Statement
by DiEM25’s Brian Eno and Yanis Varoufakis
It is
with great concern that we heard that Julian Assange has lost access
to the internet and the right to receive visitors at the Ecuadorian
London Embassy. Only extraordinary pressure from the US and the
Spanish governments can explain why Ecuador’s authorities should
have taken such appalling steps in isolating Julian.
Only
recently the government of Ecuador granted Julian citizenship and a
diplomatic passport, in a bid to allow him safe passage from London.
The UK government, under heavy pressure from the US government,
refused to exploit this opportunity to end Julian’s detention –
even after the Swedish authorities announced that no charges were, or
would be, laid against him. Now, it seems that the Ecuadorian
government that has been ‘leaned’ on mercilessly not only to stop
attempting to provide Julian with a diplomatic route to safety but to
drive him out of their London Embassy as well. In addition to US
pressure, the Spanish government is also using its leverage over
Ecuador to silence Julian’s criticisms of Madrid’s imprisonment
of Catalan politicians and, in particular, of the arrest of
Catalonia’s former premier in Germany.
Clearly,
Ecuador’s government has been subjected to bullying over its
decision to grant Julian asylum, support and, ultimately, diplomatic
status. Naturally, Quito cannot admit that it is buckling under that
pressure and it argues, in public, that Julian’s tweets over
Catalonia are responsible for the decision to isolate him. Of course
this is utterly unbelievable. Julian is now a citizen of Ecuador and
as such enjoys the full protection of his freedom of expression
guaranteed by the Constitution of Ecuador. Additionally, the only
reason Julian is holed up in Ecuador’s London Embassy – and why
Ecuador gave him asylum in the first place – is precisely because
he empowered whistleblowers’ freedom of expression and defended our
right to know the truth about practices of the US and other Western
powers that the latter found ‘inconvenient’ once exposed to the
light of day.
A world
in which whistleblowers are hounded, small countries are forced to
violate their cherished principles, and politicians are jailed for
pursuing peacefully their political agenda is a deeply troubled world
– a world at odds with the one the liberal establishment in Europe
and the United States proclaimed as its artifact since the end of the
Cold War.
With
these thoughts in mind we call upon all citizens of good conscience
to send a message to the Ecuadorian authorities asking that Julian’s
access to the outside world be restored and another, more pertinent
one, to the British authorities to end Julian’s detention.
Comments
Post a Comment