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Freedom for Sandra Bakutz

Austrian human rights activist Sandra Bakutz was arrested at
Istanbul’s Ataturk airport on February 9th whilst entering the
country to observe a trial. As soon as the plane landed police
entered the plane and removed her from the aircraft taking her
straight into police custody.

As a result of an imprisonment order issued by Ankara’s No.2 State
Security Court (also known as the Serious Crimes Court) in September
2001, she was transported to Pasakapisi Prison. Although it is still
not clear what specific crime she is being charged with, she has been
imprisoned accused of “membership of the illegal DHKP-C
organisation”. Already the authorities have said that her alleged
involvement in a protest in Brussels several years ago in opposition
to the visit of the then Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem is
evidence against her.

Sandra has made regular trips to Turkey over the years to observe the
human rights abuses carried out by the state. On a previous visit to
Turkey in 1998 Sandra was detained and threatened by plainclothes
police in Ankara when she went with a delegation to protest against
disappearances.

Sandra went to Turkey on this occasion as part of a European wide
delegation to observe the trial of 64 people that were arrested in an
operation in April last year. The defendants include lawyers,
journalists, musicians, students and workers all of whom were working
for legal institutions at the time of their arrests: all of them
were tortured whilst in custody and are now being held in F-type
isolation prisons. The sole evidence against them consists of floppy
disks that the police claim contains a membership list of the banned
DHKP-C. The police say that they found these disks whilst carrying
searches of houses on April 1st.

One of the documents containing names that the police claim to have
found on one of the discs is dated February 20th, but the man
recorded as its author was arrested by police on February 19th and
detained until the 24th. Under Turkish law, police are obligated to
seal confiscated documents such as these discs and send them to the
courts immediately. However, between the time of their confiscation
on April 1st, and the date they were sent to the court, May 3rd, the
discs were not sealed, so providing ample time and opportunity for
the documents to be interfered with. The files used for the trial
consist only of printouts from the discs, so neither the judges nor
the lawyers have had the opportunity to see the actual discs
themselves.

In an added twist last December a man was arrested at Ataturk airport
in Istanbul whilst trying to fly to Berlin to participate in a
conference about prison isolation. He was detained at the airport as
the police claimed his name was on the never ending list even though
he had not been mentioned before in any of the court hearings.
Sandra Bakutz was a participant in that very same conference that
also included former Irish prisoners, representatives of Basque
prisoners, family members of prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay,
Palestinians and other activists from across Europe. Sandra also
came to England last year to make a contribution to the European
Social Forum in London where she spoke against prison isolation and
European anti-terror laws.

Sandra has now found herself on trial in the very same courthouse
that she was intending to observe a trial. Let this silence those
that claim Turkey has improved its human rights record. 118 people
have died in the prisons in the last five years in the struggle
against isolation cells, whilst the EU chose to be complicit in this
abuse Sandra didn’t.

Let us not permit Sandra Bakutz to be imprisoned and condemned in
Turkey. Her struggle against human rights violations is a legitimate
struggle. Let us not allow this struggle to be criminalised by her
arrest by the Turkish authorities. We call on all people and
organisations which support human rights to make her cause their own
and work for her release.
Please write a protest and send it to the following addresses:

Austrian General Consulate
Telefax: (+90/212) 262 26 22
E-Mail: istanbul-gk@bmaa.gv.at

President of Turkey:
Mr. Ahmet Necdet Sezer,
Cumhurbaskanligi
06100 Ankara,
Turkey
Fax: +90 312 468 5026

Prime Minister:
Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan
TC Basbakanlik Bakanligi
Ankara, Turkey
Fax: + 90 312 417 0476
receptayyip.erdogan@basbakanlik.gov.tr

Interior Minister:
Mr Abdulkadir Aksu
Ministry of Interior
Içisleri Bakanligi
06644 Ankara, Turkey
Telegram: Interior Minister, Ankara, Turkey
Fax: + 90 312 418 17 95
aaksu@icisleri.gov.tr

Justice Minister :
Mr Cemil Cicek
Ministry of Justice
Adalet Bakanligi
06659 Ankara, Turkey
Telegram: Justice Minister, Ankara, Turkey
Fax: + 90 312 418 5667
ccicek@adalet.gov.tr

Foreign Minister:
Mr Abdullah Gül
Office of the Prime Minister,
Basbakanlik,
06573 Ankara, Turkey
Fax: + 90 312 417 04 76
agul@mfa.gov.tr

Police Chief:
Mr Gokhan Aydiner
Emniyet Genel Müdürlügü
Dikmen Caddesi No : 89
Dikmen / ANKARA
bphism@egm.gov.tr
Fax: + 90 312 231 96 05

Police chief of Istanbul
Mr. Celalettin Cerrah
Fax : 00 90 212 636 18 32

Please send any copies of your protests to the following addresses:
isolation@post.com, info@tayad.de
The International Platform Against Isolation will translate messages
Into Turkish and pass them on to those to those responsible for the
arrest.

