HUMAN RIGHTS QUESTIONS LOOM OVER DRUG CZAR'S VISIT

New Bedford

Thank you, Mayor Kalisz, for allowing me to attend the Anti-Drug Task Force
Meeting at the Wamsutta Club on July 8, as well as for allowing the American
Indian Friends Coalition to comment on the pending visit to New Bedford by
U.S. drug czar Gen. Barry McAffrey and his DEA agents.

Your open willingness to invite and listen to all sides of an issue speaks
well of you and shows you to be an open-minded person of strong moral integrity.

One of the strong concerns voiced by local law enforcement officials at the
meeting was the possibility of the General,, with his billions of dollars
worth of clout, coming into our region and completely overpowering the local
authorities who are already doing an outstanding job with the resources they
currently have. They are to he commended for their efforts, which are both
fair-minded and effective.

In particular, Police Chief Arthur J. Kelley has shown outstanding
leadership and the ability to get the job done. What he needs are basically
more funds and equipment to enhance the good work he and his officers are
already doing, not someone to take over and "rescue" our own Police
Department, which has already demonstrated its proven ability in this matter.

We, as an American Indian aid organization, however, have other deep and
genuine concerns relative to the visit. Our concerns are centered on issues
of basic human rights.

In heading up an American Indian aid organization, I have run across large
numbers of instances in which Native Americans have suffered tremendous
human rights violations, including death and torture, both directly and
indirectly, at the hands of the general and his anti-drug forces.

These abuses range from the large numbers of Indian deaths at the
U.S.-Mexican border, to the use of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of
military aid, including helicopters and instruments of torture, provided to
the Mexican and South and Central American military, ostensibly to he used
in the "drug war" but which are really being used to suppress further the
indigenous peoples of these countries.

Chiapas, Mexico is an excellent example of the results of these twisted
policies of the drug czar. With over 60,000 Mexican troops, armed to the
teeth with millions of dollars worth of U.S. military equipment, the Mexican
army has made the Mayan Indian villages of that entire region a virtual
large-scale concentration camp for a million of Mexico's Indians. Add to
this the "surgical strikes," arming of paramilitaries, spraying of toxic
chemicals on Indians, etc. and we are terribly concerned about what the
presence of the general and his agents will mean to our region. Imagine --
an alleged human rights abuser certifying other countries for more U.S. aid!

We need to ensure that the general does not overwhelm and overpower local
law enforcement officials and impose further human rights abuses in an area
where, only recently, chain gangs have been introduced.

I offer my views in the sincere desire to protect the strong image of New
Bedford as a city that promotes respect for basic human rights and accepts,
encourages and respects cultural and ethnic diversity. You, Mr. Mayor, have
already demonstrated your rejection of "police state" tactics and your
strong and courageous support for basic human rights in this outstanding
city, by your firm refusal to allow the sheriff to destroy New Bedford's
image as a great humanitarian city by the introduction of chain gangs' to
our community.

I respectfully ask that you continue this tradition by refusing to allow an
alleged human rights abuser to overwhelm our own, capable police by bringing
his "task force" to New Bedford.

Again, all the money and power m the world mean nothing if we cannot wake up
and see a decent human being in the mirror.

Earl Chase is president of the American Indian Friends Coalition, based in
New Bedford.