Nicolas Sarkozy - un Horngois chez le Gaulois

Burkina Faso based reggae band Zedess made this great song and video about Nicolas Sakozy the anti immigration minister in French government who drastically increased deportations and who called the unemployed immigrant youth in France "scum". Sarkozy might become the next president of France leading polls for presidential elections in May.
Nevertheless this video gives the right answers and a strong African point of view concerning this right wing chauvininist man by posing the question: Nicolas Sarkozy, why did your father leave Hungary?



Even if you don't understand French. This video is worth to be watched, the music is great.

Ibrahim Avcıl must be released!

Stopp the state terror in Turkey!

Ibrahim Avcıl must be released!

Some of the journalists, trade unionists, youth and female activisists and activists of the ESP (Socialist Platform of the Oppressed), who filled the prisons due to the Turkish state`s raids on the newspaper Atilim, the ESP, the Socialist Youth Association (SGD), the trade unions Limter-Is and Tekstil-Sen, the Labourer Women`s Association (EKD), the cultural and art institute BEKSAV, the Association Sanat ve Hayat, the radio station Özgür Radyo in whole Turkey and Northern Kurdistan and on the homes of the people working at these institutes, have been taken to court in Istanbul on April 13, 2007. This has been their first trial. Among those arrested, there were many delegates who took part in the 5th International Conference Agaist Disappearances, organised by ICAD together with YAKAY-DER in May 2006 in Diyarbakir.

Ibrahim Avcil, who works for the British Section of ICAD, has been one of the delegates from the UK, as there were many delegates from other foreign countries to come and watch the trials on April 13. On this day, the whole world has been witnessing the brutal attacks of the police on the masses gathering in front of Beşiktaş Court, Istanbul, where the trial was taking place. The Turkish police, who could not accept the demands of hundreds of people requiring the release of the prisoners in a peaceful way, attacked them brutally with gas bombs and truncheons. Thıs attack proofs that the Turkish state stills maintains its fascist structure which is an enemy of human rights.

On April 13, the Turkish state attacked as well as took 114 people under arrest. Among those 20 people taken to prison is also our activist Ibrahim Avcıl. Whilst the Turkish state had to release 10 prisoners at the April 13 trial, it opted for replacing them by 20 other people.

ICAD strongly protests against these attacks and the detentions by the Turkish state and demands the immediate release of its activist Ibrahim Avcıl.

ICAD demands the release of the ESP activists arrested and detained on April 13 and the punishment of the police who were brutally attacking the people waiting in front of the court.

ICAD declares that the Turkish state with its recent attacks on intellectuals and democratic institutions is violating international law and basic human rights and demands an end to Turkish state’s attacks.

April 17, 2007

ICAD

International Office

Mumia Abu-Jamal on Oury Jalloh

Mumia Abu-Jamal's Radio Broadcasts

Higher Quality Audio files available info@prisonradio.org

Copyright 2006 Mumia Abu-Jamal/Prison Radio

"Death in Cell #5 "

Rec. 4-2-07 1) 1:36 Radio essay Mp3

Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning journalist who chronicles the human condition. He has been a resident of Pennsylvania’s death row for twenty-five years. Writing from his solitary confinement cell his essays have reached a worldwide audience. His books "Live From Death Row", "Death Blossoms", "All Things Censored", “Faith of Our Fathers” and the recently released “We Want Freedom” have sold over 150,000 copies and been translated into nine languages. His 1982-murder trial and subsequent conviction have been the subject of great debate.
Free Mumia Now!

Oury Jalloh agonizingly burned to death on the 7th of January, 2005, tied at his hands and feet in Cell Number 5 in Dessau/Germany. He was a 21 year-old refugee from Sierra Leone. The smoke and fire alarm were simply ignored by the supervising police officer; the communication system connected directly to the cell was turned off, supposedly because the police officers felt bothered by the "burbling noises" while they were talking on the telephone. Since his death to this day, the State Prosecutor, responsible for carrying out the investigations, has exclusively promoted the theory that Oury Jalloh committed suicide.
Initiative in Memory of Oury Jalloh

Call that humiliation? Terry Jones about the British captives in Iran

Call that humiliation?
No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings. These Iranians clearly are a very uncivilised bunch

Terry Jones
Saturday March 31, 2007
The Guardian

I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters. It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this - allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then allowing the picture to be posted around the world - have the Iranians no concept of civilised behaviour? For God's sake, what's wrong with putting a bag over her head? That's what we do with the Muslims we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it's hard to breathe. Then it's perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and circulate them to the press because the captives can't be recognised and humiliated in the way these unfortunate British service people are.

It is also unacceptable that these British captives should be made to talk on television and say things that they may regret later. If the Iranians put duct tape over their mouths, like we do to our captives, they wouldn't be able to talk at all. Of course they'd probably find it even harder to breathe - especially with a bag over their head - but at least they wouldn't be humiliated.

And what's all this about allowing the captives to write letters home saying they are all right? It's time the Iranians fell into line with the rest of the civilised world: they should allow their captives the privacy of solitary confinement. That's one of the many privileges the US grants to its captives in Guantánamo Bay.

The true mark of a civilised country is that it doesn't rush into charging people whom it has arbitrarily arrested in places it's just invaded. The inmates of Guantánamo, for example, have been enjoying all the privacy they want for almost five years, and the first inmate has only just been charged. What a contrast to the disgraceful Iranian rush to parade their captives before the cameras!

What's more, it is clear that the Iranians are not giving their British prisoners any decent physical exercise. The US military make sure that their Iraqi captives enjoy PT. This takes the form of exciting "stress positions", which the captives are expected to hold for hours on end so as to improve their stomach and calf muscles. A common exercise is where they are made to stand on the balls of their feet and then squat so that their thighs are parallel to the ground. This creates intense pain and, finally, muscle failure. It's all good healthy fun and has the bonus that the captives will confess to anything to get out of it.

And this brings me to my final point. It is clear from her TV appearance that servicewoman Turney has been put under pressure. The newspapers have persuaded behavioural psychologists to examine the footage and they all conclude that she is "unhappy and stressed".

What is so appalling is the underhand way in which the Iranians have got her "unhappy and stressed". She shows no signs of electrocution or burn marks and there are no signs of beating on her face. This is unacceptable. If captives are to be put under duress, such as by forcing them into compromising sexual positions, or having electric shocks to their genitals, they should be photographed, as they were in Abu Ghraib. The photographs should then be circulated around the civilised world so that everyone can see exactly what has been going on.

As Stephen Glover pointed out in the Daily Mail, perhaps it would not be right to bomb Iran in retaliation for the humiliation of our servicemen, but clearly the Iranian people must be made to suffer - whether by beefing up sanctions, as the Mail suggests, or simply by getting President Bush to hurry up and invade, as he intends to anyway, and bring democracy and western values to the country, as he has in Iraq.

· Terry Jones is a film director, actor and Python
www.terry-jones.net

Call that humiliation? | Guardian daily comment | Guardian Unlimited