Online refugee meetings - Wars in our countries

19 March 2021 | 7:30 pm

PDF البرنامج باللغة العربية | Programm als PDF (deutsch) | PDF برنامه به فارسی | program as PDF (english) | türkçe Program

Wars in our countries
19 March 2021 | 7:30 pm

Dear friends, sisters and brothers,

on 19 March 2003, the second attack by the USA and friendly states on Iraq began. Exactly 8 years to the day, the French air force opened the war against Libya with bombings. Both wars violated existing international law and were illegal. They were indirectly supported by the Federal Republic of Germany. Aircraft and supplies for the warring parties of the NATO states flew from here. Both wars have had devastating consequences not only for the people in Iraq and Libya, but for many in neighbouring countries. Since then, many people have died and many have lost their livelihoods. They have forced many to leave their homes and families. Yet here in Germany, in the heart of Europe, where we live, these crimes do not seem to play a role in public discussion. Only the people suffering from these wars and their consequences, i.e. we refugees and displaced persons, always seem to disturb the peace and order here. The discussions of the political parties here in Germany focus on how people from these countries, how the witnesses of the war and its consequences, how refugees, in other words, are kept away from Europe. They continue to be criminalised and not only met with racism, but also threatened with deportation. They are isolated in camps in Libya, in Turkey, in Greece or ... and not only deprived of their dignity. Europe, under the propaganda of human rights, shows that the lives of these people are not worth a cent. That it doesn't matter if they die in the wars, as refugees in the camps, as children in Basra by leukaemia, as refugees in camps in Libya enslaved or raped or in Moria....

Europe's governments continue to initiate and fuel wars. The companies based here earn from both destruction and reconstruction. In all these wars we are set against each other as ethnic groups, religions, ... We have known this colonial barbarism not only since our birth, but for centuries. We do not want to talk to or make demands of the political parties and governments of Europe or Germany that have committed these crimes and are still bringing wars to our countries. We are aware of their barbarity and the silence of the majority society on these wars as well. We are interested in how we can organise against this barbarity.

We are interested in our communities from these countries. That is why we are organising this discussion event as part of our online meetings on the day of the attack on Iraq and Libya. We are interested in the situation of our brothers and sisters from different countries, far from the cities and places that were once the centre of their lives, far from their families and acquaintances. We want to talk about how we feel when we know that war is raging in our countries, threatening our loved ones and their lives. We want to know together how we feel when sanctions, as a prelude or postlude to war, can drag down a country's economy along with its people: In Iraq, after the first US attack, many died as a result of sanctions because they had little access to medicine. Now thousands of people in Syria are facing hunger and lack of health care and their lives are threatened. What can we do here so that we can put aside the powerlessness, so that we can stay in contact with our families and acquaintances in our countries or in the large refugee camps of this earth and stand by them, so that we can counter the manipulations before a war and expose the cover-ups. Maybe you have other ideas, other aspects that we have not mentioned.

If you want to participate in the online meeting, write to us or contact us by phone. We speak German, English, Farsi, French, Kurdish, Turkish. If you speak another language, we will ask friends and organise it as well.
Write us an email or a message to the phone numbers below:

Telefon:

• Gülay: 0162 989 07 46 (german and turkish)
• Araz: 0178 853 07 01 (englisch, farsi, german)

You can find the programme of the online meetings in Arabic, German, Persian, English and Turkish as a PDF download here:

PDF البرنامج باللغة العربية | Programm als PDF (deutsch) | PDF برنامه به فارسی | program as PDF (english) | türkçe Program

Note for participation in the online meetings

The events are only for people with refugee experience. All discussions will take place via the zoom channel of THE VOICE Refugee Forum. Please contact us if you want to participate. Let us know which language you speak so that we can organise translations together beforehand. We will send you the link before the event.

In solidarity we remain connected
Your Wuppertal group of THE CARAVAN for the rights of refugees and migrants

CARAVAN for the rights of refugees and migrants
Wuppertal office
Marienstr. 52 | 42105 Wuppertal
Email: wuppkarawane@yahoo.de
Internet: https://thecaravan.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karawanewuppertal oder https://www.facebook.com/caravannetwork