Oury Jalloh was unlawfully arrested, unlawfully detained and shackled,
unlawfully blood drawn, tortured, killed and burned to death by police officers
of the Dessau police station on January 7, 2005. In the course of the
independent investigation by the Initiative in Remembrance of Oury Jalloh, two
other homicide crimes committed by the Dessau police also came to public
attention:
On December 7, 1997, Hans-Jürgen Rose was severely
brutalized at the Dessau police station and subsequently dumped in front of a
house entrance in the close neighborhood – he succumbed to his severe internal
injuries only a few hours later on December 8, 1997
On October 29, 2002, Mario Bichtemann was illegally
taken into custody by Dessau police officers and „found“ dead the
next day in custody cell no. 5 with a fractured skull base and a fatal brain
hemorrhage.
To this day, law enforcement agencies, courts, and state politicians
refuse to acknowledge these crimes and draw appropriate criminal consequences.
The crimes have remained allegedly „unsolved“, unatoned, without
official apologies and without compensation until today!
The brutal, racist murder of brother Oury Jalloh will now be 18 years
ago on January 7, 2023.
In the face of the dehumanizing series of murders in the Dessau police
station and their systematic impunity, we call on all people and especially our
Black and migrant communities to join us in the commemoration demonstration in
Dessau to remember those who died and were humiliated in the Dessau murder
house, to demand official acknowledgement of the crimes and appropriate
prosecution.
The murder, the burning and the previous torture of Oury Jalloh have
long been extensively and scientifically proven by a large number of forensic
reports – what is missing is the constitutional recognition of the facts and
respective consequences.
For 18 years, public prosecutors, courts, and political leaders have
sabotaged the investigation ex officio through untenable hypotheses, through
systematic suppression and destruction of evidence, through purposeful
manipulation of expert opinions and their results, and through deliberate
restriction of the lines of investigation and charges.
The Initiative in Remembrance of Oury Jalloh, on the other hand, has
impressively demonstrated in these 18 years, on the basis of fire reports, file
reports, medical reports and forensic reconstructions, that
Oury Jalloh did not have a lighter and the alleged „evidence“ could not have been on death row
Oury Jalloh must have been at least incapacitated or unconscious or even already dead at the time of the setting of the fire, since neither fire gases in his blood nor stress factors in his urine were detectable
Oury Jalloh received severe head injuries and rib fractures shortly before his death
setting fire to the fireproof mattress without accelerant could not be successful from the point of view of fire physics
the fire pattern from cell no. 5 could not be achieved without the use of fire accelerant – and
that the cell door must probably have been open for the entire duration of the fire.
On Thursday, December 22, 2022, we therefore cordially invite you to an
information event together with the Initiative in Remembrance of Oury Jalloh at
the International Center B5 (Brigittenstraße 5, 20359 Hamburg-St. Pauli) to
inform you about the current state of affairs, to answer your questions and to
organize our joint journey to Dessau.
Statement of an Activist of Self-Organized #AfricansFromUkraine
Speech on Rally at Jungfernstieg August 21st 2022
It’s been 6 months and we are still on the same topic. What is our status? Have we really escaped the war just to meet another kind of war ahead of us? It’s been 6 month since we left Ukraine in an attempt to escape the war and seek help in Germany, just like many Ukrainians. I have friends who are settled and are not passing through what we, as 3rd world nationals, face on a daily basis; the uncertainty, the threats to leave the country, the discrimination we face at the immigration office. They are taking our passports and forcing us into asylum.
We are not asylum seekers, we are refugees of war just like the Ukrainians but I don’t see any of them being forced into asylum. We are students just like the Ukrainians. We invested into the Ukraine. We studied there. We worked there. We have memories there. Our livelihood and properties has been destroyed just like theirs. The Ukrainians came looking for help from Germany, just like us. Were we wrong to believe that we could find help within the borders of Germany?
