Is this Love?

I cant seem to be able to get time these days. But, I have to.

Today is Friday. That is when we shall see whether or not the government in Kenya will be protecting its gay citizens in Mombasa against anti-gay attacks, which are supposed to occur after the Friday Prayers. 1pm today.

But, here is another, very personal development.

First, it would be instructive to read the whole report at LGBT Asylum news.

And, then you get to the bottom of the report, there is this poster.

David Kuria Mbote happens to be the director of Gays and Lesbians of Kenya. He wrote this article in response to some homophobic insult from a priest justifying the lynching of gay people.

And, for this poster, here is my translation of the Swahili above. It is not perfect, but I know I have it right.

Basically, besides the pic of David, with his full names, email address, GALCK phone number, a verse from the bible is quoted. 

'If a man sleeps with another man like he sleeps with a woman, both men have done something extremely bad. It is a must for them to be killed, and their blood shall be on their own heads' 

My swahili fails at the translation of what verse in the bible it is. Something, maybe Leviticus 20:23

Yeah, Isn't this love?

Just hope and Pray David, that you are safe after this kind of hate thing.

And, according to LGBT asylum news, do you want to know what ProjectSee is?

No. They are not Kenyans.
Ugandans? No, they are not Ugandans.
Then where the hell are these guys coming from who are nakedly threatening a poor Kenyan with death? Here is the answer.

ProjectSee.com, which is based in Kansas City, is raising funds to 'equip our Kenyan Brothers with Cameras, Banners, Fliers, Posters, Bus Fare; the Tools they Need to STOP Exporting Evil'.

Yes, they are Americans. At least that is what I surmise.

Surely, the Culture Wars, America's Culture wars are here in Africa.

Children that slip across borders | Southern Africa | Botswana Swaziland South Africa Zambia Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe's still-limping economy can provide few essential services, so children living along the border cross into South Africa to attend school during the day or even to see a doctor, often at great risk to their personal safety.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) regional child protection advisor for East and Southern Africa, Cornelius Williams, said the movement of unaccompanied child migrants from Zimbabwe was one of the biggest problems confronting humanitarian agencies in the region. Between 3,000 and 15,000 Zimbabwean children are known to move into and out of their country every month.

"Unfortunately, governments continue to devote most of their resources to child trafficking, where much smaller numbers of children are involved," Williams told IRIN at a meeting of officials from 15 countries in Pretoria from 23 to 25 February to discuss ways of strengthening cross-border co-operation to protect children at risk.

We will probably see a flood of child migrants to South Africa, not only attracted by economic benefits but a chance to spot their football hero

William Duncan, deputy secretary-general of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, the Netherlands-based world organization for cross-border cooperation in civil and commercial matters, said an even bigger issue was that "There is no central authority in Zimbabwe to contact to help repatriate the child."

The Chief Family Advocate in South Africa's Department of justice and Constitutional Development, Petunia Seabi, said a solution to the problem was being worked out. "We are in talks with the Zimbabwean authorities to set up protocols to protect these children."

She said neither of the governments would prevent children from accessing services across the border, but would rather try addressing the risks the children took while crossing the border unaccompanied.

Duncan pointed out that the numbers of Zimbabwean children moving around the region only underlined the need for close cooperation between child protection agencies and "between judges in different countries, and the Hague Children's conventions make this possible."

Many African countries have yet to ratify the Hague Conventions pertaining to children, which seek to standardize international legislation and provide a comprehensive legal framework to for the cross-border movement of children; more governments have ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Duncan acknowledged that most countries did not have the resources or the capacity to ratify the Hague Conventions, which include treaties on child abduction, inter-country adoption, protection of children and the international recovery of child support. He said the Hague Conference was trying to build capacity.

Delegates at the meeting said the discussion on the need for better cooperation between governments couldn't have come at a better time than on the eve of the FIFA World Cup, which kicks off in South Africa in June.

"We will probably see a flood of child migrants to South Africa, not only attracted by economic benefits but a chance to spot their football hero," said Williams.

The South African government was gearing up for the challenge, he said. They were planning safe areas for unaccompanied child migrants around the various stadia, and an advertising campaign aimed at visitors, which, they hoped, would deter child prostitution.

No Refuge

Written by a University of Tehran graduate, from first-hand accounts

[TEHRAN BUREAU] We all have our memories of late-night cramming. The lights are low everywhere; the world is eerily quiet. At such times, the sound of my own fingers stroking the keyboard seems as loud as a thunderous volcano. Sometimes, after finishing a paragraph or coming to an end of an assigned chapter, I like to stop… and just listen, whether it’s the sound of footsteps or a stranger’s laugh, or a cat or dog whimpering in the distance.

