Thursday, June 28, 2007

protest the maltreatment and subsequent death of Mr. Osamuyia Aikpitanhi

Concerned Nigerians are planning to protest the maltreatment and subsequent death of Mr. Osamuyia Aikpitanhi at 12.00 noon local time on the 29th of June 2007 at Spanish embassies in over 20 Countries worldwide.

In a bid to deport Mr. Aikpitanhi from Spain to Nigeria on June 9, 2007, We understand that Spanish law enforcement agents employed measures that were unreasonable, inhumane, illegal, and, ultimately, fatal. According to reports, Spanish law enforcement agents arrested Mr. Aikpitanhi, beat him, bound his hands and legs firmly with ropes, and put a gag over his mouth. The Spanish Officials then loaded him like an animal onto an Iberia aircraft bound for Lagos , Nigeria.
Image of rope used taken by Eye Witness
Finally, the law enforcement agents covered him with a sack in order to prevent other passengers traveling on the aircraft from observing the undignified and inhumane manner in which Mr. Aikpitanhi was restrained. Mr. Aikpitanhi, a human being, was treated worse than an animal. Shortly after the aircraft became air borne, Mr. Aikpitanhi died. He died an inhuman death, bound, gagged and soiled in his own waste
Click here to listen to an Interview with Eye Witness Mr Lanre Obafemi of Shell,Warri

The time has come for us as Nigerians to say out loud to the whole world that we would no longer accept these types of treatments that has now become commonplace against our fellow citizens.

Following over 3000 signatures of support, We delivered our protest to the Nigerian Embassy last friday to hopefully rouse them to thir responsibilities to Nigerians. We have also been able to attract the attention of News Media in Nigeria and Europe to this issue.


In order to raise public awareness of continous sub-human treatment of Nigerian and African immigrants in Europe and to demand a full investigation into the incident by the Spanish authorities, we plan to deliver the protest note at 12.00 noon local time on the 29th of June 2007 at Spanish embassies worldwide including Algeria, Austria, Brazil, Burkina, Canada, China, Cyprus, Egypt, Faso, Finland, France, Germany, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, USA. Please join this historical march in your city.

  • Lanre Obafemi:

    I happened to be a witness to this macabre incident. Despite the death of one of them, the other two deportees onboard who were not tied up were still being manhandled when Iberia returned to Alicante (Spain) to offload the corpse. I remember one Nigerian passenger trying to stop me from getting down from the plane to protest the beating of the other deportees for no reason. Apparently, he just wanted to go home.

    On getting o Nigeria, I poceeded to the Immigrations office to make the report. I was told to put it down in writing. It's noteworthy that no other passenger made the attempt despite screaming blue murder on the plane. Finally when I tried getting signatures on the report, most people declined and one passenger even shouted at me to leave him alone. I only got 3 signatures. The Nigerian Immigrations Service has also not done anything.

    I got home that day and sent mails to as many Nigerian newspapers and TV stations with the names and phone numbers of myself and the other 3 persons who signed the petition. It's also noteworthy that none of these radio and TV stations called me and to the best of my knowledge neither did they call any of the other 3 persons. The stations that finally aired the news only echoed what the Spanish newspaper (El Pais) reported, which was that he was a criminal and died of a heart attack.

    (Click to see full document)



  • Click here to read and sign the protest note if you have not done so
  • Click here to listen to an Interview with Family in Benin City (Audio File)
  • Pictures and interview with family of deceased in BeninCity, Nigeria

    Mr Jacob Aikpitanhi (Father) and Mrs Vero Aikpitanhi (Mother)
Team of Volunteers
Please contact these individuals in your country for further information.


