Support UN’s principle of self-determination, MASSOB urges US

The leadership of Biafra Independence Movement (BIM) and Movement for Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra, otherwise known as (BIM-MASSOB), has called on the United States and other developed countries to exercise their will to honour and support the United Nations principle of Self-Determination in the West African Sub-region.

The call is contained in a statement issued in Owerri on Sunday by the Director of Information/Senior Special Assistant to BİM-MASSOB on Media and Publicity, Mazi Chris Mocha.

He appealed to the United States to “avoid double standards, permitting Self-Determination only in Europe and America, while at the same time denying the same right for West Africa – in this case, Biafra, because we are blacks”.

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MASSOB provided an obvious example of this, including the former Yugoslavia, the former USSR, Spain, Indonesia, Georgia, Montenegro, East Timor, Serbia, Kosovo, and in Africa, Sudan.

The group restated its earlier position that the pursuit of Self-Determination by its leader, Barr. (Chief) Dr Ralph Uwazuruike and the members of his organisation cannot be unlawful or illegal, especially when self-determination is being carried out using non-violent and non-exodus methods.

BİM-MASSOB stressed that the British Empire, which created the expired amalgamation of Southern and Northern protectorates in 1914, separated Pakistan from India.

Soviet Union in 1991 was divided into 15 independent States, just as Czechoslovakia had in 1992 separated into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.

The statement added that Eritrea in 1991 went its separate ways from Ethiopia, just as Singapore also separated from Malaysia.

Sweden also separated from Norway, the tiny population of East Timor, of about 821,000, during this period under review on May 21, 2002, separated from Indonesia.

Serbia and Montenegro, after a referendum conducted on Sunday, November 12th and Monday, November 13th, 2006, during a world football tournament, separated into two Republics.

İn Africa, South Sudan also separated from Sudan on July 9, 2011.

Kosovo, a part of Serbia and a tiny population of about 2.2 million people, also gained her Independence on February 17, 2008.

The Director of Information said, “if these ethnic nationalities in Europe and America could be divided, why not recognise Biafra in the West African sub-region; is it because we are black people?”

The group recalled that the 1974 Yugoslav constitution had laid down Kosovo’s status as an autonomous province of Serbia, but pressure for Independence mounted in the 1980s shortly after the death of Yugoslav President Josip.Broz Tito.

Kosovo later hit the international headlines in the late 1990s when forces under Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević attempted to suppress the ethnic Albanian majority.

According to him, “Biafrans need justice here, having suffered persecutions and wasted more human lives of over 3 million during the 1967 – 1970 civil war with Nigeria.

“Biafrans also lost properties more than these smaller countries with lesser populations that have been granted Independence in Europe and America.”

Accusing the United Nations, UN, for not being proactive in dealing with cases in Africa until such problems results to civil conflict and war, for example, Southern Sudan (Darfur Region), Biafra, Congo, Somalia, Rwanda, Sierre-leone, among others, MASSOB said “UN waited till the problems of these African countries including Biafra escalated to war and genocide”.

BİM-MASSOB appeals to the leader of the Free World and representative of the American people, Mr Donald Trump, to recognise Biafra as an İndependent, Sovereign State from Nigeria.