Schon wieder starb eine Schwarze Schwester in einem deutschen Psychiatrie-Krankenhaus … Schon wieder erfolgte eine Zwangsbehandlung, die tödlich endete … Schon wieder wurden die Beschwerden der Patientin über die starken Nebenwirkungen der Zwangsmedikation nicht ernst genommen … Schon wieder wurden die Angehörigen nicht unmittelbar über die Zwangsbehandlung, die Notfallverlegung in ein Herzzentrum und den Tod der Patientin informiert … Schon wieder soll ein „Herzinfarkt“ für den Tod der 34-jährigen Patientin verantwortlich sein …
It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of Valérie Iyobor on March 21, 2022 in Uelzen, Germany. Seven-year-old Valérie had been experiencing excruciating abdominal pain and started vomiting on Sunday. She was urgently presented to a pediatrician at the Hammersteinplatz Medical Care Center in Uelzen the following day.
However, the pediatrician sent the little girl home recommending that the worried mother give her bananas to eat and water to drink. That very same day, however, little Valérie’s pain became increasingly unbearable and her condition progressively worsened, prompting her mother to call 112 for an ambulance. She was taken to the hospital and underwent emergency interventions, but unfortunately all efforts to save her life failed. The police informed the mother that the preliminary autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a ruptured appendix.
WE ARE AFRICAN AND INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AND REFUGEES OF THE UKRAINE WAR
Like millions of Ukrainian citizens we were forced to flee for our lives due to the war in Ukraine since February 2022 – we are refugees of this war and had to leave behind our belongings, our houses and flats, our studies and other ways of peaceful living in Ukraine as well as our investments in and fees for our future education and perspectives – some of us were separated from friends and loved ones and some even had to witness them being killed violently …
Unlike those millions of Ukrainian citizens many of us have been discriminated against all the flight way long – we have been excluded and even forced out of public transportation, we have been picked up and set out in remote forests, we have been held back at the borders from leaving the war-torn country without shelter from freezing temperatures, some of us have been dying unprotected from the cold at night and day, we were immediately told at the EU borders to return back to our respective countries of origin without regard to given situations and without access to refugee protection measures …
The EU-Council was very fast to announce that Ukrainian citizens will be granted unequivocal protection inside EU territories including unconditional access to social and medical care, work and education under temporary protection for refugees of war. Later on the same EU-Council even went on to announce that „ALL PEOPLE, who are fleeing war will be granted protection from and access to the EU, health, education, labor and residence – regardless of their nationality, ethnicity or skin color“ …
Despite this actually unambiguous statement, there were immediate exclusions from exactly this unconditional protection status for refugees of war, formulated along exactly those lines of nationality, ethnicity and skin color from the very same speakers of the EU-Council for those refugees of war who do not hold Ukrainian citizenship otherwise a Ukrainian permanent residence or have spouses of one of the 2 first categories …
What we demand:
According to the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Geneva Conventions and Protocols, the European Convention on Human Rights and other subsequent international treaties, declarations, codes and programs of action that EU countries are party in
WE DEMAND IMMEDIATE PROTECTION AND EQUALITY OF TREATMENT!
We appeal to the German government that the unprecedented decision to grant immediate temporary protection to ALL those who call Ukraine their home is now being translated into a practice of equality.
For all of us Ukraine has been our home and the center of our lives.
All of us have invested substantial funds and efforts as to enable their studies or respective ways of life in Ukraine and all of us had to leave behind considerable belongings, properties and deposits in uncertainty of probable loss or destruction by bombing, looting or to state of emergency laws. Also from that point of view we are in no way different from other refugees of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
How do we feel?
After walking for days on end and having to experience segregation, racism, hunger, abuse and violence at the borders as well as separation from families and loved ones, with parents and little children being affected and exposed to harsh weather conditions and the experiences of destruction of documents, financial losses, educational losses, we now face burdensome uncertainty about our future. We are afraid and have anxiety. The trauma haunts us all. Some of us have problems sleeping, some of us have flash backs or strong reactions to unexpected noises. The war has affected us all. We do not know how our future will be. We start to wonder if we should go to another country …
We do not know if we will ever be accepted here …
Should we go or should we stay …
We arrived in Germany to again face unequal treatment based on our nationality, ethnicity and skin color as compared to people of Ukrainian citizenship, who were treated warmly and differently. While the German Minister Interior stated on March 3, 2022 “Third-country nationals who have been living in Ukraine with a regular residence status are also not required to go through an asylum procedure”, the German directive on how to address our specific situation of March 4, 2022 even falls short of the EU operational guidelines to the Temporary Protection under Article 5 of the EU Council Directive 2001/55 by excluding various groups of Ukrainian residence holders from temporary protection under section 24 of the German Residence Act, who would lose their actual accomplishments and their future by “going back to ‘their’ countries”, which they have left for still unchanged true reasons.