It was on one such night. A 19-year-old boy was sitting in a dormitory room, quietly poring over those same books, the way he did most nights away from home, the way he did every night during exam season. Earlier, at around 10:30 p.m., an officer had come knocking on their doors. The police would only protect them if they kept quiet, he had said. If the students said as much as a word, he warned, they would do nothing to help them.

Unknown to the boy, in the dormitory a block away, at around 11:30 p.m., a group of hard-headed students head up to the rooftop and start chanting anti-government slogans.

Maybe he was too deeply submerged in Ohm’s Law equation to notice; maybe those hard-headed students hadn’t really been all that loud.

But a few hours later, he hears students screaming from the floor below and the shattering noise of breaking glass. He’s heard the story of that fateful night, that particular summer day, almost exactly 11 years ago, when they attacked the dormitories. It had always sounded like an epic tale, or maybe a television drama. And now there he was, suddenly living it.

He runs to hide in the bathroom. Shaking, scared, alone he waits. He waits, and waits, and waits.

And then there is no more waiting. The men are at his door.

He’s dragged out into the hallway. The last thing he remembers before the world goes black is that loud thud — the sound of his friend’s head hitting the ground, his unconscious body laying in blood, blood that is splattered everywhere.

A week later, he is released from prison, after agreeing to sign “a confession.” He is now a fully-certified criminal in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

That friend he remembers last has not been heard from. Many others remain in prison. But more frightening yet, there are many others who have gone missing.

Hundreds of miles away, a 17-year-old high school student in a small town in the province of Khuzestan is also released, along with his uncle. They were taking part in a demonstration in the city’s main square when a large group of them (perhaps along with many more) were arrested. The uncle emerges from the ordeal unscathed, physically. But the boy has been repeatedly and severely beaten. He is released one day before his University Entrance Exam.

All week now I have not been able to shake the image of that shy, timid boy out of my head. The typical class nerd, the one who gets A’s even when the entire class fails. I wonder how these kids are going to grow up. My generation was always told that no matter how cruel or merciless the world may be, the school is our refuge. Where will we go now that our schools too have been violated?

And once again, it is the shahrestani (small-town) kids who are paying the price. The ones who’ve had to work the hardest to get where they are. The ones whose parents couldn’t afford a loft in North Tehran. The ones this newly “elected” president claims to represent.

A friend of mine emailed me these lines from the University of Tehran a day before the attacks on the dormitories, which I have translated:

We are on campus, my friend. Tear gas is descending upon us like heavy snowfall. The entire building I am in right now is filled with gas. Two of my friends were wounded 30 minutes ago. There is fire everywhere. I thought I came here to study but there is nothing here but war. I have to tell you this quickly so you’ll share it on Facebook. I tried using a proxy to access Facebook earlier, but it didn’t work. Thanks so much. And by the way, please don’t mention my name because there have been mass arrests everywhere.

It seems ironic that 30 years after the revolution, at a time when many of us, among the exploding youth of Iran, were tired and indifferent to its fruition, are now in the streets fighting for the things this revolution promised. We were born into a war, and lived through a war. Now there is a new war raging. Who thought it would last so long. My friends are on their rooftops again shouting Allah o Akbar – God is Great — like their fathers did 30 years ago. I’ve always believed history repeats itself. But I’ve never felt it quite like the way I do today.

Gay Iranian man loses asylum plea

Iran has regularly executed people it has convicted of homosexual acts

An Iranian homosexual man who has said he will be executed if he is deported from the Netherlands has had his claim for asylum overturned.

Mehdi Kazemi has said his life is in danger if he is returned to Iran, where he says his boyfriend named him as a partner before being executed.

Homosexual acts are illegal in the Islamic republic.

A Dutch spokesman said Mr Kazemi would now be sent to the UK, the first European country he entered.

A claim for asylum in the UK had already been turned down.

Application turned down

His case has become a campaign cause for gay rights activists across Europe.

Mr Kazemi, 19, said he had travelled to Britain in 2005 to study English, and learned that his lover in Iran had been executed for sodomy, his lawyer Borg Palm said.

After his asylum application was turned down, he fled to the Netherlands in 2006, having narrowly avoided being sent back to Iran.

Dutch immigration authorities are more lenient towards homosexual Iranians, who are afforded special status because of the regime's hard line against them.

'Life in danger'

The Dutch are refusing to consider the case. Under the EU's 2003 Dublin Regulation, the state the applicant first enters is responsible for processing their application.

Mr Kazemi says his life will be in danger not only because he has been named as a homosexual, but also because of the extensive media coverage of his case,.

Mr Kazemi's uncle - who is in the UK - said the family was considering an appeal to the European Court.

A statement from Britain's immigration service said: "We examine with great care each individual case before removal and we will not remove anyone who we believe is at risk on their return."

