The performing group Ice and Fire are to perform in Salisbury at Sarum College on 18 September starting at 7:30.The performance will consist of readings from testimonies of refugees, human rights lawyers and home office workers, to show how the system of asylum seeking and acquiring refugee status works in reality in the UK. It forms part of Amnesty’s continuing campaign to highlight the plight of refugees and how they are treated here.
There is considerable hostility to refugees and asylum seekers with many stories in our tabloid newspapers of such people abusing the system. People are led to believe that hoards are arriving here and living in hotels by the seaside and costing the country huge sums of money. The reality is the UK has only 1% of the world’s refugees and has received around 3% of asylum claims made in the EU.
The event is FREE but there will be a parting collection.
If you live in the Salisbury area and are interested in joining us you would be very welcome. If you can come to this event, several group members will be about so just make yourself known. It is free to join the local group. Details of other activities will be on this site and on Facebook and Twitter – salisburyai.
NCA admits not seeking Ministerial consent before supplying information to the Thai police
In 2014 there two British backpackers, Hannah Witheridge and David Miller, were murdered on a beach in Thailand and for days the press was full of the story. It was reported at the time that the Thai police were extremely slow to react and allowed crucial evidence to be lost and for likely suspects to escape. It was further alleged that the Thai authorities were reluctant to take the matter sufficiently seriously because of the possible damage to their tourist trade.
Three years later the case has again hit the headlines as it now appears that the National Crime Agency has been accused of supplying information to the Thai Police. The significance is that two Burmese individuals, Zaw Lin and Wai Pho have been convicted of the murders and are likely to face execution by lethal injection. The High Court in the UK found against the NCA for providing information which contributed to the likelihood of execution. The UK government opposes capital punishment and there are strict rules governing the provision of information in these cases. Ministerial authority is needed and in this case the NCA did not get this.
Doubts have been raised about the convictions as there is evidence of corruption, incompetence and the use of fabricated evidence used to secure a conviction. The use of torture is also alleged.
It is bad enough that the National Crime Agency secretly handed over evidence to help secure death sentences in a country known for unfair trials and torture. But they now admit they did this illegally, without any proper thought that their actions could contribute to a grave miscarriage of justice with two men now facing execution. UK cooperation with foreign police and security forces should be open and transparent. Government agencies shouldn’t have to be dragged through the courts for the public to know what is being done with their money.
Sources:The News; Reprieve; The Guardian; Press Association
If you live in the Salisbury area and are interested in campaigning on human rights issues we would be glad to welcome. It is free to join the local group. Keep and eye on this site, on Twitter or Facebook for events and come along and make yourself known.
It sometimes seems like a forlorn battle being an Amnesty supporter. The tide of executions, arrests for peacefully protesting, torture and other state crimes seems inexorable. Despite countries signing solemn pledges in the UN, persecution by states of their own people and minorities continues on a grand scale around the world.
But a light sometimes does shine and in a recent report, Amnesty claims that 650 prisoners were released last year due in part to our
Albert Woodfox. Pic: Amnesty
campaigning. Albert Woodfox was released from 44 years in solitary confinement in Louisiana, USA and he said:
Even when it feels like you are not going to win, when you grow disillusioned with politics which put geed before people’s human rights. when you don’t think you can make a difference – please remember that if you had not taken a stand and joined hundreds of thousands of activist around the world, I may not have been able to write this to you today.
The latest death penalty report covering four weeks to mid August is attached thanks to group member Lesley for compiling it. Please remember China remains the world’s biggest executioner but details are a state secret.
A further 15 men face imminent execution in Saudi Arabia
Only a few days ago, we highlighted the case of fourteen men who face imminent execution. Today we publish a further urgent action as Saudi is about to execute another 15 individuals. The families of the accused have just discovered that the higher court has upheld the lower court’s ruling without the prisoners themselves or their lawyers knowing about it.