We will keep you informed about the latest situation of Sandra Bakutz
and of any planned activities in due course.

FREEDOM FOR SANDRA BAKUTZ!

Daily Ireland

**In my opinion, to force you to give a DNA sample merely because the PISSNI decide to haul you in is outrageous. What they are doing is collecting a database on everyone to use against them now and in the future.

And they call this a new start to policing

The mother of a Belfast teenager arrested for daubing graffiti on a condemned barracks says he was treated, “Like a master criminal rather than a schoolboy”.

The PSNI deployed four unmarked cars and three Land Rovers to arrest 17-year-old Pádraig Ó Mearáin after he painted a slogan in Irish on the wall of Andersonstown barracks.

After being pursued and arrested close to the scene, the teenager was taken to Grosvenor Road barracks, where he says he was stripped, placed in a boiler suit and swabbed for DNA.

Pádraig Ó Mearáin painted the old Gaelic battle cry, ‘Fágaigí an Bealach ag Slóite na bhFiann’ (literally ‘Clear the Way for the Warrior Legions’) on the wall of the barracks, which has just been closed by the PSNI.
“I was placed in a boiler suit, and given a pair of flip-flops because the PSNI said that my clothes would be needed for forensic evidence,” Mr Ó Mearáin says.

“They then took my fingerprints and my DNA.”

Pádraig’s mother, Úna Ní Mhearáin, told Daily Ireland, “It was a very distressing experience to see my 16-year-old son in a boiler suit and to have to advise him to submit to DNA sampling which goes against all my parental judgement. “I was told that if I didn’t give consent, they would hold him down and force him to give a sample. That is not consent in any way that I know it.

“I am just hoping now that good counsel prevails and that this thing doesn’t go any further.”
In a statement last night, the PSNI confirmed that the incident had taken place and that Mr Ó Mearáin’s DNA was taken after his arrest on Friday 21 January, on suspicion of causing criminal damage.
He has been released from custody pending reports.

“He was treated like a master criminal rather than a schoolboy because he was painting slogans on a PSNI barracks wall,” his mother added .

Daily Ireland

Dread at return of regiment

A British army regiment that has been accused of carrying out war crimes during the latest Iraq conflict is returning to the North of Ireland.
The Black Watch regiment was based in various locations throughout the North during the height of the Troubles and will be returning before the end of this year for a new tour of duty, to last either two years or six months.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman yesterday said, “Black Watch will be back in Northern Ireland before the end of the year. I can confirm the regiment will be operative but we are not yet sure which barracks its soldiers will be based at or how long the tour will last.”
News of the regiment’s return got a frosty reception in nationalist areas throughout the North. During numerous tours here in the past, particularly in Belfast and Armagh city, the regiment built up a reputation for unlawfulness and brutality.
In July 1970, its soldiers imposed an illegal curfew in the Falls Road area of west Belfast, warning all civilians to stay indoors or risk being arrested or shot. The British army shot dead four Catholics in the trouble that followed.
Lower Falls Sinn Féin councillor Tom Hartley said the mere mention of the words Black Watch to nationalists conjures up images of sectarianism.
He said, “The Black Watch were hated by nationalists, almost on the same level as the paratroopers. They were a vicious regiment renowned for being brutal and in-your-face. I can remember them as being very anti-Irish. Given the accusations being made about the regiment in Iraq, it seems its soldiers haven’t changed a bit. Nationalists will not be buoyed at all by the news that they are coming back.”
Armagh city SDLP councillor Pat Brannigan said he was “very sad” at the news the regiment was returning to the North.
“I hope the soldiers are not stationed in Armagh. Black Watch is a name that is synonymous with forcefulness,” said Mr Brannigan.
The Black Watch is currently based in barracks in Warminster, Wiltshire. The regiment’s return to the North will be on a residential two-year stay or a roulement tour for six months.
In June 2003, Black Watch soldiers were questioned by war-crimes investigators over the deaths of two Iraqis the soliders had captured. Men from the regiment faced allegations that the two civilians died after having been mistreated.
According to reports at the time, the Iraqis died at a detention centre in the southern city of Basra after being “roughed up”. An internal investigation later cleared the men.
The Black Watch was last stationed in the North in 1996. The regiment was based in barracks at Ballykinler near Newcastle in Co Down for six months. Prior to that, it conducted a two-year tour of the North between 1989 and 1991.
The most likely base for the Black Watch when the regiment does return is Palace Barracks in Lisburn, Co Antrim, although Holywood Barracks has also been mentioned.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said it was likely the troops would be used in riot situations.

Daily Ireland

Loyalist leaders hit out at right-wing website

Loyalist leaders have slammed an extreme right-wing race-hate website that targets anti-racist campaigners in the North of Ireland.
The website, which has strong links with Combat 18 and the White Nationalist Party, recently posted pictures of several prominent loyalist representatives, including senior South Belfast UDA man Jackie McDonald, who took part in an anti-racism demonstration in Belfast last year.
The website includes pictures of trade unionists, anti-racism activists and members of the clergy, and asks visitors to the site to identify those featured.
In recent weeks, a picture featuring Chairman of the Loyalist Commission, Reverend Mervyn Gibson, South Belfast assembly member Michael McGimpsey, Shankill-based UPRG man and Belfast City Councillor Frank McCoubrey, Newtownards councillor and UPRG man Tommy Kirkham, and South Belfast UDA leader Jackie McDonald standing beside a Workers’ Party banner was posted on the site.
The English-based website lists the pictures and personal details of dozens of anti-racism activists across Ireland and Britain. The site is linked to several “white power” groups with sympathies to loyalists in the North.
Traditional areas of support for such groups include North Antrim and Derry, Portadown and parts of Belfast including the Village where ethnic groups were targeted in a systematic campaign of intimidation and violence last year.
In a major slight to the loyalist representatives who attended the anti-racism demonstration, a message on the hate-filled website reads: “Notice there are no union flags on this parade. Plenty of red ones though. How can so-called loyalists mix with these fenian scumbags and still call themselves British? They are a disgrace to this country and should hang their heads in shame”.
Shankill UPRG man Frank McCoubrey reacted angrily to the contents of the website last night.
“We attended City Hall to express our outrage at what had happened in terms of racist attacks,” said Mr McCoubrey. “This has been put on by some half-wit sitting in a house in England somewhere. It shows how far in the past these people are. We want an environment where not just Catholics and Protestants can move on but people from ethnic groups can as well. This sort of thing only makes it difficult for people trying to move forward.
“Where were these people during the Troubles when there was 30 years of war going on? Not many of them came to the Shankill Road to help defend it. I am someone who has lived in West Belfast and I don’t take these people under my notice. They are no threat to me and should be treated with contempt. If they want to open a debate about this issue they can come and do so.”
The placing of the picture on the right-wing website comes just weeks before loyalists prepare to launch a new initiative to combat the influence of right-wing race hate groups in their ranks.
Chairman of the powerful Loyalist Commission Rev Mervyn Gibson said he had no concerns about his image being placed on the website.
“It doesn’t particularly worry me,” he said. “I am happy to stand by anybody who is anti-racist. I have no time for racism in Northern Ireland. There is racism within republicanism, loyalism and the churches. We are happy to address the issue and hope that others do the same.”

Daily Ireland

NO HIDING PLACE

Click for larger view

The Sinn Féin leadership last night threw its weight behind a campaign by the family of Robert McCartney to catch his killers.

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams urged anyone with information about the Belfast man’s death to pass it to Mr McCartney’s family or any “reputable body”.
The Sinn Féin President spoke out after persistent claims that republicans were involved in the murder of Mr McCartney.
The 33-year-old was stabbed to death after being attacked by a gang outside Magennis’s Whiskey Cafe pub in South Belfast two weeks ago.
Another man who was with the stab victim, Brendan Devine, was hospitalised after being seriously injured in the brutal knife attack.
Seven men from the Markets and Short Strand districts in Belfast were questioned by police about the incident but later released without charge.
Republicans have denied that the killer or killers were acting “as republicans” or “on behalf of republicans”. However there has been no Sinn Féin repudiation of the claims by the McCartney family that Robert was involved in a brawl which involved known republicans.
Members of Mr McCartney’s family claim that after the murder a group of men carried out a forensic clean-up at the murder scene, removed CCTV footage and warned witnesses not to co-operate with the PSNI investigation.
Mr Adams’s comments came just hours after leading party figure Gerry Kelly met with the family of the murdered man.
Mr Adams said his party was backing the McCartney family in their “quest for truth and justice”.
“There are allegations that Robert McCartney was killed by republicans. I want to make it absolutely clear that no one involved acted as a republican or on behalf of republicans,” Mr Adams said. “I repudiate this brutal killing in the strongest terms possible. No one has any right, as has been claimed, to prevent anyone from helping the McCartney family. People with reservations about assisting the PSNI should give any information they might have either to the family, a solicitor or any other authoritative or reputable person or body.”
Sinn Féin moved to back the family after allegations that a number of republicans were among the crowd that attacked Mr McCartney and that these individuals warned witnesses not to co-operate with any PSNI investigation.
The dead man’s sister Paula said getting people to come forward with information about her brother’s death was proving difficult.
“It’s a taboo subject, no one is allowed to speak about it,” she said. “It’s in the interests of the IRA to get rid of the murderers because they seem to be trying to destroy the organisation. Witnesses have told us the gang attacked Robert and Brendan with sewer rods and sticks. Obviously knives were produced and we have also been told there was a gun.”
Mr McCartney’s fiancée and mother of his two children, Bridgeen Hagans (27), says she’s shocked that so little information is forthcoming.
“It’s unbelievable,” she said. “I thought once someone kills someone the police got them and that was it, especially when they know who they are.”

Sinn Féin

Alliance Party blasted over St. Pats funding decision

Published: 15 February, 2005

Belfast Sinn Féin Council Group Leader Tom Hartley has blasted the Alliance party after they once again refused to back plans for a St. Patrick’s Day carnival in the city.

Cllr. Hartley said:

“Once again last night the Alliance party in Belfast City Hall firmly nailed their colours to the unionist mast. In the recent past they have refused to support power sharing on the council and now have failed to support the St. Patrick’s Day Carnival in the city.

” I have to say that many people will be shocked at the hypocrisy of the Mayor Tom Eakin. On one hand he votes to prevent St. Patrick’s Day funding for Belfast and on the other will travel to London to take part in St Patrick’s Day celebrations there.

” In the eyes on the nationalist and republican community in this city the Alliance party are operating as little more than unionists in everything but name.” ENDS

Sinn Féin

New registration campaign launched

Published: 15 February, 2005

Sinn Féin National Director of Elections Pat Doherty said that the latest campaign launched today by the Electoral Commission to encourage people to register needed to be focused and directed on those groups and areas currently disenfranchised.

Mr Doherty said:

“For a number of years certain political parties and indeed the electoral authorities in the six counties had been in denial about the extent of the electoral registration scandal which had seen well over 200,000 people disenfranchised. The root cause of this is the disastrous Electoral Fraud Act introduced by the British government at the behest of the SDLP and the unionists.

“Sinn Féin during the last round of political negotiations with the British government did make some progress on getting the legislation amended but much more needs to be done. This current campaign if focused at those social groupings most affected by the drop in the register can play a vital role. However this crisis will ultimately only be addressed properly by the legislation which caused the problem being removed.” ENDS

BBC

Republicans protest over report

Republicans have staged protests at government offices in Belfast and Derry.

Groups of people demonstrated at Windsor House and Bedford House in Belfast city centre and Orchard House and the Inland Revenue office on Duncreggan Road in Derry.

They were protesting at what they said were the Independent Monitoring Commission’s attempts “to criminalise republicans”.

Sinn Fein’s Michael Ferguson said the party’s campaign “to prevent the British government further discriminating” against its electorate in the wake of the IMC report would intensify over the coming weeks.

Belfast Telegraph

Violence erupts as police foil attempted armed raid

By Jonathan McCambridge
15 February 2005

Violent scenes erupted in a Belfast housing estate today after a major police operation foiled an attempted armed robbery.

A group of angry residents attacked police vehicles with missiles after two men were arrested and a gun recovered in the Boundary Way area of the Shankill Road shortly before midday.

At one point up to ten police landrovers, sniffer dogs and specialist CCTV equipment were involved in the operation in the estate - a former stronghold of deposed UDA boss Johnny Adair.

There were unconfirmed reports that a juvenile was among those held by police.

It is understood the operation began following an attempt to hold up a Securicor van making a cash delivery to the Iceland store on the Shankill Road.

One local witness said police swooped on the scene after receiving a report of two youths acting suspiciously close to the shop.

There were also reports that police gave chase, following the men into the Shankill estate.

A PSNI spokesman said: “Police have arrested two men and recovered a firearm as a result of a thwarted armed robbery of a cash delivery being made at a store on the Shankill Road at 11.17am.”

As police moved into the estate at 11.30am and sealed off the area a large group of residents gathered and shouted abuse.

Angry residents claimed the police had apprehended a 13-year-old boy.

A large number of uniformed officers then entered a house at the corner of Boundary Way to begin searches.

