Swedish government is responsible for the death of Mewan Omer

Swedish government is responsible for the death of Mewan Omer A crime
against refugee rights



International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR) have been informed that
the body of Mewan Omer an Iraqi Kurdish refugee has been found. Mewan Omer
has been missing for four days. Mewan Omar hanged himself in Olivia,
Valhalbat, Sweden.



Mewan claimed asylum in Netherlands and Sweden but, his claim of asylum was
rejected in both countries. IFIR blames the Swedish Government for Mewvan’s
death. Mewan became depressed after receiving a letter from the Swedish
Government threatening him with deportation. Mewan’s death is a human
tragedy and an outcome of the policy of the Swedish Government to forcibly
deport Iraqi Kurdish refugees



The Death of Mewan should not be forgotten. Human rights campaigners should
continue to put pressure on the Swedish government and press them to prevent
future tragedies such as Mewan’s suicide. Following Mewan’s suicide IFIR
calls on all human rights campaigners, trade unions and civil rights
organizations to join IFIR’s campaign against forcibly deporting Iraqi Kurds
back to Iraq. This is the time to challenge European governments
threatening to deport Iraqi Kurds. IFIR calls on all European countries to
grant refugee status to Iraqi Kurdish refugees.



IFIR expresses its sorrow at Mewan’s death but will continue to campaign
against and challenge the inhumane policies of forcible deportation to Iraq
which led to Mewan’s death.



IFIR held a demonstration on Monday 2nd July 2007, which started at
the front of Gothenburg newspaper marching to where Mewan’s body was found.

COALITION TO STOP DEPORTATIONS TO IRAQ
http://www.csdiraq.com/

German site
Keine Abschiebungen in den Irak
http://irak.antira.info/

Howard's assault into indigenous communities is Land Grab

by Elliot K - Perth Indymedia	2007-07-18 1:01 PM +0800
July 16, 2007: The Howard Government's assault into indigenous communities in the Northern Territory is to access valuable uranium deposits, and not to protect children from abuse, a rally was told in Melbourne last week. More than a hundred community organisations have since criticised the government's plan. They have described it as a land grab...
Robbie Thorpe, who was also part of the Black GST and Camp Sovereignty protests during the Stolenwealth Games in Melbourne last year, says the Howard is not interested in the welfare of indigenous children. "It's the only bit of land the commonwealth government hasn't got access to and there are minerals like uranium there," Mr Thorpe told the rally. "That's what it's about. How can you believe Howard? He don't give a f**k about our kids." He said Indigenous Australians had suffered from 100 years of abuse. "You have taken our people to the brink. "There has been 100 years of human rights' crimes against our people," he said. "Things are not going to change until there is a treaty in this country." 500 people joined the rally. The protest was part of a national day of action being held in capital cities and Alice Springs. In Perth, 120 people rallied. The crowd heard from Ray Jackson from the Indigenous Social Justice Association, Mark Newhouse from the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee and Mark Lawrence from Friends of Australian Rock Art. About 200 people of all ages and races took part in a demonstration through Canberra to protest against the intervention in Northern Territory communities, likening it to the "Children Overboard" scandal of 2001, or as a land grab or election stunt. One of the founding members of the Aboriginal tent embassy, Isabell Coe, said the days of Aboriginal people being used as a "political football" had to come to an end. "...what he is doing is disgusting, it is one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen," she said about John Howard's invasion of Aboriginal Lands. In Sydney, protesters were angry about the compulsory acquisition of remote indigenous communities and the abolition of the permit system, which they consider a land grab. Aboriginal leader Pat Turner said a six-month intervention would be acceptable but had to be done in partnership with local Aborigines. Mick Dobson says the federal government does not need to seize land from indigenous communities to combat child abuse in the Northern Territory. He said today he feared the government's seizure of 73 communities in the NT was a land grab. "That's what I'm worried about," Prof Dodson said. "I don't for the life of me understand what the connection between child abuse and land tenure is, why the land tenure has to be given up, albeit for a short period of time according to the prime minister. The two things are not connected," he said to corporate media. "Why steal the land to deal with child sexual abuse?" Prof Dodson said he, like his brother Pat Dodson, was finding it hard to trust the government on indigenous issues. SOURCE:
News Ltd GLW Canberra Times Sydney Morning Herald

