Thursday, November 27, 2008

Call for Demonstration of the upcoming closing of the legal proceedings for the murder of Oury Jalloh

A Video Tribute in Memory of Oury Jalloh & Call for Demonstration of the upcoming closing of the legal proceedings for the murder of Oury Jalloh.

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Dates:
Closing arguments: 2nd and 5th of December (Rallies will be held outside of the court) Verdict to be read by Judge Steinhoff: 8 December (Rally and demonstration)

Oury Jalloh Initiative Rally and demonstration, 8 December 2008 in Dessau

09:00Uhr Rally
11:30 Press Conference
12:00 Demo
Landgericht Dessau Willy-Lohmann-Str. 29





On January 7, 2005, Oury Jalloh and Layé Konde, both of Africa, lost their lives at the hands of the German police. This video tells the story of how Oury Jalloh burned alive while chained at hands and feet to a fireproof mattress in Cell No. 5 of the police station in Dessau, Germany.

Even until today, the authorities have sustained the thesis that Oury Jalloh set himself on fire. Refugee, migrants and anti-racists supporters have fought hard for the last 34 months to see that justice is done. Although successful in forcing a trial, the proceedings have been plagued with racism, cover-up, complacency, bias and impunity. It still remains a mystery just how exactly the fire in Cell No. 5 actually started.

After almost 60 hearings, the trial is now slowly coming to an end, with the verdict expected on December 8th. The only outcome which can be expected is the continued injustice which has characterized both this case as well as the treatment of refugees and migrants in general.

Nevertheless, the struggle continues and, perhaps with your support, we will still see that the truth is made known, that justice is done, and that the family of Oury Jalloh is compensated for having tragically lost the life of their beloved son.

But however the outcome, the struggle itself is already a victory for all of those who have fought and continued to fight it.

BREAK THE SILENCE!


Initiative in Memory of Oury Jalloh

The VOICE Refugee Forum

Caravan - for the rights of refugees and migrants

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Afghan refugee speaks about situation in Greece

Greek authorieties neglect all international standards on asylum. The treatmrnt of refugees is completley arbitrary. Instead of being granted safety from persecution many refugees get imprisoned. An Afghan refugee managed to speak out from inside Patras prison.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Stop the deathtrap at EU borders!



Appeal: Stop the deathtrap at the EU borders!

We demand:

  • Stop the deathtrap at the EU borders! FRONTEX activities which violate human rights must cease!
  • Human life must be saved. If someone is in danger of drowning before our eyes, we must help.
  • Refugees must be protected. Access to fair asylum procedures in Europe must be guaranteed. The Geneva Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights must be upheld.
Support the demands of the appeal with your signature

Year by year thousands die at Europe´s borders: Stop the deathtrap at the EU borders!

In search of a dignified life thousands of refugees and migrants die at the borders of Europe. These are people who are driven from their homelands by war, persecution, violence and miserable living conditions. In order to escape they squeeze into tiny boats, hide in lorries, sleep in very basic campsites or in front of high security border controls. Drowning, suffocation or dying of thirst are frequent occurrences. Many die of exhaustion.

Germany and other EU states react towards those seeking protection at its borders with armed resistance and deterrence. Humiliation and abuse, even extending to illegal rejection at the borders, have frequently been reported. The EU founded border security agency, FRONTEX, operates in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic with disregard for refugee and human rights. Refugee boats are pursued and driven away. Protection seekers are therefore forced to take more dangerous escape routes. This increases the risk of death en route. The Mediterranean and parts of the Atlantic are developing into zones exempt from human rights.

The activities of FRONTEX are made possible by the active and financial involvement of the EU Member states. In 2008 alone 70 million euro of tax money in Europe will be used for this purpose.

The European citizens must not turn a blind eye to the activities of FRONTEX which disregard human rights and to the illegal rejection of refugees. Please join us in signing this appeal, to be publicised by PRO ASYL and other human rights organisations throughout Europe.