Iran executed two teenage men in 2005 after authorities convicted them of raping a young boy.

BBC Europe

Israel keeps its promise of a 'Holocaust' in Gaza

'Barbarous' siege

The Gaza Strip, with a population of some 1.5 million, has been placed under a total siege by the Israeli army since June 2007, shortly after Hamas took control over the strip from Fatah. Later that year, in September, the Israeli government declared Gaza a "hostile entity" and stepped up its military attacks. In January 2008, Israel decided to further reduce the amount of fuel, electricity, food and water supplies into Gaza, justifying the collective punishment as a 'response' to the Palestinian resistance firing home-made shells at the nearby Israeli town of Sderot (see this report about the humanitarian implications of the siege).

The decision by the Israeli government to reduce electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip came after the Israeli Supreme Court rejected a petition against the plan filed by ten Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups. The human rights groups said the measures "violate international laws" as they deliberately cause harm to the civilians and deprive them from the basic energy they need to run vital services. The cut of diesel supplies had already contributed to 20% electricity deficit in Gaza, with power outages of over eight hours a day and directly affecting hospitals, medical centres, water pumps, public transportation and other vital services.

On February 17th, the ambulance service in Gaza announced a complete halt of work due to what the Health Ministry described as "severe shortage of fuel." Many patients have also been denied necessary medical treatment outside due to the siege, in what some described as "a matter of revenge". According to Palestinian medical sources, well over a hundred Palestinian patients, including many children, have so far died because of the siege [ 1 2 3 ].

As Gazans scrambled for supplies, Palestinian resistance fighters blew open the Israeli-built steel walls that make the borders between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on January 23rd. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians poured into Egypt's Sinai peninsula, breathing a collective sigh of relief following a half-year of total closure of all Gaza border crossings. However, the Egyptian border guards soon started sealing off the iron border again. The Rafah crossing, south of Gaza, is the sole outlet to the outside world for Gaza's 1.5 million residents since June last year.

On February 20th, several European Union lawmakers urged Israel to refrain from inflicting "collective punishment" on the Palestinian residents in the Gaza Strip. In a press conference titled "Coming back from Gaza and Sderot", with the participation of members from different political groups of the European Parliament who took part to the fact-finding mission to Israel and Palestine between 2 and 7 February, 2008, Jill Evans MEP (Green) affirmed that "the situation in Palestine is reaching breaking point. The siege is an inhuman and illegal collective punishment of the people in Gaza and is causing huge suffering. It has to be stopped. There has to be international action to lift the siege, end the occupation and resume peace negotiations."

Concluding a visit to Palestine and Israel, the United Nations' Undersecretary General for humanitarian affairs John Holmes made similar remarks and called for reopening the borders of the Gaza Strip in order to relief the suffering of the residents.

Earlier that year, a report authored by the UN Special Rapporteur John Dugard concluded that "Palestinian terrorism" is the "inevitable consequence" of Israeli occupation. While "Palestinian terrorist acts are deplorable," it added, "they must be understood as being a painful but inevitable consequence of colonialism, apartheid or occupation."

On February 26th, just before the escalation started, the report was briefly flagged up by Associated Press. Israel was quick to reject the 'claims' as "inflammatory" and the report has since been ignored by the Western corporate media in a continuation of their biased reporting on the Israeli aggression against Palestinians (see this MediaLens alert).

'Holocaust' in Gaza

On February 29th, the Israeli deputy Defense Minister provoked outrage after threatening Palestinians with a "holocaust". Matan Vilnai told the Israeli army radio that "the more [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they [the Palestinians] will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves." The same twisted logic is used by the far-right and Holocaust deniers to blame Jewish people for the Nazi Holocaust.

However, preparations for a large-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip seem to have been under way long before that provocative comment. The Israeli government had reportedly already approved a military plan, similar to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. According to the Jewish Press website, Israeli sources said that a plan, drafted by the Israeli military's general staff, had been endorsed by the Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak.

On February 7th, during a visit to an Israeli military base in the south of Israel, Barak said the Israeli army will "intensify its military operations" in the Gaza Strip, allegedly to stop Palestinian home-made Qassam rockets that continue to be launched from Gaza at Israeli targets. He added that Israel will eventually "put an end" to the attacks by continuing its military operation and imposing punishments and fortifying the nearby Israeli communities surrounding the Gaza Strip. On February 10th, the Defense Minister confirmed that his army will carry out more strikes on Gaza.

Meanwhile, another Israeli minister called for the "total annihilation" of some Gaza neighbourhoods. Me'air Shetrit called for responding to what he termed "sabotaging operations" by "totally annihilating some Gaza neighbourhoods" so that "the residents of the Gaza Strip will understand how serious the Israeli threats are." Other Israeli politicians have made similar comments.

