its 200,00 soldiers involved directly or indirectly in this conflict.
We hope the following demands will help bring peace: 1) U.S. and all foreign troops out of Pakistan. 2) End all U.S. drone attacks and violations of Pakistani sovereignty. 3) Justice for Dr. Afiya Siddiqui and for all missing and abducted people in Pakistan. 4) End the occupations of Kashmir, Palestine and all other countries. 5) Abolish the 17th Amendment and Clause 58-2b of the Constitution of Pakistan. 6) NRO beneficiaries should not be named as ambassadors, ministers or party officials. 7) The president and ministers should resign their party positions. 8) Pakistan should never be used as a launching pad for attack against any country (in particular Iran). 9) U.S. and West, stop your double standard of providing nuclear technology to India and Israel while sanctioning Iran for developing peaceful nuclear energy.
We salute the struggles of the peoples of Nepal, Thailand, Burma, Somalia and the whole world who are fighting for peace, freedom and democracy.
On May 10th Pakistan USA Freedom Forum (PUFF) arranged a demonstration outside the Roosevelt Hotel where Pakistani President Zardari was talking to some members of the Pakistani community (mostly members of the governing party) and press. The demonstration was against Drone attacks on the sovereignty of Pakistan and the presence of US bases on Pakistani territory. Different international human right organizations participated in this demonstration. The most prominent were International Action Center (IAC, founded by Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General of USA), May 1st Coalition – the coalition of hundred leading organizations fighting for the integrity of the laborers and legalization of the immigrants in USA), Bail Out the People coalition, Million Worker March (which is the pioneer of the famous independent rally in DC for workers rights), Coney Island Project (working for immigrant rights), Workers World Party – leading progressive voice, ANP (Awami National Party which is in power in NWFP, Pakistan), Khyber Society (social organization based on Pushtoon immigrants) and various other groups representing different communities from New York.

Inside the meeting a fistfight broke out between two groups, one supporting Hussain Hakkani, Ambassador to Washington (who benefited from the NRO amnesty order of dictator Musharraf), and the other supporting Abdulla Hussain Haroon, Ambassador to the UN (it is suspected that he is the guy who supplied Zardari with everything he needed when Zardari was in jail living like a lord). This is a very natural out come when a party does not hold ellections and only rely on sellection only, and People's party never had party elections for more then fourty years since it was founded by late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.