We need temporary protection and clarity now!
We Africans and other non-European nationals from Ukraine are neither responsible for nor part of the ongoing geo-political war but equivalently afflicted. We got into the same situation of war – both NON EUROPEAN CITIZENS & UKRAINIANS alike – and we should be given the same rights and treatment because none of us planned this war and the impact and trauma affects all of us. Bombs and bullets do not discriminate amongst their victims! And thus protection should be the same for all of those who had and lost their homes in Ukraine when war broke out. Many of our friends or international student colleagues have even met the dramatic decision to rather stay back in war-torn Ukraine than to flee to EU countries that refuse to provide protection for them.
Non-Ukrainian nationals from the war in Ukraine arriving in Germany have been facing very different terms of treatment – both in different federal states and cities but also within the very same city throughout time and different facilities. While some received so called “Fictitious Certificates” for 1 year without further procedures others were pressurized to submit an asylum application with their finger prints registered and passports seized. Again others were given a so called “Duldung” including the threat of deportation.
We call for immediate and unobstructed Temporary Protection, including the Right to Study, the Right to Work and equivalent access to social benefits i.e. accommodation, finances, medical care and social welfare as Ukrainian refugees of war. Those of us that have been forced to apply for asylum due to lack of information and administrative inconsistencies should have the asylum application withdrawn and given back their passports.
We ask to be given valid and consistent information for clarity.
Germany should take an example from other EU countries that offer protection and opportunities for studies to ALL. It is basically a shame to Germany for stepping back in regard to its responsibilities.
EQUALITY IS A UNIVERSAL RIGHT – NOT A PRIVILEGE TO SELECT!
EDUCATION IS A HUMAN RIGHT – NOT PRIVILEGE BY CHOICE!
Call for solidarity and equal treatment of all refugees of the Ukraine war
The war in Ukraine has forced millions of people to flee war-torn areas, and many more are currently either unable to escape the hostilities or are still on the run.
Unfortunately, people of African Descent have experienced racial discrimination, horrific treatment, and violence at the EU’s external and internal borders, and exclusion from public transportation as they have fled. In particular, people of African descent were excluded from intra-Ukrainian train and bus travel and were forced to trek for days with children and in freezing temperatures. Families and circles of friends were sometimes separated or torn apart. At Ukrainian borders, Blacks were prevented from leaving the country for days at a time and were left to fend for themselves without shelter from the cold and wet. Once again Black people face a double-sided sword of war and racism.
Due to this unbearable situation for people of African Descent in war-torn Ukraine, our Black Community Coalition for Justice & Self-Defense joined the rescue action #EvacuateAfricansFromUA, initiated by Asmaras – World e.V. and the Association of Mandate Bearers of African Descent [VMA] e.V., in collaboration with The African Network of Germany [TANG] e.V..
Within the framework of this rescue operation, we participated logistically and organizationally in the rescue operation by traveling with the bus convoys to the Polish-Ukrainian border and bringing back refugees. In the last three weeks, we have self-organized accommodation, medical consultations, legal advice, crisis intervention, psychological counselling and for African refugees, as well as care for Ukraine war refugees of other origins.
Since the European states offered immediate, unconditional assistance to war refugees from Ukraine right from the beginning only to people with Ukrainian citizenship and people with permanent residence permits in Ukraine, all other war refugees like students or temporary residence permit holders were unequivocally signalled by the border authorities of neighboring states that they were not welcome, would not receive official assistance, and must leave the EU-Schengen area as soon as possible.
The Black Community Coalition for Justice & Self-Defence condemns the unequal treatment of vulnerable people who have all been equally affected by the war in Ukraine and we demand that unconditional and equal protection be distributed regardless of nationality or residence status at the time of the start of the war on February 24, 2022.
