Conflict resolution

CAMPACC reports on the first of their innovative workshops series on self-determination

CAMPACC has initiated a research and outreach project which aims to critically examine the contradictions between national struggles for self-determination and the global ‘counter -terror’ regime, which has begun with a series of workshops focusing on key case studies – the Kurdish question; the Tamil struggle and the Somali struggle. Below is the report from their first workshop, which includes videos of each of the presentations.

On the 21st February 2015 CAMPACC, in association with SOAS Kurdish Society, hosted the first workshop in a series on Self-determination against the global ‘counter-terror’ regime. This was on the Kurdish liberation struggle. Continue reading “CAMPACC reports on the first of their innovative workshops series on self-determination” →

Kurdish community

CAMPACC initiates public outreach project on global self-determination struggles

There has been growing conflict between struggles for national self-determination (SD) versus the global ‘counter-terror” regime’ and its effects on diasporic communities.  ‘Anti-terror’ legislation has been used to advance the imperialist agendas of governments and a wider military-industrial-securitisation complex. Their agenda has attacked political organisations (as well as others such as lawyers, investigative journalists, publishers) that are perceived to be linked with SD struggles.

CAMPACC is initiating a research and public outreach project critically examining those issues, especially in relation to UK migrant communities.  An initial outcome will be briefing papers drawing upon discussions at workshops that we will organise.  These will involve active engagement from various diaspora community groups, researchers, lawyers and academics involved in these issues.  The first three workshops will focus on specific migrant communities (Kurds, Tamils and Somalis) with additional participation of representatives from other migrant communities.

A key aim will be to facilitate cross-community learning to develop strategies for self-determination in the current global context.

The first workshop will take place on 21st February,  focusing on learnings from the Kurdish liberation struggle.

You can find out more about the project on the CAMPACC website

Peace process, Political prisoners

New government funding initiative to tackle ‘terrorist’ abuse in the UK charity sector

But why do UK government and intelligence agencies and special forces remain publicly unaccountable for their promotion of ‘extremist-terrorist activities?’

by Desmond Fernandes

The government, with much fanfare, has just announced new funding for the Charity Commission to “tackle abuse, including extremist activity, in the charity sector”. The Charity Commission is to receive £8 million of funding over the next three years to boost it’s ability “to tackle abuse, including the use of funds for extremist and terrorist activity”, the government press release reports (‘New funding and powers to tackle abuse in the charity sector’, UK government press release). The announcement is timed to coincide with Prime Minister David Cameron’s chairing of a meeting of the Extremism Task Force “to discuss progress on delivering the government’s counter extremism strategy” […]

 

Read the article in full at Kurdish Question

Kurdish community

DANGEROUS SURVEILLANCE: Drones, Data and Deprivation of Citizenship

CAMPACC PUBLIC EVENT

 

Includes a screening of Dirty Wars, a film by Jeremy Scahill

Date: Tuesday, 5 August, 7-9.30pm

Venue: Council Chamber, Camden Town Hall, Judd St, London WC1H 9JE(near Kings Cross tube/rail station)

Revelations over mass electronic surveillance by US-UK state agencies have provoked public outrage at this threat to democratic freedoms.  State responses have further revealed its assumptions about the public as a potential source of various dangers.  Indeed, the state has a long history of targeting political dissent through human surveillance, which continues today alongside mass electronic surveillance of everyone.  In the past decade Muslim and migrant communities have been increasingly targeted to become informers. This pressure has been reinforced by blackmail threats linked to anti-terror powers which can impose various punishments without trial.  An extreme form has been deprivation of UK citizenship, sometimes followed by drone assassination.

The global expansion of drone attack has been documented by Jeremy Scahill’s book and film, Dirty Wars. This public event will first screen the film, followed by speakers linking various forms of surveillance and their political roles.  The discussion will consider how to oppose the state’s dangerous surveillance.

For background on Somalia, see ‘Somali communities targeted by UK “counter-terror” measures: the need for solidarity’ (pdf)

  Continue reading “DANGEROUS SURVEILLANCE: Drones, Data and Deprivation of Citizenship” →

Conflict resolution, Peace process, War crimes

State crime in Turkey: the Roboski Massacre

by Penny Green and Saniye Karakas, for Open Democracy
12 May 2014

At 21.39 on December 28, 2011, disaster struck and in an instant the village lost its youth when they became victim to the Turkish government’s ‘war on terror’.

‘Başınız sağolsun’ we say to everyone we meet in the Kurdish village of Roboski/Uludere. We are offering our condolences to the families of victims of one of Turkey’s most appalling recent crimes – the Roboski Massacre. One after one we offer our sympathy – no-one here is exempt from grief.

Massacre in the mountains

Visiting Roboski, a small isolated mountain village on the Turkish Iraqi border, is a sobering experience. For over two years Roboski has been a village in mourning. At 21.39 on December 28, 2011, disaster struck and in an instant the village lost its youth when they became victim to the Turkish government’s ‘war on terror’. Thirty-four of a party of 38 – most of them children – were slaughtered in an aerial bombardment by a Turkish F-16 fighter jet. Those killed were engaging in traditional cross border trade.  Roboski is a poor village where there is little or no work. Cross border trade provides a small and welcome income for the older men and pocket money for the purchase of notebooks, stationary and pens for the teenagers.

Read the article in full.

Kurdish community, Political prisoners

Margaret Owen on hunger strike, in support for Shaker Aamer

Margaret Owen is among the protesters entering a solidarity hunger strike for British Guantanamo Bay prisoner Shaker Aamer. The campaign aims to put pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to secure Mr Aamer’s release from the illegal US prison camp. Mr Aamer, whose family lives in Battersea, has been held in Guantanamo Prison without charge since 2002 when Afghan soldiers in Jalalabad abducted and delivered him to the US Bagram airbase.

Mr Aamer’s lawyers maintain that he was working in Afghanistan for a Saudi charity and say his jailers extracted false confessions under torture. He has long been cleared for release by the US.

The hunger strike is part of Reprieve’s Stand Fast for Justice campaign, which began with a weeklong hunger strike by Reprieve founder and director Clive Stafford Smith, who is also Mr Aamer’s lawyer. He was later joined by Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle, and actress Julie Christie.

Continue reading “Margaret Owen on hunger strike, in support for Shaker Aamer” →