Locals shouted at them: “It is our street, we live here” as officers secured the area.

Residents also voiced anger about the size of the police operation in the small cul-de-sac. However, officers at the scene refused to make any comment.

Shortly after midday some of the police landrovers began to leave the area. However, they were chased by an angry mob who hurled bottles, debris and furniture at the reinforced vehicles.

One local woman, who would not give her name, said: “They have come into our estate and arrested an innocent boy, he is in the back of a Land Rover and they will not let him out.

“They have sealed off this whole area and we cannot get into our houses. There are women out here with children who are not being allowed into their homes.

“People are angry here because of the number of police who have come here - they say it is something to do with an armed robbery but we know nothing about that.”

The angry crowd began to disperse shortly before 1pm after most of the police had left the area.

UUP councillor for the area Chris McGimpsey said: “The full story will come out in the fullness of time, but if an armed robbery has been foiled then police are to be commended.”

Belfast Telegraph

Plea to Blair over finucane inquiry

By Chris Thornton
15 February 2005

American Congressmen have written to Prime Minister Tony Blair, asking him to drop new legislation that allows his Government to keep secrets from an inquiry into Pat Finucane’s murder.

The letter from 24 members of the US Congress, sent yesterday, calls on Mr Blair to immediately proceed with the independent investigation into collusion in the 1989 murder.

Mr Blair has promised an inquiry, but only after the bill is passed. Ministers will have greater powers to to keep secrets from the inquiry under the new law.

The Finucane family has refused to support the inquiry because of the new restrictions.

The Congressmen said the Government’s commitment to the Finucane inquiry “appears to be tenuous at best”.

“We note that your government recently announced inquiries into a number of other controversial cases - without waiting for the Inquiries Bill,” the letter says.

“Attempting to put the Finucane case under restraints of a new bill has already threatened the public perception and credibility of the investigation’s final conclusions.”

Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, concluded in 2003 that there had been collusion between the loyalist killers and members of the security forces.

Retired Canadian Supreme Court Justice Peter Cory followed up with a report recommending a public inquiry into the case.

“In light of all the testimony presented to the US Congress, as well as the findings published by Judge Cory, we believe that the prompt holding of an independent public inquiry into the murder of Patrick Finucane is a necessary confidence-building measure for the peoples of Northern Ireland,” the US representatives said.

“On behalf of the Finucane family and several international human rights activists, we urge you to push forward under current law, without the controversial changes embodied in the Inquiries Bill pending in the Parliament.

“While we recognise that the peace process has reached its most challenging hurdle to date, we believe that the compelling history of the Finucane case and the concerns and recommendations set out by Judge Peter Cory move this human rights case far beyond ongoing party talks.”

BBC

Real IRA leader challenges fund

Michael McKevitt was jailed for 20 years

Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt is to challenge the government’s decision to give the Omagh bomb relatives almost £750,000.

McKevitt and four others are being sued for £14m by the Omagh Victims’ Civil Action Group.

Papers lodged in the High Court in Belfast claim legislation allowing the payment was created for an improper purpose and was therefore void.

The Real IRA carried out the 1998 atrocity in which 29 people died.

The Lord Chancellor authorised the payment last year when he directed the newly-formed NI Legal Services Commission to assist the Omagh claimants with £742,702.

The money is being used to help fund their multi-million pound compensation claim.

McKevitt - who is serving 20 years in Portlaoise Prison - is seeking a judicial review of the legislation under which the payment was made.

His lawyers are to seek an order quashing the Lord Chancellor’s decision.

‘Standard of proof’

McKevitt, 54, from Blackrock in County Louth, Seamus Daly, Seamus McKenna, Liam Campbell and Colm Murphy - have been refused legal laid to defend the case which led to their lawyers deciding to pull out.

The papers lodged in the High Court state: “It is submitted that the proceedings, far from being compensatory, are intended to be accusatory.

“Though civil in character, the essence is an attempt to establish liability before a court of law for the most serious criminal offences.

“The proceedings are, effectively, a prosecution of the defendants using a civil standard of proof. As a consequence of not having legal aid, the applicant (McKevitt) now has no legal representation and cannot attend the hearing to defend himself.

“The proceedings will proceed without any input from him in circumstances where it is clearly the intention of the plaintiffs to hold the applicant criminally liable in the eyes of the public for the Omagh bombing.”

Before a judicial review can be held, a judge has to grant leave and this preliminary hearing is expected to take place shortly.

In August 2003, McKevitt was jailed for 20 years in the Republic of Ireland after being found guilty of directing terrorism and membership of an illegal organisation.