Full information regarding the planned protests is available at www.nigeriavillagesquare.com.
Contact: nigeriavillagesquare@gmail.com

Members of the family: From L-R Osaigbokan Aikpitanhi; Mr Jacob Aikpitanhi (Father); Mrs Vero Aikpitanhi (Mother); A sympathizer; Mr Solomon Odia (Cousin); Mr Peter Odia (Cousin);sitting Mr Iziegbe Aikpitanhi (brother)

Mr Jacob Aikpitanhi (Father) and Mrs Vero Aikpitanhi (Mother)

Ahaoma Kanu with the parents

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Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Nigerian dies on deportation flight from Spain

Letter of Protest to Spanish Authorities

The Government of Spain
The Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria
Spanish Ambassadors Worldwide
The Spanish Ambassador to The United Nations

cc:
The Presidency
Nigerian Ministry of External Affairs
Nigerian Embassies Worldwide
Nigerian Newspapers
Nigerian Senate
Nigerian House of Reps
Nigerian State Governors

Reference: Nigerian dies on deportation flight from Spain

We, the undersigned write to strongly protest the horrible and dehumanizing death of a Nigerian citizen, Osamuyia Aikpitanhi in the hands of Spanish law enforcement agents on June 9, 2007.

In a bid to deport Mr. Aikpitanhi from Spain to Nigeria , We understand that Spanish law enforcement agents employed measures that were unreasonable, inhumane, illegal, and, ultimately, fatal. According to reports, Spanish law enforcement agents arrested Mr. Aikpitanhi, beat him, bound his hands and legs firmly with ropes, and put a gag over his mouth. The Spanish Officials then loaded him like an animal onto an Iberia aircraft bound for Lagos , Nigeria . Finally, the law enforcement agents covered him with a sack in order to prevent other passengers traveling on the aircraft from observing the undignified and inhumane manner in which Mr. Aikpitanhi was restrained. Mr. Aikpitanhi, a human being, was treated worse than an animal.

Shortly after the aircraft became air borne, Mr. Aikpitanhi died. He died an inhuman death, bound, gagged and soiled in his own waste. Apparently, he choked on the gag that the law enforcement agents had put on him. The Spanish law enforcment agents murdered Mr. Aikpitanhi.

The Nigerian community worldwide is shocked and appalled that Spain, a member country of the European Union and a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, would permit her law enforcement officials to conduct themselves in the macabre fashion that that are in complete contravention of all International Human Rights Instruments and their protocols. Arrested persons have rights and are indeed presumed to be innocent until proven guilty by a competent court of law. And, even in the event of conviction, are entitled to decent and humane handling in transit in conformity with the International Declaration of Human Rights as well as treatment that conforms with human decency.

While in general, the laws of most countries recognize that law enforcement officers may use reasonable restraints to effect the arrest of a suspect, depending on the circumstances, legal standards prescribe that every measure taken should be reasonable. Gagging a suspect to death is extreme, inhumane, and unacceptable in any modern jurisdiction.

Moreover, although the Spanish Government has the right and duty to protect Spain 's borders and enforce its immigration laws, it has become increasingly obvious that Spanish law enforcement agents take a perverse pleasure in treating Nigerians and other Africans inhumanely. There appears to be a practice of consistent negative, racist, and discriminatory treatment of Nigerians and other Africans by Spanish law enforcement agents. Mr. Aikpitanhi's murder is only the latest example of this practice.

We hereby PROTEST in strong terms this brutal death in custody of Mr. Aikpintanhi, and make the following demands:

- THAT: the Spanish Government immediately take measures to put an end to the practice of inhuman treatment meted out to citizens of Nigeria and others from third world countries.
- THAT: the deaths, the beatings, the torture, and all other forms of inhumane treatment be immediately put to a stop.
- THAT: an independent investigation be immediately opened into the circumstances leading to Mr. Aikpitanhi's murder.
- THAT: an immediate apology from the country of Spain , be made to the family of Mr. Aikpitanhi
- THAT: an inquiry into the criminal negligence that led to this brutal death be conducted and ensure the prosecution of all the culprits responsible for this reprehensible act.
- THAT: appropriate compensation be paid by the Spanish Government to the next of kin and survivors of Mr. Aikpitanhi.
- THAT: an apology be tendered by the Spanish authorities to the next of kin, parents and or other survivors of Mr. Aikpitanhi and to Nigeria .


