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Some 50 refugees held at Campsfield immigration prison, near Oxford, are on hunger strike in protest at their continued detention. The hunger strike was started on August 9th by 13 Iraqi-Kurdish detainees, who demanded that forcible deportations to Northern Iraq are stopped. This is the second such protest at Campsfield this year and one of many throughout the UK detention estate.
Meanwhile, an Iraqi-Kurdish refugee has taken his own life after being forcibly returned to Iraqi Kurdistan. Hussein Ali shot himself in his home in Sulaimania on August 10th, two days after he was deported to Erbil via Jordan. An emergency demonstration in support of the hunger strikers, called by the Campaign to Close Campsfield, was held outside the immigration prison on August 12th.
On August 9th, campaigners received reports from detainees inside Campsfield saying that 13 Iraqi-Kurdish asylum seekers detained at Campsfield immigration prison are refusing food in protest at their continuing detention and demanding that forcible deportations to Iraqi Kurdistan (northern Iraq) are stopped. Later reports confirmed that some 50 other Campsfield detainees from around the world have joined the hunger strike. A message from the hunger strikers read:
"We are protest[ing] because we are human beings; we are not criminal. We are locked in the cell like prisoners. We want freedom and justice."
The UK is one off the few European countries to forcibly 'remove' asylum seekers to Iraq. In 2005, an agreement was reportedly signed between the Iraqi Government, the Kurdish Regional Government and the UK Home Office to accept forcibly returned asylum seekers. Since then, over 500 rejected asylum seekers have been deported to Iraqi Kurdistan on special charter flights.
The argument the Home Office has used to deport Iraqi-Kurdish asylum seekers to Kurdistan (northern Iraq) is that the northern parts of the country, unlike the rest, are "relatively safe". This is, of course, totally unfounded. In its position paper on Iraq, UNHCR recently said that the security situation in the three northern governorates (Sulaymaniyah, Erbil and Duhok), "remains tense and unpredictable" and that "careful consideration" must be given before any returns are carried out.
A day after the hunger strike started, an Iraqi-Kurdish asylum seeker, who was forcibly removed to Northern Iraq after 50 days in detention, took his own life. The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR) was told by a detainee in Oakington detention centre that his friend, Hussein Ali, shot himself in his home in Sulaimania on August 10th, two days after he was deported to Erbil via Jordan.
Hussein Ali was 35 years old. He had arrived in the UK six years earlier but his asylum claim was rejected. Whilst in detention, he wrote many letters to the Home Office asking to remain in the UK but all fell on deaf ears.
This is the second this year suicide by Iraqi-Kurdish refugees on return from the UK. The other man, known as Heman, hanged himself from a tree shortly after return. Another Iraqi-Kurdish refugee, Kadir Salih, was kidnapped last month in front of his house in an area controled of Patriotic of Union Kurdistan party shortly after returning home. His daughter was so distressed at his disappearance that she committed suicide. After five years of fighting for asylum and not being able to work, Kadir had given up and signed on the IOM's 'voluntary return' scheme.
Another Iraqi refugee died from cancer on August 3rd. Mohammad Hussain had stomach cancer that went undetected and untreated while he was detained in Lindholme immigration prison near Doncaster (see here for more details).
Meanwhile, Iranian refugee Nadir Zarebee hanged himself in a Manchester park on August 5th after being asked to leave his home in Trafford by his private asylum accommodation providers, MNQ. An emergency protest was called last on August 9th by the International Organisation of Iranian Refugees (IOIR) and supported by the North West Asylum Seekers Defence Group (NWASDG) and Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! (FRFI). Protesters gathered in Piccadilly Gardens and then marched to the BBC offices, who protesters said censor the "racist treatment and brutal human rights abuses of migrants and refugees."
