L’Organisation de la MicroFrancophonie (OMF) has announced a complete suspension of diplomatic communication between its members and the leaders of the Federal Republic of Lostisland. The ban was ratified by members of the Council of the OMF on 16 November to affect all parties which harass its member-states. The communiqué on the ban notes that “nothing prevents [the ban’s intended targets] from ignoring [the OMF]” just as the majority of the OMF ignores them, but notes that this has not been the case historically. Instead, the intended targets of the ban seek out and purposefully harass members of the organisation in an aggressive manner. The text of the statement in both French and English is below.
The ban has reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to diplomatic cooperation between its members and to its policy of acting as a bloc. Sandus is a member of the organisation in order to reaffirm its humanist principles and to ameliorate the cultural and social role of French language and culture in the State of Sandus. The Sôgmô is the organisation’s Assistant Secretary-General of Diplomacy and Equity.
French text of the communiqué:
Notre organisation a pris note de plusieurs plaintes de ses états membres concernant des propos francophobes et homophobes. Les rapports et les éléments qui ont été porté à notre attention démontrent que depuis plus d’un an, certains micronationalistes se sont livrés à ce que l’on peut qualifier de harcèlement moral à l’encontre des membres de notre organisation.
En raison de ce contexte, notre organisation informe une bonne fois pour toute, que toutes personnes propageant des discours de haine et des insultes à l’encontre d’un de nos membres, se verra simplement et immédiatement “bloqué” par tous les représentants de tous nos états membres.
Notre organisation micronationale travaille sur de nombreux sujets comme l’environnement, la défense des autochtones, le développement du commerce équitable et autres sujets de société. Nous ne pouvons pas perdre de temps avec des comportements puérils pour rester concentrés sur nos travaux.
Si la MicroFrancophonie dérange certains individus, rien ne les empêche de l’ignorer tout comme nous les ignorons et continuerons à le faire.
Le micronationalisme est pour nous une véritable alternative citoyenne qui est sérieuse et constructive. Nous serons toujours ravis d’échanger et de construire des projets citoyens et utiles pour l’ensemble des individus de notre planète ensemble avec tous les micronationalistes ayant une vision ou un projet environnemental, sociétal ou culturel.
Ce communiqué marque ici de façon claire et définitive notre décision de ne donner aucun signe d’attention aux individus exerçant une activité micronationalistes qui existe à travers les conflits qu’elles générent et perpétuent. Nous les invitons à nous plutôt à nous ignorer pour sauver leur énergie et celles des autres. Pour nous, ces personnes n’existent déjà plus.
English text of the communiqué:
Our organization has taken note of several complaints from its member states concerning Francophobic and homophobic remarks. The reports and evidence brought to our attention show that for more than a year, some micronationalists have engaged in what can be termed moral harassment against members of our organization.
Because of this context, our organization informs the community once and for all that all persons propagating hate speech and insults against one of our members will simply and immediately be “blocked” by all representatives of all our member states.
Our micronational organization works on many topics such as environment, indigenous defense, fair trade development and other social issues. We can not waste time with puerile behaviors to stay focused on our work.
If the MicroFrancophony disturbs certain individuals, nothing prevents them from ignoring it as we ignore them and will continue to do so.
Micronationalism is for us a true citizen alternative that is serious and constructive. We will always be happy to exchange and build citizen and useful projects for all the people of our planet together with all the micronationalists with an environmental, societal or cultural vision or project.
This communiqué marks in a clear and definitive way our decision not to give any sign of attention to individuals exercising a micronationalist activity that exists through the conflicts that they generate and perpetuate. We invite them rather to ignore us to save their energy and those of others. For us, these people no longer exist.
The Sôgmô had previously restored a unilateral ban on Sandum-Lostisland diplomatic communication on 13 November, only 24 hours after relaxing the ban. It was reinstated because of multiple cases of unwarranted harassment by President Yaroslav Mar and several of his associates. Francophobic and homophobic insults had been directed at members of the OMF by Mar and his associates in violation of generally-held rules of diplomatic decorum in the micronational community.
Mar often points to one incident in mid-May 2015 in which his associate’s comments were compared to Nazi propaganda and diplomatic policy by an OMF member. His associate, Deniz Tezcan, argued that states should overlook human rights violations when conducting diplomacy — an argument which falls very much outside the organisation’s aim of human rights advocacy and which is the individual responsibility of all states. The Sôgmô has described the comparison as “poor” but notes that the comparison did not compare Tezcan himself to Hitler, just his language, as Mar and his associates claim. Það argues that they take a following comment out of context and that, when read in context, the OMF member’s comments are hyperbolic but not as offensive or damaging led to believe.
These comments are seen as the causes of a wave of Francophobic and homophobic slurs used against OMF members. The Sôgmô had relaxed the ban on communication from May 2015, however, in hopes of allaying diplomatic issues between the OMF and Lostisland’s soft alliance after það was assured by the Lostisland President that enough time had lapsed. Instead of allaying contention between Sandus and Lostisland, President Mar instead went on a new offensive.
sandus.org 