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.
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