Quellenangabe:
Thessaloniki: State Racism Kills (vom 21.08.2007),
URL: http://no-racism.net/article/2237/,
besucht am 23.11.2024
[21. Aug 2007]
Saturday evening, (18 Aug 2007), in a 1st floor cafe in Kalamaria's mall, Thessaloniki, two individuals of unknown identity up to now, dressed with ordinary clothes, but with police officer's behavior, approached Tony Onouha, immigrant from Nigeria, who had been selling CDs, and immobilised him. Tony, who a few weeks ago was beaten by police officers (it is speculated that they were the same), escaped from their control and moved towards the balcony. Under unidentified conditions he fell on the pavement and was mortally injured.
This incident is neither rare nor accidental. The kidnappings of Pakistanis, the beatings of Iraqi refugees, the videos from the police departments show that these actions happen with the tolerance and the prompt of state. The state that tries to face social problems with police measures. The state that permits the big companies not to pay the workers, not to pay taxes, not to pay employer's insurance contributions, this state mercilessly chases the street vendors.
A few weeks ago, an underage immigrant falls from the balcony during a police raid in a neighborhood of France. The policy of Sarkozy, the policy of Karamanlis, the policy of fortress Europe. Each year thousands of young people, whose only "crime" is that they search for a better life, find a horrible death.
Characteristic examples of this policy are the minefields of Evros and the new migrant detention prisons, the absolute rejection of political asylum applications, the fact that migrants are held in a condition of hostage, which prohibits them from any labour or social claim. The terrorising conditions in which these people are condemned to live, lead them to actions of despair. The police is not the moral perpetrator, but the device of a system that condemns all the workers to live under the regime of terrorism.
The police headquarters not only deny the presence of police officers at the specific time in the cafe, but also have made nothing for the arrest of perpetrators. Where is the draft sketch of the perpetrators? Tens of witnesses exist that saw the two perpetrators move away as if nothing happened. All the shopkeepers of Kalamaria know them, but police don't?
Our unspeakable indignation, the rage that overflows will become a wave against each attempt of the crime's cover-up, against stat'’s racist savagery. Those who attack immigrants will have to know that they do not have only the Nigerian community opposite them, but all the immigrants and Greeks that fight for the human rights.
We ask:
* Direct arrest of the perpetrators
* Attribution of responsibilities to the police for NOT arresting the perpetrators
* Direct publication of the pending residence permits for his relatives so that they return decently to Nigeria for the funeral
* The cost of the dead body transport to Nigeria to be undertaken by the Greek state
* Unconditional Legalisation of all immigrants.
Nigerian Community
Migrants Forum (migrants Forum of Thessaloniki - emfoth (at) gmail.com)
Antiracist Initiative of Thessaloniki (antiratsistiki (at) lycos.com,
:: www.socialcenter.gr)