They were accused of high treason together with other unrecognisable offences including ‘supporting protests’ and ‘spreading the Shi’a faith.’ They were held incommunicado for nearly three months and denied access to lawyers. Their families were threatened with arrest if they did not sign confessions.
The system in Saudi is contrary to all international norms and shows no sign of improvement. Yet despite this we continue to supply the country with arms on a huge scale.
The Foreign and Colonial Office has just published its 2o16 report on human rights and on Saudi it says the following (extract)
… We also remain deeply concerned about the application of the death penalty. Amnesty International reported that 153 people had been executed in 2016, compared to 158 people in 2015. This included the simultaneous execution of 47 people on 2 January 2016. On 5 January, the then FCO Minister for the Middle East and Africa, Tobias Ellwood, made a statement to Parliament reiterating our clear position on the death penalty. As the principle of the death penalty is enshrined in Saudi Arabia’s Sharia law, total abolition in the near future is unlikely. We continued to ensure that the Saudi authorities are aware of our strong opposition to the death penalty at the most senior levels.
… In 2017, we will continue to work to limit the application of the death penalty; and to ensure that, if it is applied, it is carried out in line with international minimum standards. We will continue to monitor closely cases which relate to freedom of expression and of religion or belief. We will also look for opportunities to promote greater participation by civil society and by women in Saudi public life. (p 49)
Fine words but somewhat undermined by continuing high level contact, visits by members of the Royal Family and government ministers keen to promote the continued sale of weapons.
If you do get time to write that would be appreciated. Alternatively, if you go to our Twitter page on this and click ‘like’ or ‘retweet’ that would help.
If you live in the Salisbury area and would like to join then the simplest thing is to come to one of our events and make yourself known. These can be found here, on our Twitter or Facebook pages – salisburyai.
A doctor working for Médicins sans Frontières shares her experiences of working in Yemen
July 2017
Hella Hultin is a Swedish surgeon who is working for MSF in Yemen. In the current issue, she writes of her experiences of working in Khameeer in northern Yemen.
We were about to do an appendectomy on a girl, but my Yemeni colleague thought I might be tired after the long journey. So I sat in the operating room to watch. Suddenly both our phones rang. The voice on the other end was stressed asking me to come straight to the emergency room.
“Help! How do I get there?” I thought, while I quickly put on a white coat and hurried out, so fast the cats outside scattered in all directions. “Emergency?” I asked the attendant outside, and was pointed in the right direction.
When I arrived, the Emergency room was full of people, both patients and relatives. Many patients were being rolled in on stretchers from the ambulance entrance. I was told there had been an airstrike and more injured would be arriving soon. The injured were all covered in dust and dirt, and almost all had wounds from shrapnel. Several had fractures of the arms or legs, and some had burns on their face and hands.
A desperate husband was running around the room screaming. When I managed to get the interpreter to translate what he was saying, it turned out he was missing two of his children who had been caught up in the strike. It’s not hard to imagine his anxiety.
We got to work and ended up operating all night. We transferred two of the most seriously injured to a larger hospital for specialist treatment that we were unable to provide.
Hours later I made it to bed. As I lay down, it felt like I’d been there for weeks.
We do not know from this account the nature of the airstrike but there is no suggestion that those injured are military personnel. Accounts from people working inside Yemen are scarce as the Saudi’s have blockaded the country. Only a few journalists have managed to get in and there was a radio report last week of BBC’s Radio 4 news (limited time podcast).
Follow us on Twitter or Facebook, salisburyai. If you live in the Salisbury area and would like to join us you would be very welcome. Just keep and eye on this site or Facebook or twitter and come along to an event and make yourself known. It is free to join the local group.