On February 11th, Barak stated that he had ordered the Israeli army to start preparing for the wide-scale offensive in Gaza. He told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Security Committee that his troops are "attacking the Palestinian coastal region day and night, with a high chance for those attacks to expand." On February 17th, he again vowed to strike back heavily against Palestinians, particularly the ruling Hamas in Gaza, as home-made shells continue to hit Israeli areas adjacent to Gaza. At the same time, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, while giving a speech at a conference of Jewish agencies leaders, granted the Israeli army the "upper hand" in deciding how to strike what he called "perpetrators of terror", first and foremost those who belong to Hamas.

Since coming to power after the 2006 democratic elections, the Islamist group has repeatedly proposed a long-term truce with Israel. Israel, however, has repeatedly shunned such offers, branding Hamas a "terrorist group". In June 2007, Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza after Hamas took over the coastal territory, amidst a power struggle with Fatah, president Mahmud Abbas's party, which has been committed to 'peace negotiations' with Israel (see this interesting Vanity Fair article).

Last year, after killing more than 300 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in air strikes and ground offensives, Israel still failed to stop the home-made shells fired by Palestinian fighters into adjacent Israeli towns.

'Full-scale war'

Since the siege started in June 2007, Israeli air strikes and ground incursions, allegedly targeting Palestinian militants, have become an almost daily occurrence, often killing civilians and destroying residential buildings.

For example, on February 7th, Palestinian medical sources reported that six Palestinians, including one teacher, were killed and several residents were injured in three separate Israeli air strikes that were supposed to target groups of Palestinian militants in different areas in the Gaza Strip. On February 15th, eight Palestinians, mainly members of one family, were killed and nearly eighty others injured when the Israeli air force fired missiles at the house of one of the leaders of the Islamic Jihad in Al-Boreij refugee camp in central Gaza. (Many more incidents can be found on the IMEMC, PNN and IE websites.)

On February 14th, an undercover Israeli force attacked several Palestinian homes in the eastern side of Rafah, southern Gaza, and rounded up 30 men, aged between 15 and 50, and took them to a nearby military base at the Rafah-Israel border. The area located near the Gaza International Airport has suffered frequent Israeli attacks since the beginning of the Palestinian Intifada (uprising) in September 2000.

On Wednesday, 27 February, 2008, the Israeli army stepped up its air strikes and ground 'incursions' in what many observers described as a "full-scale, one-sided war". According to the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B’Tselem), 106 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip between February 27th and March 3rd, and at least 54 of them, including 25 children, did not take part in any fighting. Al-Mezan Center For Human Rights put the number at 107, including 55 civilians, of whom 27 were children and 6 women. The Israeli Chief of Staff had claimed that 90 percent of those killed were "armed".

On Wednesday evening, an Israeli strike on the northern part of Gaza killed three Palestinian children, bringing the death toll within 24 hours to 12. Palestinian medical sources confirmed that the three children's bodies reached hospital dismembered, while at least 17 others were wounded, including 6 children. By Friday, the Israeli government announced that its army has completed preparations for a wide-scale offensive against Gaza (more).

Around 1am on Saturday, at least 30 tanks and bulldozers, supported by a battalion of infantry troops attacked the Jabalyia refugee camp in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Palestinian medical sources reported that at least 26 Palestinians killed and 62 injured, bringing the death toll since Wednesday to 56. Eyewitnesses said Israeli troops and tanks invaded Jabalyia and opened fire at resident homes, while Israeli helicopters were firing missiles at civilians homes and cars (more).

Even civilian facilities, such as medical centres, were not spared. On February 28th, for example, an Israeli air strike aimed at the Ministry of the Interior building in Gaza also destroyed the nearby Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) head office. PMRS is one of the largest non-governmental health service providers in Palestine, reaching 1.4 million Palestinians in over 490 cities, towns and villages. The attack also hit a nearby residential building, killing a five-month-old baby. The The disability rehabilitation sector in Palestine, part of the Network of the Non-governmental Organizations, also reported that the Israeli army had targeted several facilities that deal with rehabilitation and killed Hammad Mirshid, 47, who suffered a hearing impairment. The army also broke into a rehabilitation facility, causing a lot of damage, and used it as a military post.

By now, the war in Gaza had attracted the international community and media's attention. The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that some hospitals in Gaza could no longer provide medical care because they have no electricity or medical supplies. Medical crews reported that they came under fire as they tried to evacuate the injured from Jabalyia refugee camp. The Al-Jazeera Arabic correspondent in the Gaza Strip, Hiba Abu Shamalih, also reported that she came under fire along with her camera crew as they were covering the events in Gaza. The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza were "more than a holocaust."