Perth Independent Media Centre

Oaxaca Government Armed Forces Use Violence to Prevent the People's Use of the Guelaguetza Auditorium

Fighting Erupts on Major Streets and on Fortin Hill

By Nancy Davies
Commentary from Oaxaca

July 17, 2007

“Monday on the Hill,” as it is known in Oaxaca, was banned. One could look up the stairs at nine AM and see the rows of riot police armed and waiting. The stairs to the upper plaza were blocked. The Popular Guelaguetza, sponsored by the movement of Teachers and the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO, in its Spanish initials) were refused use of the public space.

Photos: D.R. 2006 Nancy Davies

Hundreds of people climbed as far as the military blockade, and then headed off, either south to the Plaza de la Danza where performances were scheduled, or north to where, I was told, the official delegations for the Guelaguetza were marching. It was soon obvious that the delegations had been blocked on the main avenue of Niños Heroes de Chapultepec, about where it changes to the highway, at the big Hotel Fortin. The crowd streamed up toward that spot, and I can verify that although many youngsters were clearly spoiling for a fight, among them were hundreds of women and older men, who simply were angry. Furious.

Another group I did not see stormed up the hill to demand entrance.

The confrontations then began. Niños Heroes Avenue runs an east-west circle, Crespo and Joaquin Amaro go north-south. Standing on Crespo it was possible to see a bus burst into flames on Niños Heroes, to see the clouds of tear gas, to watch the small barricade under construction nearly at my feet, and the riot police stationed one block west at another access to the hill. Youngsters with their faces covered against the teargas were picking up canisters and hurling them, uselessly, back uphill at the police. Others broke up the pavement for stones to throw.

Amid this scene one woman teacher exhorted the fighters to go back to the Plaza de la Danza to regroup. It was not possible from the Crespo vantage point to see where the Guelaguetza delegation had gone. One block east on Joaquin Amaro, the mayhem repeated: tear gas and people running to escape, and others running back toward Niños Heroes. It seemed to me that the streets were filled with people racing in all directions.

According to La Jornada’s electronic edition, at least 40 persons were injured, 20 police were wounded, and some other number were arrested. At least four public transport buses were set on fire, and businesses near Hotel Fortin Plaza were damaged, as was the restaurant of the Hotel. Guests at Hotel Fortin and Victoria Hotel fled the gas.

By the time I returned to Crespo more than an hour later, the military vehicles and ambulances were moving north toward Niños Heroes and the APPO contingent was running south. Various people told me urgently to go home, to get off the street.

A Civil Society bulletin reported that at 11:30 AM elements of the Municipal Police, the Preventive Police and the Bank and Industrial Police confronted, with tear gas and stones, the marchers of the APPO and teachers of Section 22 of the National Education Workers Union as they tried to climb to the Guelaguetza Auditorium.

According to that report, the various police units brutally beat teachers and protesters, in addition to launching teargas against commercial establishments, private homes and public buildings. The violent escalation resulted in wounding photographers from Reforma, Noticias, Marca and Tiempo, who were covering the “ferocious blow” by the police against the protesters.

This violence was coordinated by the Secretary for Citizen Protection to impede the celebration of the Popular Guelaguetza, although several days ago the Government of the State declared it would respect the event. “This is a government incapable of dialogue which resorts once again to the irrational use of Public Forces,” the reports states.

By 1:30 the APPO, as far as I could see, had given up the fight, after a struggle of four hours. I saw the tear gas and its effects; I did not see the wounded although we heard the ambulance sirens. I saw men on Niños Heroes throwing projectiles, too far away for me to identify what they threw. I saw the flames and black smoke of the bus.

On Sunday morning the headlines in Las Noticias had forewarned that the Cerro de Fortin, Fortin Hill and the Guelaguetza auditorium on it, would be held by police and military, to prevent its use by the Popular Guelaguetza. The reasons given: 1) The people have no government permission to use the auditorium; 2) the event might make an opportunity for guerrillas of the EPR to blow up this “strategic” site.