Appeal "Stop the deathtrap": Download

Deutsch

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Tunisia: the dictatorship south of Lampedusa

by gabriele del grande
TUNIS – Trade unionists arrested and tortured. Protesters shot dead by police during demonstrations. Journalists in jail. And a great censorship to prevent the spread of protests and protect the international image of a country which was visited by 6.7 millions tourists just in 2007. We are speaking about Tunisia. A country which is also known for his emigration. Since many years, thousands of Tunisians cross the Mediterranean towards to the Italian islands of Lampedusa and Pantelleria. During the first half of 2008 some 1,287 Tunisian landed on the Italian shores. They look for a better life. But what do they leave behind? To understand what Tunisia has become, we visited one of its hottest regions. The mining area of Gafsa, 400 km southwest of Tunis. Here it started - ten months ago - the most important social movement of the Country during the last 20 years. A spontaneous and popular movement which keep on struggling despite the repression and censorship.

The region of the mines looks like a lunar landscape. But under the grey mountains among Moularès, Redeyef, Mdhilla and Metlaoui there is a treasure: 600 millions tons of phosphate. The mines are held by the public Phosphate company of Gafsa (CPG). In 2008 the price of a ton of phosphate rock has doubled because of the growing demand of fertilizers in China and India. Tunisia is the fifth producer in the world and has still reserves for the next 100 years. Yet the region of Gafsa is one of the poorest. The technical modernization of mining reduced by 55% the number of employees in the past 20 years, from 11,000 to 5,000. And it caused a serious economic crisis in the towns of miners, built from scratch during the French colonization to house the workforce in the early twentieth century. Today, unemployment affects 40% of young people. Young people who often have no other way out except burning the borders, as they say in Arabic. Harrag. Towards Libya and then Lampedusa. It was them the young people who started the protest ten months ago.

In was on January 5, 2008, in Redeyef, a town of 37,000 inhabitants. The CPG published the results of a public examination for the recruitment of 80 employees. But the list was considered fraudulent. The young unemployed rebelled and occupied the secretariat of the regional miners' union (Ugtt), considered to be involved in the scandal. They were soon joined by 11 widows who asked CPG for respecting the quota allotted to the sons of deaths at work. The other sections of the Trade union joined the protesters. Meanwhile in Tunis, a national committee of solidarity with the people of the mines was created. On April 4 a day of solidarity was held in Tunis, with the participation of some trade unionist from Redeyef. But on their return, the morning of April 7, they were arrested together with dozens of activists. Among them there was also Adnan Hajji, the secretary of the union of teachers in Redeyef.

The same day the city's teachers suspended classes and called for a general strike that lasts for the following three days. On April 9 around thirty women descended to the streets asking for the freedom of their husbands. The city joins them and hundreds of people marched towards the prefecture. The day after, the trade unionists were released. At their arrival into the city, a crowd of 20.000 people welcomed their new leader, Adnan Hajji.

Meanwhile some solidarity initiatives started also in France, organized by Tunisian migrants, especially in Nantes, where a large community from Redeyef lives. In the mining area demonstrations went on. On May 6, 2008, Hicham Ben Jeddou died from electrical shock while a group of young unemployed occupied the generator of Tabeddit in sign of protest. Witnesses accused police of having turned on electricity knowing that he was touching the wires. It was the beginning of the repression.

Adnan HajjiReinforcements were sent from Tunis to the mining area. Police checked all the accesses to Redeyef. And plainclothes agents monitored the main actors of the protest. On June 6, police opened fire on a demonstration. A guy, Hafnaoui Maghzaoui, was shot dead. And 27 people were injured. One of them, Abdelkhaleq Aamidi, died after three month in hospital, on September 14. Within a few weeks, two hundred people were arrested. Trade unionists as well as ordinary people. The night between June 21 and 22 the leader of the protest Adnan Hajji was arrested again.

Zakiya DhifaouiThe movement was beheaded. But no woman was arrested. And so the women, the wives of trade unionists and activists in jail, returned on the streets, on July 27, demanding the release of prisoners. Among them there was also Zakiya Dhifaoui. Born in 1966, she is journalist and teacher. She came from Kairouan to write a report on the opposition newspaper Muatinun. But her report will never be published. Because that day Dhifaoui was arrested. Her arrest was a message sent to all the Tunisian journalists: don’t come to Redeyef and don’t write about it. It is the other side of the repression: the censorship of any sensitive information. Dhifaoui was sentenced to four and a half months of prison. But she is not the only journalist in jail. Actually it is the freedom of expression itself to be judged.