Fourteen men are a risk of execution in Saudi Arabia
The families of the men discovered that these men are at risk of execution a few days ago as a result of the secretive nature of the Saudi justice system. Due to the lack of information surrounding the judicial process in Saudi Arabia, it is only when the families of some of the men finally managed to get through to the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC), on 23 July by phone, that they learned the sentences of their relatives had been upheld. This means that the 14 men could be executed as soon as the King ratifies the sentences. The ratification process is secretive and could happen at any time. On 15 July, the 14 men were transferred to the capital Riyadh without prior notice.
As is quite common in that country, torture may have been used to extract confessions.
Full details are below and we hope readers will find time to write or email to the Saudi authorities.
In previous posts we have drawn attention to the British government’s role in supporting this regime despite its horrific human rights record and its activities in bombing and blockading the Yemen.
When we turn to our sports pages, we expect to read about who is beating Britain at cricket, the latest in the long-running saga of the English football team or Andy Murray’s latest exploits on the tennis courts. We do not expect to read about human rights or to see quotes from organisations like Human Rights Watch or this one – Amnesty. They are to be found on the news pages surely.
But on Tuesday 18 July, the Guardian in the UK devoted nearly two whole pages in its sports section to the sponsorship by Bahrain of a range of sporting activities and sportsmen in an effort to create a more favourable image for itself.
And it needs to. The country has a quite appalling record of human rights abuses. These include torture, in particular beatings and the use of electric shocks. Freedom of assembly has been severely restricted and peaceful protests have been violently put down. Nabeel Rajaab – a human rights defender is in prison.
Alan Hogarth, head of policy and government affairs for Amnesty said:
It seems pretty clear that the Bahraini authorities have stepped up efforts to associate the country with major sporting events as glitzy cover for an ever-worsening human rights crackdown. For the most part, Bahrain’s harnessing of the glamour and prestige of sport has helped deflect attention from the arrests of peaceful critics, reports of tortured detainees, unfair trials and death sentences.
But you would not know this from the sports pages where all is glamour and excitement. Pictured is the Olympic gold winner
Alistair Brownlee. Pic nztri.co.nz
Alistair Brownlee – featured in the Guardian article – promoting a Bahrain sponsored event. Other sports include F1 motor racing, football with FIFA siting its conference in the country and cycling. Spokesmen for the various organisations involved in laundering Bahrain’s image claim that they are not competent authorities to assess the human rights violations taking place there. There are also claims that the sporting activities will help overcome the problems. This might have a grain of truth if during coverage, human rights issued were raised by commentators. Of that there has been no sign.
Bahrain cycling team colours. Photo; Bettini
Their promotional activities are not limited to sport as members of the UK’s Royal family have been pressed into service. Her majesty the Queen herself welcomed King Hamad to the Royal Windsor horse show and there are pictures of Prince Charles and Prince Andrew with various members of the Bahraini royal family.
We do not have to look far for reasons for this rolling out of the red carpet for members of this royal family as it is our old friend arms sales which are behind it. It led Theresa May to visit the country last year. As CAAT reports we are keen to foster arms sales there including Typhoon jets and we have established a naval base at Mina Salman. Defence clearly trumps human rights considerations.
At present, the sportsmen and women can collect their fees and promotional monies free in the knowledge that the majority of those reading of their sporting achievements probably do not concern themselves too much with goes on in the countries like Bahrain and how they treat their own citizens. And only rarely do the stories touch on these matters since sport seems to exist in a kind of box as far the rest of coverage is concerned. Sport, money and politics are now closely entwined. Sports stars enjoy huge acclaim and some have a large fan base. They have huge influence over the young who spend large sums on their merchandise. This is a big responsibility.
But is it too much to ask that sporting people should have a conscience and should be concerned that their names and images are being used to hide serious abuses taking place? Where a regime such as Bahrain is using sport to whitewash its reputation then sporting people should be aware of the role they are playing and the harm they are doing. Should they not be concerned that they are being used by these regimes?
If you live in the Salisbury area and are interested in joining us we would be pleased to see you. The best thing is to keep an eye on our events which are listed at the end of our minutes and make yourself known at one of them. Or keep an eye on Twitter or Facebook.