Other possible reasons, as I speculate: 1) Spite. If the teachers blockade the commercial Guelaguetza this is what they’ll get!; 2) Stupidity, because the provocation now achieved can not serve the governor. (If I was there taking photos, you can bet photos are now out all over the globe. Even his supporters now proclaim, “Welcome Tourists to the Oaxaca inferno!”)

Faced with the governor’s proclamation, Section 22 and APPO spokespersons announced that the Popular Guelaguetza would move to Plaza del la Danza, to avoid provocation and a blood bath.

Having just read the movement decision to go elsewhere, on Crespo at 3:00 on Sunday I passed the armed state police (blue uniforms) standing on the side walk with their automatic weapons. Guarding the stairway up the hill the troops wore helmets, shield, and canister belts. Police vans lined the street.

Then, at Carmen Alto Plazuela, the delegations gathered for the official opening of the Popular Guelaguetza. The host identified himself to me as Roberto Matadamas, an official of the Section 22 Cultural Committee. I asked him to identify himself because he explained to the crowd at the plazuela the history of the Guelaguetza, and what it means; then he said, “We are peaceful people and we have struggled without arms for years… Our customs cannot be used for commercial purposes…. this governor has a very small brain… we are going to the Cerro de Fortin over the bodies of the police.”

This game of cat and mouse moved around, because after the show of military at the Fortin stairway starting on Friday, the military subsequently disappeared, then reappeared; Monday morning they stood higher up, where they blocked access to the auditorium and the plaza of the auditorium. But while APPO and Section 22 had decided to move the Popular Guelaguetza to Plaza de la Danza, the more furious members of both organizations had decided to confront the government forces.

The parade (calenda) on Sunday included about two thousand marchers, and apparently thousands more lined the three-hour route through the several neighborhoods (colonias). The calendas have been well-guarded by identified APPO men running alongside. I went home with the words of Matadamas churning in my stomach.

Let me back up to discuss the weekend events:

A small table is set up in the Alameda across from the catedrál where people can sign up for the Asamblea Popular de Colonias de Oaxaca (APCO). I stopped to chat for a minute on Friday afternoon of the 13th and was told that up to then, 71 colonias had sent a representative. I asked how may colonias Oaxaca has more than 200, my informant claimed. (The ultimate word I received from the municipal president pre-candidate Victor Raúl Martinez Vasquez: 271 includes colonias and fraccionamientos (private enclaves, often gated). He’s out there campaigning; that’s how he knows.)

By that tally, perhaps one third of the city has enrolled a delegate. Some colonias have only one person, who may hope for a position in a future administration and who represents only himself. Others may be more lively. In either case, 500 persons marched who were not afraid, and a new asamblea was formed.

That first APCO march took place on Friday, July 13. The route crossed from the Monument to Mothers to the zócalo, arriving at the center at six or seven o’clock, depending on who you asked. (I’m getting better at translating times –”natural”; or “government” or “neoliberal”: daylight savings.)

That same day (it’s still Friday) on my way down to see the colonists enter the zócalo, I passed the stairs to Fortin. Buses jammed the street, men lingered on the stairs looking smug in clean white shirts, and along the sidewalk hurried many people whose faces showed the grim look I associate with getting to work on time. Nobody looked to me like they were voluntarily headed to a fun event –no exhilaration, no smiles. Buses hauled in thousands of campesinos from rural areas. Noticias reported traffic jams. One of the men on the stairs told me the event was a PRI rally. Posters showed bigger than life-size ballots, with an appropriate check-mark next to “PRI.”

When I arrived in the zócalo two small calendas (parades with puppets) for some candidate-or-other danced around, and then the five hundred APCO people finally arrived. By then it was 6:30. They strung their banners and began their presentation. The crowd listening brought the total to about seven hundred, my guess. The speeches focused on the prisoners, with two huge photos of the EPR men who vanished in May. The wife of Flavio Sosa, and a daughter of a disappeared EPR man addressed the crowd, and others spoke of specific people still in jail. I was disappointed that nobody spoke to broken sidewalks, potholes, unfinished projects or dirty intermittent water. In other words, as a city organization, it hasn’t yet organized around city issues. But I’m hopeful.