4.08.2008 21:51
15.08.2008 16:08
Speaking to some of the detainees at midday today, they were all resolute to continue refusing food, until their basic demands are met: released from detention and to be recognised as refugees.Reports: Campsfield detainees on hunger strike | Unacceptable death of Hussein Ali | Two more deaths of asylum seekers
Related: Riot at Campsfield Detention Centre | 26 migrants escape immigration prison in Oxford | Detained Mothers on Hunger Strike in Yarl's Wood | Once again, Harmondsworth hunger strike broken violently | Dozens of Iraqi Kurds deported.. again
Links: National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigs | Campaign to Close Campsfield | International Federation of Iraqi Refugees | Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq | No Borders UK
For the Movimiento a Socialismo and Evo Morales, Sunday was indubitably a good day. After having won the Bolivian presidency in 2005 with approximately 54% of the popular vote, Evo surprised everyone by not only winning the recall referendum convoked by the right-wing opposition, but by winning big, with over 62% of the vote. Commentators that had lamented Evo’s loss of support by his “frightening of the middle class” and “loss of the urban vote” were left surprised that Evo was able to not only consolidate his support in rural Bolivia to near unanimity, but make substantial inroads in urban centers such as Cochabamba, in which vocal anti-Morales sentiment is frequently heard. He even captured about 40% of the vote in
It is extremely likely that, as he announced in his victory speech, Evo will use this as a mandate to push more aggressively for his project of social transformation – a new, indigenous-centered constitution, nationalization of formerly-privatized industries, and a pursuit of land reform in
Government Support in Autonomist Regions Surprisingly High
Looking at the bright side, Evo’s roughly 40% approval in the autonomist states suggests that the opposition to his government voiced by regional leaders and the press does not represent significant sectors of society in the so-called “Media Luna” of opposition. Despite the radical opposition voiced to his government in his two years in power, this percentage actually represents an increase over the level of support he got there in 2005. However, his 60% disapproval there, along with the easy margins of victory for the opposition governors, suggests that the application of any kind of assertive policy that affects elite interests will be bitterly contested. While the right-wing is likely to wince at the magnitude of Evo’s victory and some of its ideologists may have held millenarian ideas of recalling him and restoring the order that had been broken by the “
After the discrediting of neoliberal economic policy and the growing assertiveness of indigenous movements in the 1990s, the Bolivian right wing and traditional political structure realized that it had to prepare to lose hegemonic control over the national government. They were a predominantly white minority in a society still rife with colonial elements and an ideology of racial distinction, and a minority whose ideas of development and Bolivian society had long failed to resonate with the predominantly indigenous population. Thus, instead of waging the losing battle of contesting national control, they undertook, quite successfully, a project of regional consolidation in
The results of the referendum confirm this struggle for them, and they will continue unabated in their confrontational discourse. It is likely that despite winning a level of support unheard of for a Bolivian president in the democratic era, Evo will still be unable to visit 5 out of the country’s 9 states unless he is willing to use force to subdue violent right-wing youth groups, actions which could spark a wider conflagration. The tone of his latest speech was conciliatory to the victorious opposition prefects and called for dialogue, but as it becomes increasingly clear that they will agree only to a dialogue that preserves their rights to rule the East as their private fiefdoms, the government may have to become more aggressive.
The most proximate struggle will be over the blowout loss of Manfred Reyes Villa in
In January 2007, MAS tried to force Manfred to resign, angered after he attempted to call a second autonomy referendum after the question had already once been defeated in the state. They occupied the central square, and Manfred-sponsored goons from the upper-middle class areas of the cities descended on them, eager to “beat up some Indians”. Two MAS backers from rural areas and one upper-middle class teenager were killed in the conflict, the state building was briefly set on fire, and Manfred came off as the defender of democracy against an unruly mob.
This time, the democracy card is on the side of MAS. The question of the day is whether the right-wing opposition will circle its wagons to defend its ally in
Dialogue or Confrontation?
The rhetoric of the mainstream political commentators in
At every point in the tortuous case of framed former Black Panther and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, he has been denied the most basic legal rights supposedly afforded to all those brought before the courts. This is one reason why his case so highlights the nature of the oppression of Black people and the fundamental nature of the "justice" system under the dictatorship of the capitalist class.
On 22 July, ten judges of the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed without comment the request by Mumia Abu-Jamal for a rehearing of his federal appeal before a panel of all the judges of the circuit. Mumia's appeal had been rejected in May this year in a two-to-one vote by a three-judge panel reviewing the case.
This decision continues the 27-year railroad of a Black revolutionary writer and activist, framed by the infamous racist court system of Philadelphia. Mumia Abu-Jamal has been held in isolation on Pennsylvania's death row since his 1982 trial that was a travesty of justice.
This has occurred in spite of the mountain of new evidence that has been developed since Mumia's original trial in 1983, where Mumia was denied the right to represent himself and was barred from the courtroom during most of his own trial for protesting this injustice.
For example, recently discovered photographs by a freelance photographer, who stumbled upon the scene just after the shooting of a police officer for which Mumia was convicted, show that police rearranged the evidence at the scene and there are no marks on the sidewalk where Mumia allegedly repeatedly fired down at the fallen officer.
But, as the U.S. Supreme Court has pointed out, the federal courts are not in the business of correcting bogus prosecutions and convictions; they content themselves with protecting federally guaranteed procedural rights. In fact, the Supreme Court has actually stated that it is legal for a state to execute an innocent person as long as correct procedures were followed!
Yet for all their interest "protecting procedural rights", the recent Third Circuit Court decision had to ignore its own precedents where it has repeatedly overturned convictions for exactly the same reasons raised in Mumia's case.
In a spirited dissent to the earlier May ruling, Judge Thomas L. Ambro reviewed similar cases in which the Third Circuit had granted a new trial for reasons of racist jury selection and then remarked that "I see no reason why we should not afford Abu-Jamal the courtesy of our precedents."
No matter how much new evidence is brought to light, Mumia will not get another chance to present it in federal court unless his current appeal succeeds. Under the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, signed into law by President Bill Clinton, each criminal defendant can apply one time and one time only to the federal courts. Mumia's attorney announced he will now appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court accepts very few such cases.