Go to sign the petition HERE

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Wednesday, June 13, 2007

The persecution of a word and a call for action

23RD JUNE; 2007; 2PM CENTRAL TRAIN STATION
NATIONWIDE DEMONSTRATION IN DESSAU

download Aufruf deutsch | download call english

'070108_Oury_demonstration_015' von mazdak

I hadn't realized that they even took away our right to call the most gigantic deportation in the history of humanity by its name. And that only because the slave traders, their descendants and their historians neither at that time nor at the present day used the word deportation or authorised its use to describe their practices.
Rosa Amelia Plumelle-Uribe

The Persecution of a Word
Those familiar with the brutality and horror of the apartheid regime can picture all too well the scenario: a Black man is tied at his hands and feet to a fireproof mattress in a holding cell at a police station. Hours later the man is dead, his body burnt like charcoal, the upper regions of his fingers burnt completely away. The official thesis: suicide.

On the 7th of January, 2005, Oury Jalloh, a human being converted into an eternal refugee, died under exactly these conditions in the city of Dessau, Germany. On that very same day the life of another African was extinguished: Layé Konde, who ten days before had chemicals forced down his throat by the police who were looking for possible drugs, had his life taken from him after not coming out of the coma induced by the police action. The number of police sentenced for the two deaths until today: 0.

Since that time, diverse refugee, migrant and anti-racist organizations have joined together to fight for truth, justice and restitutions. Under the slogan OURY JALLOH DAS WAR MORD, we organized ourselves in the Initiative in Memory of Oury Jalloh.

Our words, however, provoke fear and subsequent persecution on the part of the authorities. According to their logic, without knowing the exact incidents surrounding the events of the 7th of January, it is not a crime to describe the death of Oury Jalloh as self-murder (i.e. suicide), but it is a crime to describe it as a murder.

The power of language, the power of definition is decisive and a fundamental pillar of totalitarian—and colonial—power. It is used to silence opposition and to maintain hegemony over words and thoughts.

We must, however, never forget what past experiences have taught us; how often and ruthlessly genocide was committed so that all traces of the truth would be eliminated together with its victims, such as happened in Europe during the time of Nazi terror and with the separation of mothers from their children during the time of slavery, for example.

But, as the executioners, their descendants and their historians have been forced to repeatedly recognize: no matter how many are killed, no matter how far those in power are willing to go in order to fulfill their objectives, you can never eliminate a collective memory—and no oppression can last forever.

Selective Memory and the Non-Persecution of the Truth

That Justice is a blind goddess
is a thing to which we Blacks are wise:
Her bandage hides two festering sores
that once perhaps were eyes
Aimé Césaire

On the 27th of March, 2007, court proceedings finally began against two of the police officers implicated in the death of Oury Jalloh. Andreas Schubert and Hans-Ulrich März have been accused of negligence in the death of Oury Jalloh. Within the formal accusation presented by the state prosecutor—the only entity allowed to formulate such an accusation in Germany—neither racism nor any other possible cause of death play a role other than the official version: suicide. Likewise, the broken nose and broken middle-ear discovered in the second, independently financed autopsy, are not considered within the trial-based evidence permitted by the court (in other words, these facts are not even considered when the judge is to make his decision).

Until now, the trial has been nothing more than a confirmation of our deepest mistrust. For over two years we have consistently denounced the cover-up and the intentional attempt to win time. As expected, every single police officer or related state employee who has been called as a witness has shown remarkable coincidences between each other: all of them have a perfect memory—except that which involves the death of Oury Jalloh. There is, however, one exception: all seem to remember clearly that Andreas Schubert, accused of negligence for not having reacted in time, was swift in his response of running down into the basement, where Oury Jalloh had been chained down—and burnt to death—to a fireproof mattress.

The issue of racism, however, has remained just as absent from the trial as has any word of truth spoken on the part of the police. On only two occasions was racism made an issue: Once, as an African man was forced out of the courtroom for shouting „What have we ever done to you to deserve this,“ as the racist protocol between Andreas Schubert and the doctor who ordered Oury Jalloh to be chained, Dr. Blödau, was read aloud, and, secondly, as an African man was ordered by the judge to sit as the accused and apologize for his behavior or be accused of allegedly having offended a Nazi-party member.

Additionally, at the middle of May a scandal appeared (and disappeared just as quickly) in the national media: Hans-Christoph Glombitza, acting vice-director of the police in Dessau, was recorded in a conversation with members of the German state security office in which he said, referring to crimes committed by right-wing extremists, that, “one doesn't have to see everything.”