Meanwhile, the Israeli army announced that Palestinian militants killed two Israeli soldiers and destroyed a military vehicle on Saturday. Palestinian resistance groups also fired 13 home-made shells at nearby Israeli areas, injuring three civilians in the southern Israeli town of Sderot that borders the Gaza Strip. The Al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, said that 8 of its fighters were killed on Saturday during armed clashes with the Israeli army. The Al-Quds brigades of the Islamic Jihad also said that three of their fighters were killed in clashes on that same day.

'Not over'

Israeli forces pulled out on Sunday-Monday overnight after five days of bloodshed. But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that the withdrawal of troops from Gaza does not mean Israel's military operation there is over, adding that "what happened in recent days was not a one-off event."

Indeed, just after the Israeli army announced ending its offensive in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources reported that 8 Palestinians, said to be Hamas fighters, were killed by Israeli shells on different parts of Gaza on Monday dawn (more).

Later on, a senior Israeli official, quoted by Reuters, said Israel had called a "two-day interval" while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits Jerusalem and the West Bank on Tuesday and Wednesday, which is meant to move Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations forward. Rice, however, has already told reporters in Egypt that Hamas is "trying to destroy the peace talks." Hamas's spokesperson, Sami Abu Zuhri, said Rice's statement was part of her intention to "give the green light" to the ongoing war on the Hamas movement and the Palestinian resistance. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas had formally suspended contacts with Israel in protest at its attacks on Gaza.

Protests and solidarity

Since the start of the siege in June 2007, there have been many mass protests inside Palestine and Gaza itself. A massive demonstration was held at the Erez Checkpoint in Beit Hanoun, north Gaza, on January 26th, where people assembled on both sides of the fence to protest against the siege and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. On February 11th, flower farmers in the city of Beit Lahiya, north Gaza, decided to destroy about 500,000 square meters of flower plants in protest at their inability to export their produce due to ongoing Israeli blockade on Gaza. On February 14th, a large number of Gaza vehicles stopped engines for half an hour in protest at the continued Israel cut of fuel supplies to the region. On February 25th, thousands of women, children and men formed a human chain around the Gaza Strip in protest at the Israeli siege (more). Peaceful demonstrations also took place in Bethlehem, Nazareth and other places in Palestine and Israel.

Many defiant actions by Israeli activists have also been reported. For example, a convoy of food supplies, provided by a group of Israeli peace activists, entered Gaza on February 19th through the Israeli-controlled commercial crossing of Sufa in southern Gaza.

More recently, the entirety of the West Bank was on strike on Sunday, February 2nd, in solidarity with the mourners and lost souls of the Gaza Strip. The streets of Jenin and Nablus were filled with protesters, while in Ramallah Hamas and Fateh called a joint demonstration. Kids were seen at the Wall in Ramallah throwing stones, and the same happened in Bethlehem at Rachel's Tomb. The air was said to have been full of acrid smoke as children set tires on fire and dumped out garbage cans and set them ablaze (report).

Palestinian protests were often violently attacked by Israeli forces. Seven Palestinian teenagers were injured on February 2nd when Israeli troops attacked a demonstration organised by the villagers of Bil'in, a village near Ramallah known internationally for its non-violent protests (more). On the same day, one Palestinian boy was killed and at least 45 were injured when the Israeli army attacked protests standing in Hebron, south West Bank, in solidarity with the people of Gaza. On February 3rd, Israeli forces imposed a curfew on a western Jenin village, which saw a non-violent demonstration against the Israeli aggression in Gaza. A Palestinian teenager was killed and several others injured on the same day when Israeli army troops attacked a protest organised by school students in the village of Al-Mazra'a Al-Sarqiya, near Ramallah.

Since the start of the siege, there have also been numerous solidarity demonstrations and actions throughout the world. To list only a few of those reported on Indymedia sites worldwide, the past few months have seen protests in Israel, Portland, Washington DC, St. Petersburg (FL), Seattle, Berkeley, Dublin [2], The Hague, Berlin, London [2 3 4 5] , Manchester, Sheffield [2], Wales and elsewhere.

Called by the Popular Committee Against the Siege (PCAS), February 23rd saw a global day of action against the Israeli blockade on Gaza. Mass demonstrations and protests took place in around 30 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa and the two Americas. In many cities, lights also went off for half an hour in solidarity with the people of Gaza (see also the End Gaza Siege website). As the chairman of the Gaza Committee Jamal al-Khudari put it: "The demonstrations we saw on TV screens in many countries indicate a genuine support for the Palestinian people."

MAURITANIA: UN refugee agency calls for funds to get Mauritanian refugees home

An 18-year-old Senegalese government-issued refugee card. Cards like these were issued to Mauritanians expelled from their homes in 1989

The UN refugee agency is asking donors for US$7 million to help tens of thousands of Mauritanians return home nearly 20 years after ethnic fighting forced them to leave.