A fellow-listener told me that people he knows remain fearful after the November repression, and won’t march or attend APPO events. He and several others agreed that the people up at the PRI rally were paid or obliged by their jobs, to come. He himself won’t speak to anyone he doesn’t know. He whispered, “There are many closet APPO.” I laughed, but it isn’t funny.

One thing was clear: those in the zócalo were the pueblo, those at Fortin were the prisoners of Ulises Ruiz. The zócalo restaurants filled up later, and business was good – the PRI have to eat, too.

Saturday

The calenda began in Plazuela Carmen Alto with guys appearing out of nowhere. They ran cables. They carried onto the plaza huge loudspeakers which, with one guy on each handle, were hoisted onto stands. Someone appeared with a microphone. Finally the Juchitán dancers appeared in their costumes, accompanied by the Juchitán band. The announcer explained the popular free Guelaguetza: “Guelaguetza means reciprocal giving. The people give to the government but the people have not received anything in return. So now we give directly to the people.”

After one dance on the plazuela, the calenda assembled with a huge truck leading the way. I counted two dozen security guys wearing visible tags around their necks, who ran in front of and beside the calenda while it danced along for nearly three hours through various colonias. The “cultural events” which followed in the zócalo were attended by several thousands – fireworks, the kind with the bamboo tubes shooting sparks while a person underneath the armature runs around; and the kind shot up into the sky that go Boom. Then the main feature, a dramatic presentation by “Arte en Resistencia” on the kiosko, which was strung with see-through wires. Their title is “Oaxaca is not celebrating, it is mourning” for the dead and disappeared. A Mexican wake. My translation of their flyer:

Dear Tourist: Oaxaca is not celebrating…It is mourning. This is a performance and installation which brings together different disciplines, (musicians, dancers, plastic artists and performers) committed to the social and political moment in Oaxaca.

We are not celebrating nor will we, while justice is not given in our state, nor punishment to the assassins of our companions fallen this past year, nor freedom for prisoners who are still in federal and state jails, nor cancellation of orders for arrest nor a halt to the atmosphere of police and military hostilities on the part of the Governor Ulises Ruiz.

Also, it is important to recover what is ours, as is the case with the Guelaguetza, a traditional festival of the people of Oaxaca, presently converted into a private event by the state and losing its original meaning, since the government has sought to emphasize only tourist and commercial needs, at the expense of our people and tradition.

Another major error is that being a celebration of our diversity, the Guelaguetza is now monopolized and centralized, benefiting the same people year after year, that is to say, the politicians and the merchants, since the Oaxaqueños each year are more alienated and they only receive crumbs. It is directed more than anything else to the visitor, which matters only as the economic levy it represents.

It is time to take back what is ours, the most important Oaxaqueña festival of the year, which supposedly gives us identity, unity and a reason to come together culturally, socially and economically. The Guelaguetza can not be reduced to a colorful and attractive tourist business since it already holds for the Oaxaqueños a feeling, a profound sentiment, which should be guarded, in addition to increasing the accords of our present society, to the end of changing it into the most important social cohesion of our pluri-cultural society.

The Guelaguetza should be the common forum for a true interchange, approach, involvement and contact among the peoples, a point of encounter and access to the different customs and values of each place, a cultural, economic, political and social window, to embrace a broad aspect not only of its fiestas and customs but also to take advantage of this forum to discuss matters of common interest, as it can further the use of social currency through our old legacy, the barter, which opens new possibilities for producers, artisans and campesinos; among many other activities which it could implement. That way citizen participation will become important through discussion forums.

Summary:

• In case you wonder why the government might not want a popular guelaguetza, the final paragraph by Arte en Resistencia explains it very well.
• Friday a new asamblea made its debut. Two dozen armed state police remained on Fortin after a PRI rally, along with a few men in military khakis. An APPO member said it was just to intimidate.
• Saturday’s Noticias proclaimed: the government forbids use of the people’s space.
• Saturday and Sunday, traditional events passed with happy participation.
• Monday on the Hill, Lunes Del Cerro, some people once again burst with rage when they were prevented from entering the Guelaguetza area. Thousands of others went to Plaza de la Danza, for the second free year of the Oaxaca Popular Guelaguetza.
• Next week the commercial Guelaguetza is scheduled on the hill. An APPO-teachers boycott was proclaimed but details of it remain unknown.