Adding that the federal government programs to combat Nazi crimes and thought were, “really just for the art galleries anyway,” he pointed out that there are ways “to write reports slowly.” Citing a lack of evidence of a crime having been committed, the leading state prosecutor in Dessau, Volker Bittermann, has already refused to open investigations.

For their part, the police have seen the trial as an opportunity to intimidate and persecute members of the Initiative in Memory of Oury Jalloh. At least one hundred police—including dogs—have been set to surround and occupy the court inside and out.

Activists have not only been subject to massive security controls and the photocopying of their identity papers, but also direct persecution, as described above. Additionally, civil-clothed police have tried to control and intimidate members of the Initiative in Memory of Oury Jalloh.

Why we must fight—not just protest or question

My tongue shall serve those miseries which
have no tongue, my voice the liberty of those
who found themselves in the dungeons of despair.
Aimé Césaire

We have neither deceased in our struggle for truth and justice nor in the conviction that only we will decide which words we will use. The fight for truth and justice in the case of Oury Jalloh—like that of Dominique Koumadio, shot to death by the police in Dortmund on April 14, 2006—is a question of survival. The arrogance and lack of human understanding—especially toward non-whites—within the police is exactly that which permits Oury Jalloh to die in such a vile manner. Moreover, the fact that it is so systematic and historic is one of the many reasons why we have and will continue to speak of murder.

This goes far beyond a question of simple protest or questioning official versions of Oury's, Laye's or Dominique's deaths. On the contrary, it is as much a question of self-determination as it is the rage against so much perpetual brutality.

We cannot and will not let ourselves to continue functioning within this murderous normality, accomplices of our own death and persecution. By refusing to speak out and by silencing our own beliefs, we are only contributing further to the duration of our common suffering.

We refuse. We refuse to obey. We refuse to continue being a part of our own oppression. We refuse to remain silent, much less be silenced. That time is over.

MOBILIZE AND COME TO DESSAU ON THE 23RD OF JUNE

ORGANIZE GROUPS IN YOUR CITIES TO ACCOMPANY THE COURT PROCEEDINGS ON SPECIFIC DAYS!

RISE UP AND BREAK THE SILENCE!

For more information contact:
+(49)170-8788124 or the_voice_goettingen@gmx.de

or the local groups listed at the top of this site.

http://thecaravan.org | www.plataforma-berlin.de | www.thevoiceforum.org

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Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Spanish police arrests Turkish refugee – Binali Yildrim faces torture



At the 29th of May Spanish police forces at an Interpol order captured the Turkish refugee Binali Yildrim on the island Mallorca. Binali Yildrim was on a vacation with his soccer team. The 34 years old Yildrim, who currently legally lives in Hamburg Germany, is still wanted by the Turkish authorities. Binali Yildrim was held in Turkish isolation prison in Edirne under heavy torture.
Binali Yildrim was first captured by Turkish authorities in 1995 and was sentenced to “lifelong hard imprisonment”. Pretence for the severe sentence was his assumed contribution to different battles with the Turkish army, as a member of the communist TIKKO-Guerrilla.
With the introduction of the so called „F-Type“ isolation prisons in 2001 in Turkey, Binali Yildrim was involved in the hunger strike of 500 political prisoners. Isolation in prison is called “white torture”, because it leads to social deprivation without leaving physical scars.
After 78 days of hunger strike, his imprisonment was set out for six month; this is a normal procedure to let people who have participated in a hunger strike die at home. Binali Yildrim managed to flee to Germany. For four years now, Yildrim lives in Hamburg first with a legal status as an asylum seeker, and then with a temporary resident permit. Yildrim is married and has two children, he owns a small shop and is working in a factory.
The Spanish authorities, who signed the Geneva Refugee Conventions, had Binali Yildrim arrested in spite of his legal status in Germany. Binali Yildrim, who is represented by a lawyer in Spain right now, is facing his deportation to Turkey and new torture.

http://freebinali.blogspot.com/

Musterfax Yildirim an spanisches Konsulat download
Musterfax Yildirim an Auswärtiges Amt download

Rally for Binal in Hamburg:



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