Save Bita Ghaedi From Deportation

Update: European Court of Human Rights has overturned UK govt on case of Bita Ghaedi! Deportation May 5th has been cancelled.

NB. This is not an endorsement of the PMOI/MEK/MKO who I find reprehensible, but there is no doubt Bita Ghaedi if returned to Iran would be at severe risk of human rights abuse (which makes this attempted deportation against the stated policy of the government, try and act surprised).

URGENT: THE UK HAS RESCHEDULED BITA’S DEPORTATION FOR MAY 5.

ACTIONS:

1) Make Bita’s case VISIBLE: the media refuses to cover these illegal deportations to Iran. Ensure that the world knows what the British government is doing. Bita is but one case: there are many lined up behind her in the UK alone, including Nadia Arzane & Bashir Foris, and Kiana Firouz. What happens to Bita paves the road for the others. Post about Bita in every blog, in every comment section that you can. Raise the visibility.

2) SEND EMAIL. Send a clear, strong message to the responsible parties. Sample text and addresses are below:

To whom it may concern, regarding Bita Ghaedi, HO Ref G1149090/5:

As a citizen of xx, I am disgusted by how Britain is handling Bita Ghaedi’s asylum case. I am appalled that despite global outcry, the UK Border Agency has chosen to cold-bloodedly pursue the deportation of Bita Ghaedi now set for May 5.

Ghaedi sought refuge in the UK with viable grounds for establishing refugee status. In Iran, Ghaedi’s life was circumscribed, bound, tortured, and scarred by pervasive gender-based violence. Her refusal to submit to gender-based oppression in Iran ensures that she will be under threat of the barbaric practice of stoning if she is returned to Iran. Furthermore, her political activities with PMOI/MEK/MKO mark her as an opponent of the present regime; thus it is also on political grounds that she will face certain execution upon return to Iran.

Your office received over 2700 petition signatures to stop this atrocious human rights violation, and you have been the target of protests in the UK and the US. The UK is very well aware of the current human rights crisis in Iran, marked by a rapid rate of executions occurring over the past few weeks. Your response has been to deport Ghaedi in clear violation of the law. This is criminal.

I demand that this illegal act by the UK, which violates international principles of non-refoulement, be halted and Bita Ghaedi be granted asylum and refugee status.

Understand that England will be held publicly accountable for the fate of Bita Ghaedi.

Sincerely,

Mail to:

UKBApublicenquiries -at- UKBA.gsi.gov.uk
CITTO -at- homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
Privateoffice.external -at- homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

UK Prioritises Killing Over Aid To Haiti

From SU–

Michael Burke:- The donors conference in New York has now seen pledges of $5.3bn in aid to Haiti.

Unfortunately, there is a long history of broken promises arising from international donor conferences. Maybe that is why Britain promised absolutely nothing at all.

The Times justifies the decision here, arguing that money is going to Afghanistan and Pakistan

In fact the NGOs estimate that around $7bn in aid is requirid immediately, simply to return the country’s housing and infrastructure to pre-earthquake level, let alone provide any real development assistance.

In attempting to justify the decision to provide no new funds at the conference, Mike Foster, the Overseas Development Minister, said that Britain had pledged £20 million for initial emergency relief and had donated £33 million going through the European Commission, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. Mr Foster also said that Britain’s £29 million funding this year for the UN mission in Haiti although Britain is obliged to pay for these ‘peacekeeping operations’, which existed long before the earthquake. The displeasure of the donors was marked by a refusal to grant British officials speaking rights at the press conference that followed.

Reports indicate that the British Treasury has blocked any payments, even though the international development budget is said to be one of those ‘ring-fenced’ from cuts. Ring-fenced it may be, but it appears that in boosting payments to both Pakistan and Afghanistan it is increasingly a tool of foreign policy aggression. This combination of reduced aid to the needy and increased militarisation of the Aid budget is clearly a co-ordinated foreign policy decision, presumably taken by the press’s favourite Labour Leader, David Milliband.

Stop Our War Criminals Changing The Law To Protect Themselves & Israeli War Criminals

Via SU–

Please act now! Contact your MP!

Following the news that Tipi Livni, who served as Foreign Minister in the Israeli government that planned and executed Israel’s brutal bombing and massacre in Gaza, faced arrest if she entered Britain, tell the government there must be no impunity for Israeli war criminals.

Please act URGENTLY – if possible e-mail your MP today, and come to the vigil on 27 December to show the government that we will not let them forget Gaza.

Ask your MP (find them here) to do the following:

1. Sign Early Day Motion 502 tabled by Jeremy Corbyn MP defending the right to bring war criminals to justice: http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=40074&SESSION=903

2. Urgently contact the Foreign Office raising the following points:

The government has a duty under the Fourth Geneva Convention to ‘seek out and prosecute’ alleged war criminals. Under the Geneva Conventions Act 1957, the UK has universal jurisdiction to arrest and try suspected perpetrators of “grave breaches” of the Fourth Geneva Convention 1949 (IVCG). War criminals should be pursued – Britain must not become a ‘safe haven’.