Narco News: Oaxaca Government Armed Forces Use Violence to Prevent the People's Use of the Guelaguetza Auditorium

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)

  
  
  

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• 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)

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Team of Volunteers
Please contact these individuals in your country for further information.

• Algeria: Temple T. Nwafor - rhymetemple@yahoo.co.uk
• Austria: Victor Oshioke victor.oshioke@chello.at
• Brazil: Peter Oluseyi Adewole jolad@uol.com.br
• Burkina Faso: Gbenga Odjo Gbengaodjo@Yahoo.Com
• Canada: Ofonime Andrew :ofonimeandrew@yahoo.com 613-808-4253
• China: Charles Ezugha charleslive@gmail.com

• Egypt: Ogbemudia Tosin Ode-ldahosa odeidahosainv@yahoo.com - 20 100 948 573 /+ 20 111 297 691
• Finland Christopher Isiguzo - krisguzo@yahoo.co.uk/ +358 451378891.
• Germany: Adigun Olosun :aolosun@gmx.net +49 2532 959132
• Hungary: Hakeem Babalola mysmallvoice@yahoo.com
• Istanbul Turkey: Olasupo Babatunde ola_tunde@hotmail.com
• Japan Onome Akpodiete onomstar@aol.com

• Rome, Italy: OguzieJ.J. oguziejosephjohn@yahoo.com
• Senegal: Mr. Walter Obiora walternwa@yahoo.com
• South Africa: Olufemi Oladehin :femmzy@yahoo.com
• Sweden: Adeola Aderounmu :aderounmu@gmail.com / +46-70-4417-924
• Switzerland. Taiwo Danjuma publisher@african-news.ch Tel: +41 (62) 39 86 072/ Mob: +41 (76) 38 38 336

• France:
• Kola Afolabi: conelle007@yahoo.com /0033685606386/0033545254871
• Elie Smith Eliesmith@Yahoo.Com 0033158430293 /0033609689203/ 0033879000859.

• Spain:
• Sam Adebowale :sadebowale@hotmail.com
• Adegboyega Ogundeleadekenag@yahoo.co.uk

• Cyprus:
• Ugo Daniels ugo.danny@gmail.com
• Baba Aeniyi : nibalas2002@yahoo.co.uk

• Nigeria
• Ahaoma Kanu hailmary_23@yahoo.com 080 3748 7296
• Ebi Bozimo / 08059048565
• Kunle Henry Tokunbo Olakunle jiggy1st@yahoo.com
• OKEY MARTINS :izuogu44@yahoo.co.uk
• Ugochukwu Okafor ugookaforugochukwu@yahoo.com
• Nathaniel Oriasotie :okosisi4life@yahoo.co.uk / 08055963945
• James Ezenwa jamesdebest@yahoo.co.uk
• Gemini Thomas-Okoeguale geminirules@gmail.com
• Anthony Obonade aovakporaye@yahoo.com

• UK:
• Uche Nworah: info@uchenworah.com / +44 7985280210
• Uncle Tisha: meshelu@hotmail.co.uk +44 7877240421
• Anne Mordi amordi@gmail.com 07984947777 slyehis@yahoo.com
• Wale Akin: 07865296934
• "Folayan Osekita" folayanosekita@hotmail.com
• Tony Ishiekwene tonykwene@aol.com
• Anointed okiki jem ok6006@hotmail.co.uk
• Ishola. Taiwo: eja_nla@btinternet.com
• ABIKE-ADE NAIJAFM genesis85@tiscali.co.uk

• Ireland
• Kingsley Iwu: iwukings@yahoo.com
• Simon Apeh apeh80@yahoo.com
• Bennie Attoh battoh2003@yahoo.co.uk 353-87-9817853

• USA
• Washington DC, USA: NAR;
• Philadelphia, USA: Tunde Solanke bakoso2000@yahoo.com 215-684-6772
• New York, USA: Paul Adujie (I Love Nigeria) LAWCAREER2007@aol.com
• New York, USA: Taiwo Olorode: taiwo@tmo.blackberry.net
• Chicago, IL: Philip Adekunle- philip.a@gmail.com Global Coordinator

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

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

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Reference: Nigerian dies on deportation flight from Spain

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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

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

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

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: