JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: REVELATIONS ABOUT BRITAIN’S ROLE IN BIAFRA’S MASS STARVATION OF THE LATE 1960s – THE WORLD MADE NO SERIOUS EFFORT TO STOP THE HORROR INFLICTED BY NIGERIA AND ARMS SALES BY BRITAIN HELPED CARRY IT OFF – RESPONSE TO A COMMENT ON THE HORRORS OF GAZA TODAY INFLICTED BY ISRAEL – AGAIN THE WORLD MAKES NO EFFORT TO STOP THEM – OUR INHUMANITY NEVER ENDS WHERE POWER IS CONCERNED AND THERE IS NO ROOM FOR COMPASSION

John Chuckman


EXPANSION OF COMMENTS POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY MARK CURTIS IN CONSORTIUM NEWS


“How Britain’s Labour Govt Facilitated Massacre of Biafrans in Nigeria – To Protect its Oil Interests”

“Declassified British files show that Harold Wilson’s government secretly armed and backed Nigeria’s aggression against the secessionist region.

“During the three years of war, up to three million people died, as Nigeria enforced a blockade on Biafra, causing widespread starvation amid considerable international opposition to the conflict”


I vividly recall the horrific news photos of mass starvation coming out of Biafra at the time. And as is almost always the case in such terrible matters, there was no effective international opposition. There were lots of speeches and articles and hand-wringing, but no effective opposition.

I am sorry to learn of the British government’s role in assisting the horror.

Harold Wilson was a figure I admired, at least in part of his policies.

He kept Britain from joining that other holocaust of the time, America’s war in Vietnam, despite heavy pressure from Lyndon Johnson.

But as always is the case, power corrupts, and Big Oil in the 1960s was big power.
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Response to a comment saying, “Then Biafra, now Gaza:

Gaza now, indeed.

Netanyahu has been given free rein to shoot thousands of unarmed demonstrators with military ambushes from behind fences, repeating the horror week after week last year. Several hundred were killed, including women and children. Thousands were wounded, with many crippled for life.

None of our leaders said a word against it. Indeed, some shamefully spoke of Israel's "restraint."

And of course, the years-long, crippling blockade of Gaza. At its inception, it was brutally severe because Israel had calculated the number of calories that allowed bare survival, and that was the number allowed in (a measure that was later relaxed somewhat owing to silent international pressure).

It really doesn’t come much more ruthless than that, but none of our leaders said a word.

And there were Israel’s heavily armed incursions into Gaza – tanks, planes, and artillery against what is effectively a giant, crowded refugee camp. Several thousand were killed, including about a thousand kids. Blood literally ran in streets., as I saw in photos on-line.

None of our leaders said a word.

And there was the piracy on the high seas of an unarmed mercy ship trying to bring aid to the people under blockade. Israeli commandos shot ten unarmed people in the process of seizing their ship

Yes, Gaza indeed.

Our inhumanity never stops. Only the names and places change. There is never any real learning from the past where power is concerned, and never any room for compassion.