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Legitimate critical observations by the Australian operator, Martin Mitchell, of the community-service-site www.care-leavers-survivors.org / www.heimkinder-ueberlebende.org with regard to specific human rights violations - extra-judicial incarceration and "forced labour" and the profiteering therefrom by the postwar West-German State, the churches and private enterprise - (between ca 1945 - 1975) which should concern us all.
The fact that the German Parliament is currently condemning “forced labour” in China and the "trade in goods produced by forced labour" "in China" ( see attached article, reported by Deutsche Welle, below), is laudable, but individual German political parties like the CDU [ Christian Democratic Union of Germany = Christlich Demokratische Union ], the SPD [ Social Democratic Party of Germany = Sozial-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands ] and the DIE LINKE
[ = The Left Party of Germany or German Left Party ], each, have no official policy - or have so far not been willing to disclose publicly what their policy is, if they have one - pertaining to the question of rehabilitation, restitution and compensation ( = Rehabilitation, Wiedergutmachung und Entschädigung ) for hundreds of thousands of child and teenage “forced labourers“ (of both sexes) who were extra-judicially and forcibly detained in church and State 'Child Welfare Institutions' and forcibly employed in postwar West-Germany, as a huge upaid “forced labour“ battalion, during three decades of the West-German “economic miracle“ (ca 1945 - 1975).
Only the German Green Party [ = Die Grünen = the German Greens ], in the forefront, followed by the German Liberal Party - FDP [ = The Liberals = Die Liberalen = Freie Demokratische Partei ], have publicly stated their official position with regard to these human rights abuses occuring in Germany and have assured the great number of surviving victims of all
forms of post war institutional child abuse, including “forced labour”, of their full and active support.
The German Green Party's public announcement on the matter, of 24.04.2007, (in German) can be found here: http://www.josef-winkler.de/common/info/startseite/index.html?no_cache=1&expand=475&cHash=db0fc8c49e and the German Liberal Party's public announcement on the matter, of 10.07.2007, (in German) can be found here: http://www.care-leavers-survivors.org/GOOD-NEWS-III-.-FDP-nimmt-die-Heimkinder-Geschichte-und-Aufarbeitung-dieser-sehr
-ernst_-_Antwort-von-Dr-Guido-Westerwelle-zu-einer-Frage-diesbetreffend-auf-WEBabgeordnetenwatchGERMANY.html.
On the other hand, the CDU [ Christian Democratic Union of Germany = Christlich Demokratische Union ], the SPD [ Social Democratic Party of Germany = Sozial-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands ] as the two leading, individual, German polical parties, have, each, so far - despite numerous challenges over the last couple of years to state their position - avoided persistently and stubbornly to publicly state their party's policy
on this dark chapter of German history, have failed abyssmally to disclose how they would seek to make amends, ie. have steadfastly chosen to remain silent on this point; and the DIE LINKE [ = The Left Party of Germany or German Left Party ] has also, so far, remained silent.
Granted, the DIE LINKE [ = The Left Party of Germany or German Left Party ] privately, and unofficially (at the beginning of August 2007), has hinted that it can offer much more to the victims than any of the other German political parties, including the German Green Party [ = Die Grünen = the German Greens ] or the German Liberal Party -
FDP [ = The Liberals = Die Liberalen = Freie Demokratische Partei ], but that it “might take some time” to get back to the inquirer with an answer “due to the summer holidays and other commitments”; and so far no public announcement has been forthcoming from The German Left Party [ = DIE LINKE ], regarding their policy on the making of amends for widespread postwar West-German government sanctioned “forced labour” / "child slave labour", either.
In all western democracies it is expected that all political parties actively engaged in the political process of the country publicly disclose their policies regarding all relevant issues which may be of concern to the electorate, so that one or other party may be lobbied by the voters to change its present position on any particular policy, if that policy does not currently meet the voters' expectations.
To refuse to disclose one's policies to the electorate is tantamount to denying the voter freedom of choice and the making of an informed decision in selecting its representatives, as well as constituting an absolute lack of transparency on the part of the entire canditature of the party concerned.
Signed: Martin Mitchell
Adelaide, South Australia, 31. October 2007
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