The Third Circuit appeals court did uphold a federal district court ruling which threw out Mumia's death sentence because of misleading instructions to the jury. But in the event that the U.S. Supreme Court fails to grant Mumia a new trial, the state of Pennsylvania is free to convene a new jury to do the sentencing phase of his original trial all over again. That is, the state will get yet another shot at sentencing Mumia to death
The meeting of the Nigerian and Friends Association {NAFA} Jena, with Rex Osa as guest, marks the beginning of the tour to call for community support in the on going protest action against the Nigerian embassy collaboration and abuse to Nigerians and Africans in general.
After the usual agenda of NAFA, Rex Osa - The Nigerian activist of The VOICE Refugee Forum was given the space to inform the NAFA body on the position of the Nigerian embassy as it concerns various abuses as well as the deportation collaboration with the European State for which Germany is key actor.
The issues of the German professed mutual relationship which has been the slogan for the continuous colonial manipulation was also taken into consideration thus bringing us to critically address the Issues as to how Nigerian documents are handled by German officials and departments notwithstanding those issued in the embassy here in Berlin.
Some Nigerian asylum seekers in ThĆ¼ringen used the opportunity to express their individual experiences as to the inhuman situation they had faced from the German authorities on one hand and the role of the Nigerian embassy on the other hand.
It was also reported in this meeting that in January this year the official representative of the Nigerian Embassy at the Mobil Deportation hearing to Halberstadt (Saxony-Anhalt) did informed the coordinating activist of The VOICE Refugee Forum from Jena, that 2,500 victims which includes documented African Nationals suspected to be Nigerians are been planned for identification to facilitate their urgent deportation from Germany to Nigeria.
Also considered in the meeting were issues of insult from the Nigerian embassy officials meted on Nigerian nationals who for one reason or the other had cause to seek for support from their supposed embassy from where their welfare is expected to be guaranteed.
The meeting entertained heated arguments on the issue of migration and morals as well as seeing the issue as the usual Nigerian style. We also looked into the major reason for the emigration as well as the Nigerian-German Imposed Isolation and frustration which has led people to illicit and criminal behaviors taking note of the fact that not all Criminalized Blacks are Nigerians as projected by the EU authorities.
We also recognized the sad fact that, the Nigerian Government on its part has consistently proven its determination of not being there for us considering our various experiences as well as the recent comment from the Nigerian Minister of foreign affairs on issue of the Nigerian Murdered in Spain; see http://odili.net/news or http://www.punchontheweb.com
The Nigerian Community in Thueringen unanimously agreed to fully support The VOICE proposal to creating a special network in the name of Nigerian – Africa Forum {NAF} so as to bring together Nigerians from all part of Africa living here in Germany. The NAFA body also supported the ongoing protest action and promised to work towards the mobilization of all the Nigerian Communities in Germany to respond to inhumane collaboration with a nationwide manifestation to protest against the Nigerian Embassy in Berlin.
The meeting was concluded with concrete proposals ranging from strategies of actions and a call for financial support to promote a solid structure for the immediate and long term project of the initiative.
Prior to this meeting with NAFA in Jena, there had been ongoing correspondence with various African community networks like The African people congress {APC} Kassel, Nigerian community Mannheim, Stuttgart and various other Nigerian ethnic networks in the States of Bayern, Baden Wurttemberg and Berlin with target of reaching all the Nigerian communities in Germany.
Just to set the ball rolling, the NGC Mannheim/Ludwigshafen has invited Rex Osa on 13thAugust to meet with the entire body. He is expected to officially inform the NGC body on the actual situation especially as it concerns the various forms of abuse both from the Nigerian and German angles.
The APC , NGC -Stuttgart , Delta indigenes forum-Stuttgart, The Edo community Ulm and the Igbo community in Munich have also indicated their willingness to host further meetings with Rex Osa.
We therefore call for the support of the various Nigerian communities in Germany as we cannot afford to fold our hands while the disguised colonial heritage persists in our Institutions.
We encourage your participation in the Nigerian -African forum so as to create room for information flow and documentation of the situation here in Germany as well as rendering helping hands to one another in times of need.
We Demand:
Stoppage of Abuse and inhuman treatment by the Nigerian embassy
Human Dignity and Respect for all Nigerians.
Amnesty for all undocumented Nigerian and residence right for all Nigerian Refugees in Germany.
Stoppage of deportation collaboration by the Nigerian Embassies.
The event was sponsored by The VOICE e. V,Goettingen and Organised by The VOICE Refugee Forum in Collaboration with the Nigerian and Friends Association – (NAFA) in Jena, Thueringen,
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The next events will take place in Manheim on Saturday 9th August 2008.
We strongly call for financial support for logistics in travelling and otherwise during the tour as this is the only way to mobilize this Voluntary project.