Dividing war refugees into groups of those worthy of protection and those groups not worthy of protection is a painful double standard that is neither acceptable nor consistent with universal human rights. The affected and marginalized people have found themselves in this war situation through no fault of their own, and they were all driven out of what they thought was a safe home in Ukraine where they had legalized residency conditions.
The consensual and immediate offer of protection for war refugees with Ukrainian citizenship must be followed by comparable offers of protection for ALL other victims of this European war if the much-invoked European values and principles of humanity and equal treatment are to be taken seriously, especially when war and hardship make it particularly necessary.
Against this backdrop, we take note of the transitional regulation issued by the German government on March 7, 2022, according to which Ukrainian war refugees from third countries are to be temporarily exempted from the requirement of a residence permit until May 23, 2022, although the arbitrary setting of a deadline without reference to the end of the Ukrainian war seems neither appropriate nor comprehensible. What happens after May 23, 2022?
We point out that a temporary exemption is no guarantee for a residence permit – after the deadline expires, there is a risk that registered persons will be obliged to leave the country again or will be forcibly deported. This is not acceptable. It is a shame if the German authorities fail to challenge the violence of migration policy and choose to use citizenship as a racializing weapon.
We draw particular attention to the plight of pregnant women and also children. Children and their families, regardless of their nationality and especially when fleeing war, should be given priority and equal treatment and urgently receive humanitarian assistance, protection and child-friendly housing and education.
We demand
– Residence permits for ALL people affected and displaced by the war in Ukraine
– immediate right to stay for pregnant women, children and families
– immediate and unconditional access to medical and psychological care
– possibilities to receive BAföG or scholarships for ALL students affected by the Ukraine war
– issuance of work and student permits to complete or continue studies
as to enable all people affected by this extraordinary war situation to live a largely self-determined life in Germany.
Students among the non-Ukrainian nationals who had to flee from the war already had to bear and traumatic experiences and financial burdens for their respective studies in Ukraine. We demand the exploration of all possibilities to avoid financial double burdens for normative study access here in Germany and to create regulations for the transitional continuation of their courses of study interrupted by war as well as for the acquisition of the necessary language skills.
The registration of African students and nationals of third countries other than Ukraine who were legally in Ukraine at the time of the outbreak of war should be carried out without forcing them to apply for asylum.
We would like to appeal to all people of African origin and the Afro-diasporic communities national associations, churches, mosques, etc. to join the demands formulated here to the federal and state politicians and to organise together. Refugee work for the most neglected groups needs all of our commitment and networking so that the available resources can be optimally used and coordinated.
We thank Hamburg’s civil society, anti-racist organisations, labour unions, student organisations for the extraordinary solidarity and concrete willingness to help, especially those people who have been racially marginalised alongside the unspeakable traumas of war.
The German government has a responsibility to ensure that ALL refugees not only have safety but also equal access to rebuild their life and heal in dignity. Majority of „Africans Fleeing Ukraine“ can barely survive in Hamburg without self-organised civil society solidarity measures.
The refugee crisis in Ukraine is not only an important opportunity for Germany and Europe to demonstrate its humanitarian values and commitment to the global refugee protection regime, but also a critical moment of reflection. It is a question of political and humanitarian decision-making at the federal and state level as to how the effective and equal protection of all Ukrainian war refugees can be concretely designed and implemented.
This is not the time for legal restrictions and false demarcations. We call for a wholesome ethic of care and responsibility.
Grant full protection to ALL refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.
Action must be taken NOW!
Touch One -Touch All!
Individuals and organizations who would like to support this appeal, please let us know by mail info@blackcommunitycoalition.de.
1st Signatories:
Black Community Coalition for Justice & Self-Defense
wir möchten Euch darüber informieren, dass ein Strafverfahren gegen Sista Oloruntoyin von der Black Community Coalition of Justice & Self-Defence
am 03. Februar 2022, um 09:00 Uhr,
im Gerichtssaal 176
Amtsgericht Hamburg stattfinden wird
(Strafjustizgebäude/Criminal Justice Building, Sievekingplatz 3)
Sista Oloruntoyin (LaToya Manly-Spain) muss sich wegen des Vorwurfs der „Abhaltung einer verbotenen oder nicht angemeldeten Kundgebung und Demonstration trotz Verbots oder polizeilicher Aufforderung zur Auflösung nach § 26 Versammlungsgesetz“ verantworten. Am 5. Juni 2020 versammelten sich rund 5000 Demonstranten aus Solidarität vor dem US-Konsulat in Hamburg, um ein starkes Signal in die Welt zu senden. Wir sehen die juristische Kriminalisierung von Sista Oloruntoyin als einen Angriff auf die Schwarze Community in Hamburg und alle Protestierenden. Wir rufen alle zivilgesellschaftlichen Gruppen und Organisationen zur aktiven Unterstützung und Solidarität auf.