The trial of Reggie Clemons in Missouri has been delayed yet again until January. This has come about because the defense has claimed that Reggie’s phone calls and visitor logs have been accessed by the Attorney General’s office since March 2016. They claim that at least three of these calls to his lawyers and may have revealed names of expert witnesses to called to testify at his trial. The Attorney General office deny these claims and said that Clemons had waived his attorney client privilege.
He has been in prison now for 22 years and the trial had been set for August.
The group sent a card to Reggie in anticipation of the trial taking place in August.
UN speech by the Commissioner for Human Rights well worth a read
It is perhaps a sign of the times that Theresa May, the UK prime minister, should find herself quoted in the opening paragraph of a speech by the UN Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. Not in a flattering way but quoting her remarks that human rights should be overturned if the ‘got in the way’ of the fight against terrorism. These remarks were made during the election campaign which did not go the way intended by Mrs May. They followed a terrorist attack in London.
Whatever the background, Al Hussein thinks the remarks were ‘highly regrettable’ and are a gift to the many authoritarian
Al Hussein, UN. Pic: Times of Israel
governments around the world. It seems that any idea that the UK is some kind of a beacon for civilised behaviour in an increasingly troubled world has all but gone. The desire to promote arms now matters more than the victims of their use for example in Yemen. Despite the appalling behaviour of the Chinese government, most recently with the death of Liu Xiaobo, our response is the minimum necessary: we are more interested in trade than decent behaviour.
It is disappointing to see the prime minister of the UK being mentioned in this way because whatever her faults, there is no comparison between the behaviour of her government and that say, of Russia, where journalists and opposition politicians are gunned down and which has been described as a mafia state. The activities of governments in the Gulf also leave a great deal to be desired. There are many other countries in the world where autocratic regimes mistreat their citizens, use torture routinely, violently put down peaceful protests and deny freedom of expression.
The remarks were perhaps made more in sorrow reflecting the fact that it was the UK government after the war which was one of those who were active in promoting the role of international law and human rights. Today, Al Hussein notes in his speech, for some politicians see human rights as an ‘irritating check on expediency.’ Some are indifferent to the effects of austerity on their own citizens.
A question he asks are ‘what rights does the prime minister mean?’ a question we asked of our Salisbury MP Mr Glen. It is seldom if ever clear what it is they want to see done away with. This might arise because they are responding to tabloid media pressure which maintains an unceasing campaign against the European Court, the European Convention of Human Rights and the Human Rights Act. A recent example is from the Daily Mail claiming that the Act does help terrorists. Other newspapers run similar stories presenting a drip, drip of negative material against the act. Throw in a hatred of anything European and it is small wonder politicians follow the line. As Al Hussein expresses it:
So why did Prime Minister May said this? At least part of the answer may lie in market conditions. Human Rights law has long been ridiculed by an influential tabloid press here in the UK, feeding with relish on what it paints as the absurd findings of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. This viewpoint has some resonance with a slice of the public unaware of the importance of international human rights law – often seen by far too many people as too removed from everyday life, very continental, too lawyerly, too activist, ultimately too weird. How can the Court consider prisoners’ voting rights, and other supposedly frivolous claims, when set against the suffering of victims? The bastards deserve punishment, full stop! This may be understandable, at some emotional level. However, one should also acknowledge that British ink, reflecting an enormously rich legal tradition, is found throughout the European Convention on Human Rights.
Although some members of the government seek to reduce the influence of human rights in our society, not all do and the organisation Bright Blue, which describes itself as an independent think tank and pressure group for liberal conservatism, has recently published a report arguing that the Conservatives should make Britain the ‘home of human rights.’ Clearly some fundamental attitudes will have to change if that ambition is to be realised. This report is also well worth a read.
Unless countries like Britain and the USA are willing to provide moral leadership then a further deterioration in human rights around the world is to be expected.
Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire 