The two parties took the step because their countries have hosted such labs for a number of years, posing a threat to the life and health of the population and the local environment.

In Georgia, the Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research was developed by the US Department of Defense and the Ministry of Defense of Georgia. The center tested a toxic drug on humans, through illegal experiments which led to the death of more than 73 people in 2015 and 2016. Furthermore, the region in which the Lugar Center is located has reported an increase in livestock diseases that are not typical for its climate and latitude, such as African swine fever.

Kazakhstan also experienced epidemics of atypical meningitis and measles after the Central Reference Laboratory was created in 2016 with funding from the US Pentagon.

The US military has similar biological laboratories in Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.

The use of modified infectious diseases in warfare is nothing new. A scientific study from 2015 confirmed that the US deliberately introduced an epidemic of dengue hemorrhagic fever in Cuba in 1981. The virus affected more that 344,000 people and resulted in 158 deaths, including 101 children. Similar viruses and bacteria were used against the Korean people during the 1950-53 war.

In 2000, the Pentagon was forced to admit that its secret “Project 112” program conducted large scale biological weapons testing throughout the world during the 1960s and 1970s. Among the areas most affected were Egypt, Liberia, South Korea, Japan, Puerto Rico and Hawaii.

The Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan and the United Communist Party of Georgia state that “the task of Communist and Workers’ Parties is to put a barrier to these plans and launch a large-scale campaign demanding the closure of American military biological laboratories around the world and the cessation of development of bacteriological weapons. This fight must also be accompanied by a fight to ensure that millions of people have access to the health system and receive the free COVID-19 vaccine.

The statement, which has been signed by 41 parties in 35 countries, including the Communist Party of Canada, follows:

“Communist and Workers’ Parties, with a sense of responsibility to our peoples, declare that we are in favor of banning the development and distribution of biological weapons and taking immediate measures to protect health and provide all workers and the poorest with access to free treatment and a coronavirus vaccine.

“Against the background of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis of capitalism and the aggravation of its contradictions, we once again see the deep shortcomings of the health system in all capitalist countries, as well as the violation of workers’ rights, and the generally anti-national nature of capitalism.

“At the same time, we are particularly concerned about the fact that many countries continue to develop biological weapons. The programs of the US Pentagon alone have created 1,495 laboratories around the world, which are not accountable to the governments of the countries where they work and their activities not transparent. Similar laboratories have been established in Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other countries.

“The United States has not signed the protocol to the international Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction, thereby blocking efforts to control the convention while continuing to develop new types of deadly diseases.

“In addition to the obvious danger to the population in the event of military action, these laboratories help to draw peoples and countries into imperialist plans. In addition, they are part of a broader plan to create a network of geopolitical “pillars” that, along with economic and military “levers”, are in the hands of imperialists and are used to support their interests, as well as to support the power and interests of the bourgeoisie of the countries in which they are located.

“Among other things, the emergence of new more infectious strains of COVID-19 was also noted, which creates the threat of repeated waves of the disease. For example, in August, in Indonesia and Malaysia, scientists discovered the d614g strain, whose transmission rate is 10 times higher than that of the coronavirus strain found at the beginning of the pandemic. New millions of people around the world are at risk of becoming victims of more dangerous types of pandemics in a situation of lack of access to a health system destroyed by commercialization and privatization.

“The only way to stop the pandemic and new waves of other dangerous diseases is through the joint efforts of the peoples of all countries against the policies of pharmaceutical monopolies and the governments of leading capitalist countries that seek to impose their own rules of the game on the world. State resources allocated for the development of biological and other deadly weapons, as well as modern scientific and technical potential, should be fully directed to providing all workers and the poorest strata with free medical care and to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to everyone without exception.

“We, the Communist and Workers’ Parties are speaking out:

• For the prohibition of the development and proliferation of biological weapons.
• For the immediate elimination of all US military biological laboratories in all countries of the world.
• For the adoption of immediate measures to protect the health of workers, including free medical care and receiving vaccines against coronavirus.

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