Forced from their homes and livelihoods in 1989 the refugees – living in Senegal and Mali – have long insisted that their return be supervised and backed by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR). In June the Mauritanian government formally requested UNHCR assistance with the repatriation.

“We call on the international community to help Mauritania turn this painful page in our history,” Moustapha Toure, spokesperson for the Mauritanian refugees, told IRIN.

Some 25,000 Mauritanians are expected to set off from Senegal and Mali next month in UNHCR-operated boats and trucks, with the refugee agency providing food and protection along the way as well as assistance to local communities.

Part of the funds – about $1.7 million – is earmarked for protection and monitoring of refugees’ legal rights. “The authorities will provide returnees with the necessary documentation to ensure their access to civil rights, land and property in a dignified manner,” UNHCR says in its appeal.

After years of refugees’ apprehension about their status upon returning home, the newly elected Mauritanian government in July formally invited them, saying they could return safely and with dignity.

Of some 60,000 people who originally fled Mauritania, about 30,000 remain in northern Senegal and some 6,000 in Mali.

An initial survey conducted by UNHCR and Senegalese officials in July and August found that some 24,000 refugees in Senegal expressed a wish to return home. A few hundred refugees living in Mali are also expected to return.

UNHCR says given “the limited absorption capacity of return areas”, it expects to assist 7,000 people to return by the end of this year and the rest in 2008.

Helping local communities

Part of the funds will be used to build up health and education facilities as well as boost agricultural capacity in communities where refugees will return, UNHCR says.

“It is assumed that returning refugees have maintained regular contact with their relatives in Mauritania, which will improve reintegration prospects in their communities of origin,” UNHCR says in the appeal document. “However, as communities in Mauritania are already facing a shortage of resources, returnee families, consisting often of up to nine members each, will put an important strain on already scarce food and water sources.”

The appeal covers the construction of 35 wells and the building or rehabilitation of 20 health centres and 20 classrooms. In addition, it calls for agricultural tools and seeds for returnees as well as host communities.

Refugees will receive two months food rations from UNHCR and three months basic food rations from the World Food Programme to further mitigate the strain on local communities.

UNHCR says it is negotiating a tripartite agreement with the Senegalese and Mauritanian governments, intended to provide a legal framework covering property rights and legal documentation for refugees. The agreement is expected to be finalised before repatriation begins in October, the agency says.

Truth and reconciliation

While refugees have welcomed the assistance of their government and UNHCR, many are calling for a truth and reconciliation commission to discuss the events of 1989 once repatriation is completed, refugee spokesperson Toure told IRIN.

Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi said in a speech in June: “I am urging all Mauritanians to get mobilised in order to welcome, as warmly and in as brotherly a manner as possible, our fellow countrymen and women in solidarity.”

“Our president has recognised the state’s responsibility to restoring our human rights,” Toure said. “We hope the international community will fully support that initiative so we can put ourselves firmly on the path of national reconciliation.”

Some 60,000 black Mauritanians were expelled from their country to neighbouring Senegal and Mali in 1989 when a border dispute erupted into ethnic violence. Thousands of Mauritanians living in Senegal at the time were also forced out.

Razzia against refugees in Oujda (Morocco)

Using the opportunity of the summer vacation when the Oujda university students are not present, Moroccan security forces carried out a raid on the campus, which has served as a space to live for the migrants for quite some time, in the early morning of 26 July 2007. This searching and raid action was very vigorous and the biggest of its kind since the well-known incidents of Ceuta and Melilla. More than 450 persons have been arrested.

Big razzia against refugees in Oujda (Morocco)

Using the opportunity of the summer vacation when the Oujda university students are not present, Moroccan security forces carried out a raid on the campus, which has served as a space to live for the migrants for quite some time, in the early morning of 26 July 2007. This searching and raid action was very vigorous and the biggest of its kind since the well-known incidents of Ceuta and Melilla. More than 450 persons have been arrested.
According to the information from some migrants who could escape and Morrocans living near the campus, police, military and supporting forces surrounded the migrants around 4 o'clock in the morning, arresting, maltreating and beating them down in a brutal and violent manner with straps and batons made of hard rubber. Then they took them and made them enter their police vehicles.
The migrants fleed from the campus towards the neighbouring forest, chased by police forces and their dogs. The security forces passed over the refugees' camp with a bulldozer. They destroyed and burned down everything that was there. Everyone is now talking about several persons injured, but up to now their exact number is not clear yet.

The police continue to do patrols on the campus and in the neighbouring quarters, looking for migrants.

