Meeting at Central Train station in Dessau at 12 Uhr
Who knew Oury Jallow o Laye Kondé? Who knows something about their lives, the families they left behind, their feelings and their fears? Who knows how they died and why?
On the 7th of January, two Africans died at the hands of the german police. In germany, the 7th of January was just another day. Normal. Simply another day which for many people belongs to the past and like the past is forgotten. Nothing more and nothing less than another Friday in the first month of a new year.
Other people don’t have such short memories and they also don’t forget. What’s more, there are some people for whom the 7th of January represents and will continue to represent another day in the infamous colonial history of this country and of this continent; people who can only understand the death of two Africans to represent a continuation of the past and the present. One single nightmare.
The facts:
Oury Jallow and Laye Kondé, both from Sierra Leone, died because they and their like are not welcomed in this country. They died because they found themselves in a country that continues to say “Ausländer Raus“; they died because both the german state and the society do everything in their means to isolate, exclude, destroy and expulse Oury, Laye and many, many others like them.
Oury died tied to a bed in his police cell in the city of Dessau, burned alive in what the authorities claim to have been a “suicide”. Laye, on the other hand, died far away from there, in the city of Bremen, his lungs filled with a liquid forced into his body by the police who were attempting to make him vomit out the drugs he was hiding.
Do you wish to have more information? Should we be more objective? How’s this: According to the newspaper Die Zeit from the 9th of March, “[only January of this year] a right-wing extremist crime is committed each hour. Officially, 745 crimes and 39 acts of violence of the extreme right were committed in all of Germany [...] According to last year’s statistics, there were a total of 7.943 crimes and 489 acts of violence of the extreme right.” Do you think Oury and Laye were included in their statistics?
Confirmed in terms that all of us can understand, there is no doubt has such a horrendous crime can be committed in silence, whereas the authorities clearly are doing everything they can to cover up a crime that has for a long time been a daily horror for many people of non-European heritage.
But what we tell you now is nothing new. It is not new for you and it is not new for us. And you, just like us, know it very well. Isn’t this what they call “normal”? Is this not the mundane, everyday situation, even if not for you personally? But then again, you don’t see it as your problem. It happened to somebody else. When you read this—if you read this—you will probably feel uncomfortable and maybe even upset. This is also a normal reaction. You, just like us, are used to this indifference.
And now back to more objective information, published by the newspaper TAZ, which wrote: “according to a study of the conflict and violence researcher Wilhelm Heitmeyer, the large, silent majority is amazingly large. 60 percent of all germans believe that too many foreigners live in this country. 69 percent are bothered by the fact that they are still being associated with the crimes against the Jewish people. Of these 69 percent, half of them consider themselves to be part of the political center.”
Now, in Dessau, the attorney general is rejecting the possibility of a second, independent autopsy, which could confirm such unanswered questions like: were his wrists really broken or not? Now, although they appear to have “changed their minds”, the authorities are creating difficulties for a public religious ceremony to commemorate the life—and death—of just another African whom to many was a brother and a friend.
The friends of Oury have said they will carry out the procession with or without the permission of the authorities and that they will continue to denounce what is really happening in the city of Dessau. Since maintaining such a strong position often times means that those who refuse to bow their heads are left alone, it is even more important that we share in their fraternal support to ensure that Oury receives a dignified treatment in this country at least once.
One last word. It doesn’t cost you neither too much time nor money to support the friends of Oury in making sure he at least finds that in death which this country has denied to him in life: respect. It is just one single day of your normal life. Come to Dessau!
We demand:
A second and independent autopsy
An independent investigation of the circumstances surrounding Oury’s death
A judicial process against the responsible police for homicide
Reparations for the family of Oury Jallow
An end to police brutality and control
¡¡¡JUSTICE!!!
Oury Jalloh: Elf Wochen nach dem Feuertod eines Afrikaners:
http://www.thevoiceforum.org/dessau