English

Press Release: Initiative in Memory of Oury Jallow, Berlin/Dessau 06-14-2005

Different Initiatives Denounce Daily State-Based Racism and the Targeted Harassment Against Mouctar Bah in Dessau

Oury Jallow was burned to death six months ago in a jail cell in Dessau, Sachsen-Anhalt. For all of us who have experienced first hand this normality, these laws and these victimizers, the death of Oury Jallow and the subsequent developments make clear what really happened behind the police walls—and behind the walls of those whose silence is both customary and invariable.

Directly following the death of Oury Jallow, the police spoke of a suicide. Only following public protest did the State Prosecutor begin to respond to the existing contradictions: How can a man burn himself to death while being tied by hands and feet? How can he have a lighter when a thorough body search is always carried out? How can he put himself on fire when, according to the manufacturer, the mattress is extremely difficult to put on fire? Or when the mattress was not previously damaged? And why should he have done it? Why does the police officer turn down the acoustic control in the cell although it was not even damaged? How is it possible not to hear the death cries of a human being while being agonizingly swallowed in flames, flames which produced so much smoke that neither the police nor the fire department were even able to enter into the cell? Why did the lighter not appear in the first inventory list of things found in the cell but did appear in another list produced one day later?

Press Release: Initiative in Memory of Oury Jallow, Berlin/Dessau 06-14-2005

Different Initiatives Denounce Daily State-Based Racism and the Targeted Harassment Against Mouctar Bah in Dessau

Oury Jallow was burned to death six months ago in a jail cell in Dessau, Sachsen-Anhalt. For all of us who have experienced first hand this normality, these laws and these victimizers, the death of Oury Jallow and the subsequent developments make clear what really happened behind the police walls—and behind the walls of those whose silence is both customary and invariable.

Directly following the death of Oury Jallow, the police spoke of a suicide. Only following public protest did the State Prosecutor begin to respond to the existing contradictions: How can a man burn himself to death while being tied by hands and feet? How can he have a lighter when a thorough body search is always carried out? How can he put himself on fire when, according to the manufacturer, the mattress is extremely difficult to put on fire? Or when the mattress was not previously damaged? And why should he have done it? Why does the police officer turn down the acoustic control in the cell although it was not even damaged? How is it possible not to hear the death cries of a human being while being agonizingly swallowed in flames, flames which produced so much smoke that neither the police nor the fire department were even able to enter into the cell? Why did the lighter not appear in the first inventory list of things found in the cell but did appear in another list produced one day later?