Free Behari Lemani, Henry Momadou, Aliane Ahmed

Demonstration Sunday 14th September 2003
3.00pm
HMP Wormwood Scrubs
Du Cane Road
London
W12 OAE
(nearest Tube, East Acton 10 minute walk to prison)

Called by Trans-European Roma Federation (TERF)

      A rally calling for the freeing of Behari Lemani, a member of the Trans-European Roma Federation (TERF), Henry Momadou, and Aliane Ahmed will take place outside Worm Wood Scrubs prison, London, on Sunday 14 September 2003.

      Though the demonstration will call for the release of the 'Yarl's Wood Three' , Behari Lemani and Henry Momadou sentenced to four years each and Aliane Ahmed to eighteen months, it will also focus on the plight of Kosovan Roma.

      Behari Lemani a Kosovo/Roma was sentenced to four years in prison for his alleged part in the so-called "riot" at Yarl's Wood Detention Centre last year. A fire destroyed a large part of the Centre and a number of inmates, including Roma, ran away.

      Starting at 3pm, TERF and members of its newly-formed Human Rights Monitoring Group will be demonstrating their solidarity with Lemani, Henry and Aliane and demanding justice for the 120,000 Roma exiles ethnically-cleansed from Kosovo and now scattered around Europe.
Lemani himself was forcibly removed to Kosovo from Britain only to find, like tens of thousands of other Kosovo Roma, that his home had been burnt. He again found his way back to Britain to seek asylum.

      No one has been called to account for the arson attacks on 10,000 Romani homes in the province. Yet Lemani is now locked up following the burning down of a detested detention centre for desperate asylum-seekers like himself

      The demonstration will call upon the British Government to help right the great wrong that has been done to Kosovo Roma.

      TERF support the Kosovo Roma refugees in their demands for compensation and protection.

      In particular, we stand with the 700 Kosovo Roma who held out for three months on the Macedonian Greek border at Medzitlija seeking - but denied - refuge within the European Union until a  safe return to re-built homes in Kosovo can be guaranteed.

      We applaud the efforts of the Roma National Congress (IRU and OSCE) and others to make this possible. At the same time we warn that the upsurge of terror activity by the illegal "National Albanian Army" which is bent on purging the last Roma from Kosovo, make their return at this time impossible.

       Nightly road blocks and visits by the paramilitaries to the homes of Roma mean that our people are now just too scared to stay any longer. Told there will be do place for them in the soon to be declared Republic of Kosovo, Roma have lost faith in the promises of UNMIK and the UNHRC.

      In recent weeks, hundreds of Roma among the remnant still holding out there have began to pack up and leave. Not a single Roma has been able to return permanently to a village anywhere in western Kosovo this summer.

We say Close all Detention Centres, all Detention Prisons

Free all Asylum-Seekers

Let Lemani, Momadou and Aliane Out!

Those of you who can, join us outside HMP Wormwood Scrubs 3pm Sunday 14th September
   
Source for this message:
    Trans-European Roma Federation - Human Rights Monitoring Group

Inquiries/further information:
ustiben.2@ntlworld.com