The web sites Dailymotion and Youtube, where the videos of the demonstrations and of the police violences have been uploaded, are banned since November 2007. Masoud Romdhani, spokesman of the National solidarity movement, has been beaten by plainclothes agents in Tunis. Amor Gondher, journalist of the opposition newspaper Tareq el Jedid, was beaten by two policemen on the evening of June 26, in Nefta. Boulqaddous Fahim, a journalist of El Hiwar TV - which published the video of Redeyef on the Italian satellite channel Arcoiris - is reported to be missing since July 5, as he run away in order to escape his arrest warrant. The author of those videos, Mahmoud Raddadi, had been arrested on June 21. Raddadi and Boulqaddous will soon be judged together with 38 other protesters, including 14 trade unionists. They are accused to have formed a combination for unlawful purposes. The hearing will begin at the end of November at the Court of Gafsa.

TunisiWithout any doubt this is one of the greatest political trial under the presidency of Ben Ali . A presidency which has been lasting uninterrupted since 1987. In November 2009, there will be the presidential elections. The deaths of Redeyef will not be enough to undermine the power of the Constitutional Democratic Party (RDC). Nor to revive the opposition after years of repression of dissent. The defense lawyers know it, that the judgement has already been written. But in the history there is an accumulation... says one of them under anonymity. Actually the Tunisian poet Abou el Kacem Chebbi, told it a century ago: "When people choose life, fate must respond, night must brighten and chains must break".


TO KNOW MORE
NOTE
Economia
Tunisian economy rose by 6,3% in 2007. The average income per person is 2,400 euro per year, 4,8% more than in 2007. The inflation in august 2008 was at 5,4%. The unemployment is around 14,2%, but in Redeyef it arrives to the 40%
Phosphate
During 2007 the Cpg produced 8 millions tons of phosphate. The mines were discovered by the French in 1897. The cost of one ton increased from 40 dollars in 2007 to 130 in 2008
Tourism
Tourism revenue reached a record 1.6 billion euro in 2007 as the number of tourists reached 6.7 million visitors. Tourism revenue rose 9% in the first nine months 2008
Immigrazione
More than 100,000 Tunisian live in Italy. In the first half 2008, 1,287 Tunisian arrived by boat in Sicily. Among the 40 victims of the Marche 19, 2008 shipwreck, some came from Metlaoui

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Berlin - Demo for freedom of movement

BICYCLE DEMONSTRATION FOR FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT - Saturday, 8. November 2008, from 10 a.m.


On the 8th November we will bring the bicycles that are fixed till then to Hennigsdorf with a bicycle demonstration, and demonstrate for freedom of movement for everyone and the abolishment of the "Residenzpflicht".

We meet on Saturday at 10 a.m. in front of the Schwarzer Kanal, Michaelkirchstraße 20 (> map).
At 11 a.m. we drive with the demonstration through the centre of Berlin and then northeastwards to Hennigsdorf, where we will have the final rally on the Postplatz at 2 p.m..
The demonstration route is approximately 25 km long. More information on the route and demonstration are soon to be published on this site.

In Hennigsdorf we will hand the bicycles over to the inhabitants of the refugee home. Afterwards there will be antiracist shopping, where the refugees can change their coupons into cash.

We are still searching for people who would drive one of the bicycles to Hennigsdorf within the demonstration. Please write us to
uri-hennigsdorf@riseup.net for better coordination.
If you want to participate in the antiracist shopping, please write no later than Tuesday 11-04 to uri-hennigsdorf@riseup.net for how much money you plan to shop. We need to tell the inhabitants of the home in advance, how many coupons we will be able to exchange.


Return to Berlin: People from Berlin can return with the S-Bahn (S 25) from Hennigsdorf after the rally or the atiracist shopping.



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