Oury Jalloh Case in Progress

Refugee News Network, 02. Jan 2007 -- The District Court of Dessau has today (02 Jan 2007) made public the decision to open up court proceedings against one of the two accused police officers for the murder of Oury Jalloh.

The decision of the court in Dessau, two years after the murder and one-and-a-half years after having received the formal accusation against the two police officers, is important but too long overdue. Nevertheless, only one policeman is being accused and not the two as originally demanded by the State Prosecutor's Office.

In any case, it is not enough and never will be, for no trial will ever give Oury Jalloh back his life and his family back their son. We continue to demand there be an open, transparent and thorough proceedings carried out against the accused and will vehemently reject any more attempts to cover up such a horrendous crime as burning a human being alive.

Yet it is a big victory for every single person who has engaged themselves in the fight for truth, justice and reparations in this case; a victory not handed down on any plate and definitely nothing to be thankful for; this is a victory won by the sweat, tears and sacrifice of many, many people, some of whom are no longer here to enjoy this moment with us because they have already been deported.

After two years of hard struggle, of painful tears of having seen the charcoaled corpse of a young man, being criminalized for protesting against state murder, personal and political difficulties, the authorities have been forced to do that which they have done everything in their power to avoid: they must now open up a trial against one of their own.

Now they will be forced to sit on the bank of the accused not only morally but physically. And we will be there. We will be there to look them in the eyes, to let them feel our hatred and anger for their deeds, for their treatment of human beings converted into refugees and migrants. We will be there to make our pain felt in every single person present. And they will know who they are.

There can never be any real justice for the survivors of this barbarity we are living; nothing in the world can give back to us that which has been brutally taken away: the people we love, brothers, sisters, sons, friends. Nothing can erase the pain, the trauma and the rage we feel inside, the anger and frustration; we carry it inside of us every single day.

There should be no expectation of justice coming out of the court; our justice is one that they will never be able to give to us. Like forcing the police to be put on trial, the only justice we will receive is that which we are capable of struggling for and achieving ourselves.

Yet this symbolic act---in a country where police impunity for crimes against foreigners is practically 100%--is also an important step which will allow us to unmask the systematic abuses, the violence, the controls and the humiliations suffered by so many of our brothers and sisters. And the truth will be told, even if not by the courts, the police, the media, government or society.

Holocaust survivor Jean Améry wrote about the nazi criminals responsible for his sufferings: "My resentments are there so that the crime becomes moral reality for the criminal, so that he will be forced into the truth
of his crime."

We take never again seriously. We will not forgive. We will not forget.

We call on all people of solidarity to show their support for this struggle, to show that we are not alone in standing up against injustice, and to take time to participate in the demonstrations on the 7^th of January in Dessau or Berlin for truth, justice and reparations for the murder of Oury Jalloh.

2nd aniversery of Oury Jalloh's killing

Sat, 06. Jan 2007 - African Community-Conference in Dessau
:: Racist Police Killings and Criminalisation of Africans and Blacks in Germany
:: start 10:00 am (agenda)
:: 11:00 am Press Conference with the coordinators and delegates of The African Conference Dessau
place: :: Beat Club, Humperdinckstr. Schlachthofstr. 25, Dessau
contact: acf_community (at) emdash.org - Information: www.thevoiceforum.org

Demonstrations on Sun, 07. Jan 2006
:: Dessau, 13:00h @ Bahnhofsvorplatz
:: Berlin, 13:00h @ Hackescher Markt

(meeting point for travellers from Berlin to Dessau, 07. Jan, 10.15 am, platform 2; Alexanderplatz)

Article from Refugee News Network (RNN), 02. Jan 2007.