At the moment this report is sent, information is coming in that a first group of migrants were made to enter two police cars at the police station. There is no doubt that they are going to be taken to the Algerian border.

Interview with deported roma family in Peje / (Kosova/o)

A young women talks about the deportation from germany to Kosova.
She jumped from a 2. floor window to escape the police.

Interview mit einer aus Deutschland abgeschobenen Familie in den Kosovo.
Die junge Ftau sprang damals aus einem Fenster im 2. Stock um der Abschiebung zu entgehen.

Audio: Indymedia Dance Remix

"If Death comes, so be it"

FROM IDEALIST TO REFUGEE

By Charles Hawley in Alvesta, Sweden

Firas wanted nothing more than to work for the Americans when they arrived in Iraq. But his job soon became life threatening. The problem was that his employers didn't seem to care.

Firas was a believer. Even before the Americans came to Iraq -- when everyone knew the invasion was on its way -- he had decided he would do everything he could to help. And he had a lot that the Americans wanted: He spoke fluent English; he had a degree in political science; and he believed in the American dream.

EXODUS FROM IRAQ

"America came wanting to transform Iraq into a model for the Middle East. I knew Iraq had potential and that the country was full of good people," says the 36 year old. "And America is America. They would come to Iraq with a plan, I thought, and they would surely make this thing work."

That was then. Now, Firas, a former European history teacher, lives in the tiny town of Alvesta, Sweden, some 175 kilometers north of Malmö. He's only been here for six months. After the invasion in the spring of 2003, he spent years doing what he could to make the US experiment work -- as an interpreter for the army; as an author of political reports for Washington; as a liaison between the American Embassy and the Iraqi parliament. But in the end, America didn't want him.

Flagging Down Humvees

Although he didn't know it at the time, Firas's trip to Sweden got its start during the chaotic, hopeful days right after US tanks appeared on the streets of Baghdad. The mood, he recalls, was electric and optimistic. Iraqis welcomed the US troops and the soldiers had few qualms about being approached by Iraqis. Firas's first clumsy attempts to get a job with the Americans involved little more than flagging down Humvees and asking if they needed an interpreter.

Before long, he hit pay dirt. After knocking on the door of the Hotel Palestine in central Baghdad, where the Americans had set up an early headquarters, he was sent to the US base out by the airport. There, having proven his language skills, he was taken up by a captain as his personal interpreter. Soon, he moved to military intelligence. Eentually he got a post with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), even rising to the point where he would sometimes interpret for Paul Bremer, then head of the CPA.

"This is something I never understood," he says now. "Why was I treated with such trust at the beginning to work in very high level intelligence and with high level Americans, only to be treated as a potential terrorist later? I don't understand."

The heady days at the start of the war didn't last. Now, Firas shakes his head as he recalls telling everybody about his first interpreting job with the US military. He even allowed himself to be driven home from work sometimes. "Imagine. A whole convoy of Humvees parked outside my house. People knew what I was doing," he said.

'If Death Comes So Be It'

Even then, though, he was concerned about his security. He told friends and acquaintances it was just a temporary job. As sectarian violence began to mount, Firas, a Shiite, began to conceal the true nature of his work.

"I tried to keep a low profile and not get into conversations where people would ask me about my work," he says. "The thing is in Baghdad, you see things getting worse, but sometimes you ignore it. You shove the bad things away from you and you simply don't want to see it. I tried to convince myself that things would get better.

"Imagine not getting in touch and not answering the calls of your high school and university friends. After awhile, I never kept in touch with anyone anymore. Because of my work, I stayed friends with maybe three people."

As sectarian violence mounted, particularly following the bombing of the Shiite shrine in Samarra in Feb. 2006, so too did the dangers of working for the occupiers. Not only were Shiites targeted by Sunnis and Sunnis by Shiites, but those working together with the US were in danger from both.

"Until the very last moment, I was totally dependent on my luck," Firas says. "I was very fatalistic. I thought, 'If death comes, so be it.'"

Commendation from the White House

Firas's American employers weren't making things any easier. Early in his tenure as a US employee, Firas says, he was "lucky," a word that peppers the Baghdad native's speech. Not only was he working for people he liked, he says, but he was paired with Americans who had complete faith in him. Indeed, one of his first supervisors spoke Arabic and treated Firas more as a political officer than as an interpreter. Firas once even received an e-mail from the White House commending him for a report he had written.

But the political situation in Iraq was changing quickly. In late June 2004, the Firas's first employer, the CPA, was disbanded. The US established an embassy. Then, in Jan. 2005, the country went to the polls paving the way for a parliament and a government, which, along with the embassy, found its home in the Green Zone, the heavily protected area in central Baghdad that is off limits to all except those on official business.