The judicial system is meant to be independent and the government’s role is not to intervene. If a judge believes there is sufficient evidence for an arrest warrant to be granted, it is irrelevant whether this embarrasses or causes problems for the British government.

The Goldstone Report detailed war crimes and potential crimes against humanity committed by Israel in Gaza. It was shameful that the government abstained on the vote for the Report at the UN Human Rights Council and General Assembly.

Instead of responding to pressure from the Israeli government to end the right to charge and prosecute war criminals, the government should immediately change its position – it should support international law and justice, and act itself to uphold the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Britain cannot be a true and independent ‘partner’ for peace if its policies are one-sided, and it allows those responsible for war crimes against Palestinians to avoid justice.

Tzipi Livni is just the latest in a list of Israelis who have come under scrutiny over allegations of war crimes. Our government should reflect on this, and change its foreign policy, including ending its arms trade with Israel.

Note today-

Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a government decision that bars Gaza Strip residents visiting relatives in Israeli jails, saying this is not a “basic humanitarian need.”

It is a violation of the Geneva conventions to imprison residents of an occupied territory outside of said territory.

Email David Miliband… Now!

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Says-

There is a real danger that the best chance for accountability and justice for civilians in Gaza and Israel could be lost in the next few days – we need as many people as possible to email David Miliband right now to prevent this from happening.

An independent UN fact-finding mission into the Gaza conflict has just published its findings. This major report outlines powerful evidence of war crimes and other violations of international law on both sides, consistent with the results of Amnesty’s own investigations. And the UK Government is reviewing it right now.

The UN Human Rights Council will debate the report next Tuesday (29 September), when a vote will be taken on how its recommendations should be acted upon.

Alarmingly, we understand that the UK Government (a member of the council) is not planning to support key recommendations, which Amnesty believe offer the best chance of ensuring justice and accountability, as a well as a deterrent to future conflicts. Instead, they appear to be taking a lead from the US Government in dismissing the findings.

War criminals are literally getting away with murder. Act now

There can be no long-term peace and security in the Middle East without an end to impunity – please email David Miliband today and urge him to support the Goldstone Report.

Sincerely,

Kristyan Benedict

Campaign Manager
Crisis Response & Country Priorities

Claustrophobia

Reza Saberi & Context

I wonder how Britons would feel if another country had engineered a coup in Britain that led to a repressive regime? That had a secret police force that killed & tortured hundreds of people, and that country was now part of a group of belligerent nations that imposed sanctions and denied it sovereign control of its resources. That in fact backed terrorist attacks in Britain. And then to cap it all expected Britain to bow down to its demands and ultimately install a government friendly to this outside influence. Because simply starting from zero with criticising Iran is not remotely accurate, context is needed otherwise the stench of a bad imperialist hangover is strong. So Iran has had a different history to us (duh) and we have played a large role in destroying democracy in a nation that unlike us and our allies has not attacked or invaded another nation for 300 years.

And so we get to the case of Reza Saberi which clearly shows up the problem of the authoritarian establishment in Iran (gleefully reported by Voice of America). She is likely to become a bargaining chip and in the West where our political prisoners are almost never talked about the ease of painting Iran as repressive while we are freedom incarnate is remarkably easy for our press and government. For that reason such dynamics never help a nation in the public mind of westerners drip-fed corporate media. Everyone else is evil and has political prisoners, not us, and to suggest so is an unpatriotic socialist trouble making treason! Except…We have a special forces soldier gagged from telling the truth about our role in torture, we have civil servants who were jailed for letting us know the lies of govt to facilitate the war crime of Iraq, we lock up hundreds of people without trial simply for being foreign, our security forces kill people in broad daylight and those responsible are praised by their superiors (who get promoted) for doing a great job.

So nobody’s perfect.

Saberi remaining in Iran is also because she was in a relationship with award-winning film director Bahman Ghobadi. I’m sure many Britons while travelling have exceeded the terms of their visa and again in the UK we have jailed people for similar non-crimes. Which is to say people who jump to decry another nation for having poor human rights need to also be engaged in the fight for human rights in their own country. Human rights as a tool a patriotism, imperialism or national pride are a con game for morons. It begins at home, then you are able to also talk about similar injustices elsewhere, for most of the media and the dupes who consume it that is not the case and Saberi will be nothing more than a propaganda stick to beat the enemy du jour with. However to those with real concern who fight for human rights wherever they may be being abused, in Yarl’s Wood or Evin, her plight is a genuine concern. As she is on hunger strike she should be moved to a hospital and an appeal quickly granted, I’m sure there is no shortage of defence lawyers who can demolish the state’s case as it seems to have been built on an arrest for lapsed press credentials that was talked into a bigger case by tricking Saberi with promises of a quick release. Again not so different to how our police operate.