Sista Oloruntoyin (LaToya Manly-Spain) faces criminal charges for allegedly “holding a prohibited or unregistered manifestation and rally in spite of ban or police order to disperse in accordance with Paragraph 26 of the law on assemblies”. About 5000 protesters joined in solidarity to send a strong signal across the globe. We are seeing this juridical criminalisation of Sista Oloruntoyin as an attack on the Black Community in Hamburg and all protesters. We call on all civil society groups and organisations to come out in active support and solidarity.
Alle Schwarzen und Afrikanischen Diaspora-Communities und Personen Afrikanischer Herkunft sind eingeladen, bei unserem virtuellen Community Connect im Kampf gegen Afrophobie (Anti-Schwarzen Rassismus) zusammenzuarbeiten und teilzunehmen. Wir möchten das Prinzip Community Connect reaktivieren, um unseren Kampf gegen Anti-Schwarzen Rassismus, Diskriminierung und Ausgrenzung gemeinsam besser zu koordinieren und zu organisieren. Die BLACK COMMUNITY Coalition stellt ihre Arbeit und die AG Anti-Schwarzer Rassimus ihren Forderungskatalog vor. Wir laden Schwarze Menschen, Organisationen und Initiativen ein, geimeinsam mit uns aktiv zu werden und unsere Kräfte zu bündeln.
Die BLACK COMMUNITY Coalition steht auf dem Standpunkt, dass Rassismus systemisch wirkt und Institutionen, Behörden und Medien, die ihn zulassen und nutzen, ihn bewusst verleugnen.
Ziele unseres Community Connect:
– Information über politische Aktionen, die durchgeführt wurden und werden
– Information über Treffen mit Regierungsvertretern und Behörden, die stattgefunden haben
– Vorstellung des „Forderungskatalog der AG Anti-Schwarzer Rassismus“
– Diskussion über die Menschenrechtssituation in unseren Communities, über Prioritäten und Anliegen
Wir laden ausdrücklich Schwarze Menschen zu dieser Diskussion ein und stellen die Perspektiven unserer verschiedenen Schwarzen und Afrikanischen Diaspora-Gemeinschaften in den Mittelpunkt.
Wir bitten um Anmeldung unter: organize@blackcommunitycoalition.de
COMMUNITY CONNECT – united against Anti-Black and institutional racism
Online Zoom | Saturday, May 8, 2021 | 7 – 9 p.m.
All Black and African Diaspora communities and persons of African descent are invited to collaborate and participate in our virtual Community Connect in the fight against Afrophobia (anti-Black racism). We would like to reactivate the Community Connect principle to better coordinate and organize our fight against anti-Black racism, discrimination and exclusion together. The BLACK COMMUNITY Coalition will present its work and the AG Anti-Black Racism will present its list of demands. We invite Black people, organizations and initiatives to become active together with us and to join forces.
The BLACK COMMUNITY Coalition stands on the point of view that racism works systemically and institutions, authorities and media that use and execute it, deliberately deny it.
Goals of our Community Connect:
– To provide information about political actions that have been and are being taken
– Information about meetings with government representatives and authorities
– Presentation of the „Catalogue of Demands” of the Working Group on Anti-Black Racism.
– Discussion about the human rights situation in our communities, about priorities and concerns
We specifically invite Black people to this discussion and focus on the perspectives of our various Black and African Diaspora communities.
We kindly ask for registration under: organize@blackcommunitycoalition.de
2 years ago Brother Tonou Mbobda was murdered in the UKE-Hospital…
Since 2 years the UKE-Hospital has been disclaiming its responsibility for his violent death…
Since 2 years now, Hamburg’s public prosecutors have failed to adequately prosecute the obvious breaches of law, breaches of due diligence, and violations of policy….
