A call for action from Calais. We do not forget.

Dear friends and comrades all over the world. Another friend has been killed here in Calais (see below and here: http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/)



Again, the state is trying to cover up the death. As you would expect, the Sudanese and other communities here in Calais are full of anger and sadness right now. People are asking for our support to make sure that more lives are not passed over in silence. We are organising demonstrations, a media campaign, and legal action here in Calais.



We think this mobilisation can be even stronger if comrades act in support elsewhere, in order to put more pressure on the French government. It would be great if in the next few days and weeks there are many demonstrations or any other events that will draw attention to what is happening.



Especially, we would like to ask if comrades at the No Border camp in Duesseldorf/Koeln can make this a campaign for the camp.

Also, at the same time as remembering N., let's also remember all the other people killed in Calais, and on all the bloody borders of Europe and the world.



Please pass on this message to other friends and comrades.

More details about the ongoing investigation and campaign will be posted on the blog in coming days http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/



Ni Oubli. Ni Pardon.

...


Another friend killed in Calais



One more death. In the early hours of Saturday Morning (7 July),
our friend N., 28 years old, from Sudan, died in Calais town centre.
His body was dragged out of the canal near the Sub-Prefecture. As often
in the past, the police have been point blank refusing to allow friends
and family access to his body, or to hold an inquest into his death.
They have already prepared their story about his death, which is
starting to unravel as more evidence comes to light.


Not because it bears any relation to the truth, but this is the 
official line: N stole a mobile phone in the town centre, he was chased
by a friend of the "victim", and somehow he managed to fall or jump into
the canal, where he drowned. Apparently there is no need for an autopsy
or inquiry. No need to explain police movements that night just before N
died. No need to wait for evidence that he stole anything. This story,
straight from the mouths of the cops, was parroted by the local hate-rag
"La Voix du Nord" without further investigation. A migrant. A black
man. A thief. An accident, maybe even a well-deserved death.

N's
friends, and witnesses, tell a different story. We cannot write more
about what really happened at this moment, but we will do so soon. This
morning (Monday 9) around 40 people demonstrated outside the police
station in Calais. N was well loved. We hope to write more about his
life soon as well, with full respect to all his family and friends. We
will not let this death be forgotten.

The cover-up by state
authorities and media accomplices of deaths in Calais is standard. Just
to give another recent example, on December 22, another friend, Ismael,
was found dead at the bottom of a bridge in central Calais. The police
immediately closed the case, calling it suicide. They refused to allow
his friends to see or identify the body, and refused an autopsy.
Ismael's friends went twice to the police station asking to see his body
and were twice refused and threatened with arrest by the immigration
police (PAF) if they didn't leave. Only one white French friend was
allowed in to identify him. There was no further investigation.

The
border kills. We don't know how Ismail died. We have seen many times
police chasing migrants off bridges, into canals, into the harbour.
Bullets and clubs are not the only way to kill people. A fall from a
bridge can kill just as well. Constant beatings and hunger can kill just
as well. Years of fear and frustration and humiliation can kill just as
well. These are the deaths that keep Europe's looted wealth safe from
the foreigners.

Ni Oubli. Ni Pardon. (Don't forget. Don't forgive.)