Getting into the Green Zone isn't easy. While embassy and diplomatic personnel could freely cross in and out with the help of their official badges, Firas and his colleagues, despite years of service to the American military and diplomatic leadership, were given no such privileges. Instead, they had to wait each morning for up to two hours just to get to work.

The blazing hot sun was the least of their problems. The occupation became so unpopular that death awaited anyone who collaborated with Americans. Some of Firas' colleagues didn't even tell friends and families who their employers were. And waiting outside the Green Zone for hours on end, in downtown Baghdad, wasn't the best way to maintain anonymity.

In fact, the crowd of Iraqis that gathered each morning made an excellent car-bomb target. One morning Firas was on hand to help cart away dead bodies after an explosion at the so-called Assassins' Gate killed 25 people.

More Afraid of the Americans than the Iraqis

Firas and his Foreign Service National (FSN) colleagues asked the Americans for badges to speed up their entry into the Green Zone. They also asked for housing inside the Green Zone for those days when it was simply too dangerous to go home. And they had complaints about the Regional Security Office, which started treating Firas and his colleagues with suspicion as soon as the embassy opened. Some had even been arrested by the RSO on the thinnest of pretexts, and turned over to the Iraqi police.

It was a laundry list of complaints, and in the meantime, Firas says, some improvements have been made. The FSNs still in Iraq have been given badges, but lodging within the Green Zone is still under discussion. And at the end of 2006, Firas ran up against a stone wall with his requests.

"The Americans were treating the FSNs so badly," Firas says, "that I was more afraid of the Americans than the Iraqis."

Now, he lives in a small asylum camp on the outskirts of tiny Alvesta, located in the forests of south-central Sweden. Soon he plans to move -- to another town in Sweden. Maybe, he says, he'll go back to school. "I have to start my life over again from scratch," he says pragmatically. For now he's doing little other than attending Swedish classes -- and planning to stay.

"I came to Sweden," he says, "to be a Swede."

Related links:

Photo Gallery:
Exodus from Iraq

The Growing Iraqi Refugee Crisis:
Trading Civil War for Small- Town Sweden (05/23/2007)

The List:
Death Threats and Academia in Iraq (05/23/2007)

The Dangers of Being an Electrician:
Escaping a Baghdad Death Sentence (05/23/2007)

Rejected in the Green Zone, Accepted in Sweden: The Tragically High Price of Helping Americans (05/23/2007)

Don't send us back to the war!

Some 100 refugees started a symbolic journey along the pilgrimage route from Trondheim to Oslo (648-kilometer) to protest against deportations from Norway to Afghanistan.

There are an estimated 1,900 Afghan refugees in Norway, and the majority have been denied asylum. The march is part of many protests against deportations to Afghanistan. For example many refugees staged hunger strikes in 2006.

On May 19, 2007 the pilgrims gathered at about 2 p.pm at Trondheim Torg. A large group of people came there because of two things. The Obiora case and the Asylum march. Some activists told about fundamental rights to live and that Norway should not send back people to war.

One day later, on May 20th, 2007, the Asylum march has started at 4 p.m. You can follow the progress at asylmarsj.no, with regular updates, pictures and information in norsk english and farsi.

100 Afghans following the pilgrimage route

"Don't send us back to the war"

Afghan refugees are spending every night in fear. Fear of this night will be the day my home is in the Police's list. Fearing that my friends bed will be empty the day after. Just as our home, the safe is not safe either; our excistence, our being and our body belongs to the hidden.

We came to Norway after fleeing from war and persecution in our home country. We ask from you, people of the peaceful and safe Norway, to let us stay here. Until it is safe to return to Afghanistan. This is our hope. A hope we still carry, even though the responsible government has broken all their promises. When the hungerstrike was ended in June last year, the government promised everyone an equal treatment of the cases, where the guidelines from UNHCR should be taken in consideration. This has not been the case, Norwegian government is sending us back to the war: Since the hungerstrike, about 150 Afghans has been deported by force. At the same time, we see that the government allows the we war they want to send us back to, is getting worse.

In fear of being the next, many of us is now living a hidden life, fleeing in and from Norway. About a hundred of us will walk a march from Trondheim to Oslo. Our path will be the old pilgrimage route, and our prayer this: Don't send us back to the war.

We will start this march in Trondheim on Saturday the 19th, where we will take part of the demonstration against the dropping of the Obiora case, at 14:00. We will then walk from Trondheim at 16:00 and end our march in front of the Norwegian Parliament in the end of June. We hope that many will join us in parts of the march, and take part of events along the route, and take part in the discussion about what point of view Norway should have to the gruesome war in our home country. Does the Norwegian people think it is right to send people back to war? Again we reach out our hand, and hope that the Norwegian politicans will listen to the UN's guidelines which is saying it is not safe to deport refugees back to Afghanistan.