Since 2 years now, the institution UKE-Hospital, the prosecuting authority public prosecutor’s office and the political leaders in the science committee have allied for a joint cover-up by stigmatizing, criminalizing and blaming the victim…
Since 2 years now, we as the Black Community Coalition for Justice & Self-Defense have been fighting together with the family and the Black Community Hamburg for the full and complete clarification of all circumstances that led to the violent death of Brother Tonou Mbobda… and we will not let this fight rest until the family receives the justice it deserves. The death of Brother Tonou Mbobda cannot and must not go unpunished and unpardoned!
We demand the indictment of those responsible in a due process of law to clarify all outstanding issues:
Why was Tonou Mbobda’s cardiac muscle thickening not precautionarily clarified and diagnosed by a specialist cardiologist despite multiple conspicuous and pathologically marked ECG findings and despite the additional prescription of drugs with side effects on his heart?
Why was the low potassium level determined by laboratory chemistry on admission not actively compensated, when it is known that low potassium levels can promote the occurrence of dangerous cardiac arrhythmias, especially in combination with the medication administered?
How can it be that both the responsible physician and subsequently also the public prosecutor’s office and the attorney general’s office establish an alleged danger to others, although Tonou Mbobda never attacked or injured anyone in his entire lifetime, throughout his mental history and not on the day of his death?
Why can the responsible physician have ordered the security service and not exercise medical supervision to ensure compliance with existing professional guidelines when they subsequently use physical force, and thus allow the security service to employ unprofessional and life-threatening techniques of violence against a patient, for which there was not even legal order issued yet?
How can it be that the public prosecutor in charge commissions the contract for the forensic medical examination to the UKE-Hospital itself?
Why was there no immediate forensic medical examination carried out to determine and document the injuries and consequences of the use of violent force despite the immediate police investigation and the explicit indication by a medical representative of the Black Community? Against forensic standards of investigation injuries were only documented 5 days later in the course of the autopsy.
Why is a possible positional asphyxia (circulatory collapse in prone position with hands tied behind the back and additional respiratory restriction due to sitting up/kneeling of several persons) neither mentioned nor discussed in the autopsy report of Prof. Püschel, and how does the responsible public prosecutor Mahnke come to claim a completely unscientific „minimum exposure time“ of 25 minutes as a “condition” for such an event in front the scientific committee of parliament?
How does the responsible public prosecutor Ogiermann of the Attorney General’s Office come to construct an allegedly avertable self-endangerment by a theoretically possible traffic accident, when there is no evidence at all for the necessary intention of the patient Tonou Mbobda to leave the clinic premises in the first place?
How can the violations against the PsychKG Hamburg (missing legal basis), against the S3 guideline „To prevent coercion“, against the medical duty of care (omission of diagnosis and therapy of significant concomitant diseases) and against the right of self-determination of patients have been appropriately processed, if both the public prosecutor’s offices and the scientific committee prevent their clarification and naming by an irresponsible perpetrator-victim reversal, by criminalizing the person killed with the help of the protective claims of those actually responsible for the fatality and imputing a cynical „life-saving intention“ to the perpetrators of the violence, for which there is neither professional nor actual evidence?
Neither the UKE-Hospital, nor the city of Hamburg have so far personally apologized to the family or expressed their regrets to the bereaved.
The killing of Black people is part of the structural DNA of Hamburg, if only because the responsible law enforcement agencies have so far systematically legitimized it instead of filing charges. The „failure to recognize“ implicitly and explicitly racist behavior not only through unjustified and excessive violence, but also through failure to care and ignoring fundamental rights is an unspeakable continuity that feeds on the unreflective colonial roots of the German dominant society. It is an expression of an inhuman superiority mentality that the recognition of equal rights to life and self-determination is and can still be so systematically denied in 2021. We will not continue to stand idly by and watch the killing of Black lives and institutional violence against Black people in impunity, but we will do everything necessary to ensure that anti-Black racism in Hamburg, in Germany and beyond finally comes to an end!
Touch One – Touch ALL
Justice for Mbobda
Black Community Coalition for Justice & Self-Defense
