Warring & Covenant Nations

More than thirty years ago I wrote an article entitled: Fourth World Wars, A New International Political Order. In that piece I described more than 128 “cold,” “warm” and “hot” wars between Fourth World nations and many different states. One of the longest of these wars still underway involves the Burmese government against the Karen people, the Shan, the Mon and the Rohingya (technically four wars started at the time of Burmese independence in 1948). India has been at war with the Naga, Peru’s cold war against the Quechua, Brazil’s land owner’s waring on the Guaraní-Kaiowá, Pakistan attacks the Pashtun, Russia has warred twice on the indigenous people in Crimea Tartaristan and in Chechnya,and non-state organizations like the “Islamic State”, al Quiada and Boko Haram in Nigeria/Chad have been attacking indigenous villages with impunity in Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, Niger, Libya, and Nigeria.

States’ governments (i.e., Russia, Burma, Pakistan, Syria, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Brazil) have been engaged in cold wars (political conflicts),  warm wars (low level intensity battles) and hot wars (fully organized combat engagements) while businesses, non-governmental organizations, organized crime, organized religions and non-state organizations have all been attacking or massively killing Fourth World peoples. Countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States are complicit in many of these wars as parties directly or indirectly.

The Crimea Tartar are just recently engaged in yet another battle with the Russian government even as the Russian President issues platitudes about how much he respects the Tartar people. The Russian government practices the same propaganda as do other states engaged in the same practices: Ethnocide.

The Crimean Tartars are one of five Fourth World Nations to initial and agree to the International Covenant on the Rights of Indigenous Nations–a 1994 agreement sponsored by the Center for World Indigenous Studies. Crimean Tartar Political and Legal Affairs Leader Mr. Nadir Bekir joined Mr. A-Bagi Kabeir of the Numba People (now in South Sudan) Mr. Ron Lameman of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations, Judy Sayer of the Opethesaht First Nation and Victor Kaisiepo of the Wes Papua Peoples Front. In this Covenant, these nations agreed to seek a new international approach to relations between Fourth World nations and between these nations and states’ governments.

Boko Haram and the Islamic State, and the various states’ governments taken every possible measure to destroy these nations, yet they remain persistent bedrock nations still.

It has been 21 years since we met in Geneva, Switzerland to discuss and secure the initials of representatives from these five nations on the International Covenant committed to peace and cooperation. The commitments continue and the drive to affirm the continued international identity of Fourth World Nations speak louder by the day even in the face of ethnocide.