English

INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE AGAINST DISAPPEARANCES - International Office

Don’t Let New Disappearances to Happen in Turkey!
Arzu Torun Must Be Released Immediately!

In Turkey, which is known by ongoing violation of freedom of thought and long-years of imprisonment of many journalists, new attacks, arrestments and attempts of disappearing people under police custody are recently being of the agenda. While we are worried about the lives of some of the people who have been taken into custody because of letting them to speak with nobody and existence of torture in Turkey, it is being learned that Arzu Torun and somebody else together with her have been kidnapped by the police.

We live in a country, which has signed up to agreements on refuge for individuals and basic social rights in accordance with international laws.

There are hundreds of thousands of Kurds living in Europe, mostly in Germany. We are a community, which has migrated here because of war, expulsion, repression, inequality and undemocratic actions. We are striving, on the basis of legitimate rights, to live as an integral part of German society. In our own country, Kurdistan, we are arrested, persecuted and killed because of our struggle for freedom and democracy. We have come together in order to fight for our rights. In Germany alone, over 60 centres are active in the Federation of Kurdish Associations (YEK-KOM).

For two month now, refugees from Iran are protesting in front of the Lünen town hall against their compulsory accommodation. The four Iranians, living in Lünen for up to 9 years, were accommodated in a 3-room flat. On June 20, they were forceibly evicted in order to be accommodated together in a refugees? home in one small room. Since then, the refugees are spending both days and nights in front of the Lünen town hall in order to demand their right to adequate housing, consistent with human dignity.

The anti-Lager-action-days will begin on the 29th of September in Blankenburg. We want to demonstrate our solidarity with the refugees for three days.

deutsch

The Lager Blankenburg is 5km away from Oldenburg city. Refugees who asked for asylum have to live there. In those Lagern Refugees and migrants are exposed to inhuman and conflictive situations. They have almost no rights and are isolated and stigmatised from society. They get totally reduces medical supply, bad canteen-food and underlie to the "Residenzpflicht" (that means, that they can't leave their district without a permission).

For months the tension about the inhuman conditions in the deportation centre in Bramsche Hesepe in the German state of Lower-Saxony is boiling. As the protests of the refugees and their supporters is getting more and more attention. the authorities are trying an old nasty trick. Those who are protesting are to be transfered to another camp. Michail, a refugee from Palestine was regarded as one of the main "trouble makers", because he never shied talking to the press about the scandalous conditions in the deportation centre and was to be punished by transfer to a different place.

deutsch / see pictures
After a court hearing at the Lower Court (Amtsgericht) in Parchim, which took four days, the collective trial against human rights activist Akubuo A. Chukwudi ended with one acquittal, four suspensions and one sentence.

Akubuo used the trial itself to accuse the authorities and institutions in the district of Parchim. He described in detail the extreme living conditions and everyday humiliations refugees living in that region are subject to. A great number of the refugee activists who came to observe the trial experienced similar things in the districts they were forced to live in. The anti-refugee extremism Akubuo experienced in Parchim is not concentrated on that region, it is existent in the whole country of Germany. It is an example of the thoroughly organised system of state racism and the effects state racism has on the way large parts of the population act and behave.

PRESS RELEASE 30 June, 2006
Asylum-seekers in hunger strike - Danish asylum policy is violating human rights.

The 19th June an Iranian refugee Majid Samari, a father 37 years old, died in a Danish refugee camp. He preferred to take his own life after being refused asylum in Denmark. We are told that 38 people, through out the years, this way have died being under the protection of the Danish Government as refugees.

DEMO ATTACKED IN MALTA JUNE 26 2006
===================================

Monday 26th June at 9am , Malta - around 700 refugees from across the detention centres around Malta, and a variety of nationalities, marched into the main town. They have many times previously held such peaceful demonstations in the town. On Monday, however, the demonstration was attacked by Maltese police and Army. Media and journalists were also attacked and equipmenmt was confiscated. Some media escaped with taped footage. Around 50 people have been hospitalised - teeth, legs and arms broken - mainly from Hal Safi Barracks concentration camp on.

One hundered persons, mainly West Africans demonstrated on Friday 16th of June in the city center of Bremen against the mass deportation of Sierra Leonians and other West African nationalities to Guinea.
Look at the leaflet (in German).

Look at the pictures of the demonstration