florian schneider on Mon, 17 Jan 2000 23:36:52 +0100 |
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
Syndicate: 29 JANUARY DEMONSTRATION IN MILAN - LET?S CLOSE VIA CORELLI] |
Hello, In view of the January 29 national demos in Italy, we ask to all people willing to help to send this message together with the Italian flyer calling the demos to the Italian embassies/ consulates in your city or country. Please inform us about your supporting initiatives, so to report them in Italy. Here's the message: -------------------------------------- STOP NOW THE MURDEROUS POLICY TOWARD MIGRANTS! Sirs, We have learnt from direct sources in Italy the Christmas results of the migration policy adopted by the Italian government in full agreement with the others EU countries enforcing the Schengen Agreement.. 9 documented deads from December 25 to January 7 (list attached), rumours about a ship with more than 50 migrants on board disappeared in the night between Dec. 30 and 31, the recent, strange death of mr. Baffa, the lawier defending the relatives of the Albanian victims of the ship "Kater I Rades" -- sunk in other uncleared circumstances by the Italian Army ship "Sibilla" on March 27, 1997 (86 casualties): concidences? We don't think so. The implementation of the current Italian policy on migration recalls more and more those "final solutions" so frequently adopted in history, with their long lists of deads and misteries. We consider all this as the result of a blindly repressive migration policy not aimed to integration or even tolerance for those who must be considered "Economical Refugees", but aimed to exclusion, fear, and ultimately violence against men, women and children whose only crime is to be born outside the precinct of rich countries. On top of this, there's the stated intention by the Italian Government to open up a huge prison camp for foreigners directly in Albania, thus moving a set of already undemocratic practices to a country where democratic day-to-day control -- already very difficult -- will be almost impossible. As human beings, we feel deeply outraged by all this. In expressing our support to the national demonstrations which will take place on January 29, Saturday, in Milan and Florence, we ask to Your Government a full review of the migration policy adopted to-date, the closure of all prison camps for migrants currently opened in Italy, the respect of the rights of free information for the public and of legal assistance for the emprisoned migrants, the issue of reliable data about the migration phenomena, i.e. the number of "hosts" currently emprisoned in the Italian camps, the number of deportations, etc, and the admittance by law of alternative monitoring organizations in the prison camps until their definitive closure. You get no greetings from us -- just the list of 9 deads by your policy and the text calling the Italian demonstrations on January 29. List of deads from December 25 to January 7: Dec. 25: Rome: Mohamed Ben Sahid, Tunesian, 39, married with an Italian woman, dead in the prison camp "Ponte Galeria" for lack of medical treatment after being illegally kept there for 14 days "to check his position". Dec. 26: Taranto: Tanzanian migrant (name unknown) frozen to death while swimming from the Cyprus ship "Poseidonia" to shore. Dec. 29 - Trapani: 3 deads (names unknown) after fire in the prison camp "Vulpitta". The doors where locked from outside "to prevent possible escape". The camp doesn't have running water for its 85 "hosts". January 1 - Sicily: dead of another migrant (name unknown) wounded in the fire of Dec. 29 in the prison camp "Vulpitta". Juanuary 2: dead of a young Chinese migrant (name unknown) by the Italian shore of the Straits of Otranto. January 5: dead of a young Kurdish migrant (name: Vedat Yuksel) by the Italian shore of the Straits of Otranto. January 7: Sicily: dead of another migrant (name unknown) wounded in the fire of Dec. 29 in the prison camp "Vulpitta". ------------------------------------------------------------- January 1999, ten Milanese die in ten days: immigrants (falsely) accused December 1999, five migrants die in three days: our detention camps for migrants without documents are (truly) guilty 29 JANUARY 2000, LETâ??S TAKE ACTION AGAINST THE ITALIAN DETENTION CAMPS. CLOSE VIA CORELLI IN MILAN. The detention camps for migrants without documents are taking their toll of victims in our country. In the Europe of Schengen Italy, for years the home of â??sans papiersâ?? from all over the world, is changing its role to that of an armed sentinel on the southern border of the â??civilised worldâ??. Now those without papers do not leave our country, they try to reach it, drowning because of the ships that hunt them down, dying at work, exploited by small-time bosses, dying in our prison camps, that intern and then deport them. The list grows longer: Jerry Masslo, the victims of Kater I Rades, Semira Adamu, Ben Said - these are only a few of the better-known names, the murders we know about, the tip of the iceberg of concealment and indifference. The possible alternatives to all this start with point-blank refusal of the propaganda regarding the endless emergencies (from the â??clandestinesâ?? to public security, to drugs old and new, to gangs, to political dissent) and proceed with battles for universal guarantees: freedom of movement, a minimum citizenâ??s income, dignified and safe living and working conditions; with anti-prohibition, damage-limiting, multiracial and anti-racist practices; valuing those experiences of self-organisation that conduct these battles and practices and carry out just disobedience. But for months, on entering the prison camps for â??sans papiersâ??, we have met women and men awaiting expulsion orders, caged up like animals in a zoo, people who have lost all rights to assistance, respect and dignity, abandoned in a twilight-land of isolation, desperation, sickness and fear. And the machinery grinds on, despite criticism, protests, indignation. In Luxemburg they suspend the terms of the Schengen treaty for â??emergency trafficâ??, in Germany they arrest and search the companions who were with us in Albania, because they defended taxi-drivers accused of not checking the documents of passengers who were â??clearly foreignâ??, and in Italy they now even plan to export camps of 25,000 people over the border to Albania. Our reply to this routine indifference is a national day of action on 29 January, with the meetings that the movement for the closure of the camps has established, each meeting independent and with its own route, but sharing the main objective - to close the camps - on the same day that it will again be necessary to express firm opposition to neoliberism against the meeting at Davos of the World Economic Forum: in Italy as at Davos, in Italy as at Seattle. A day that must give answers: in Milan with a demonstration against a prison camp that has already been open for a year, in Florence against new camps that are supposed to be opening, and in all the towns that decide to take part in this national day of action, joining the initiatives already planned and promoting new initiatives. On this day our opposition will break the routine of verbal criticism and dissent that never becomes civil disobedience, as we oppose bodily resistance to this unacceptable imprisonment. To free the prisoners in Milan who are risking their lives in a prison camp. To free the women and men in the Via Corelli centre and close the prison camp in our city. 29 JANUARY - LETâ??S CLOSE VIA CORELLI DEMONSTRATION IN MILAN support to yabasta@tin.it Tel.++3926705185 fax..++3926705621 ------Syndicate mailinglist-------------------- Syndicate network for media culture and media art information and archive: http://www.v2.nl/syndicate to unsubscribe, write to <syndicate-request@aec.at> in the body of the msg: unsubscribe your@email.adress