REFUSING TO KILL or to be killed
UPDATE DECEMBER 2012 www.refusingtokill.net
Free Manning, no extradition of Assange Whistleblowing is not a crime, but a necessity
Bradley Manning, a young gay US soldier is facing life in prison for providing documentation of US war crimes to Wikileaks, including a video of a US helicopter crew killing 12 Iraqi civilians, among them two journalists, and severely wounding two young children. He has already spent over 900 days in prison, despite massive worldwide support, including from Nobel laureates.
Julian Assange, Wikileaks founder, was granted asylum by Ecuador in September after taking refuge in its London embassy, where he remains. Sweden claims to be seeking his extradition to answer questions about alleged rapes. Never charged, Assange fears Sweden will turn him over to the US, which seeks to punish him for exposing their wrongdoings.
“These revelations have fuelled democratic uprisings around the world . . . and contributed to the Obama Administration withdrawing US troops.” Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Icelandic MP, who nominated Bradley for Nobel Peace Prize.
WOMEN AGAINST RAPE says he should be questioned in the UK: “Whether or not Assange is guilty of sexual violence, we do not believe that is why he is being pursued . . . Women's fury & frustration . . . is being used by politicians.”
A vigil has been crucial to prevent police invading the Ecuadorian Embassy in London
The US Dept of Justice investigating Wikileaks is demanding MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir’s tweets
Hundreds of actions in support of Bradley have taken place internationally. His Court martial, repeatedly postponed, is now due to start February 4, 2013
The US prisoners’ movement protests solitary confinement
Nationwide prisoner hunger strikes in Colombia & Turkey
In August, more than 11,000 prisoners in 21 jails, among them 2000 women, began hunger strikes. They demand that the government: ● Install a National Board of Consultation with inmate representation ● Detain prisoners near their families ● Reduce sentences by 20% and increase alternatives such as home detention ● End prisoners’ extradition to the US ● Resolve the health, sanitation & overcrowding crises. Water and food are severely restricted and often unfit for human consumption; torture and violent attacks are common, especially against Colombia’s 10,000 political prisoners.
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Thousands of Kurdish prisoners went on hunger strike in Turkey in September for two months. They demanded that Kurdish language be allowed in schools and courts, and freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, in solitary confinement since 1999. They stopped their hunger strike on his request before anyone dies. |
Terry Williams
on Death Row
Philadelphia – Terry ‘Butter’ Williams was to be executed on 3 October for a murder committed at age 18. Mumia Abu-Jamal said: “He had been violently and repeatedly raped by the man he killed, since age 13.
“The District Attorney withheld from the defense evidence that could’ve been used to defeat the death sentence. The sentence was reversed seven days before his planned execution.
“Butter was told by adults there was nothing he could do about it; to just ‘let it go’.
“Young people shouldn’t be told to ‘let it go’. For, try as they might, they never can.”
Ex Black Panther Russell Maroon Shoats, 30 years in solitary confinement.
His daughter Theresa campaigning for his release.
Over 80,000 prisoners are confined to tiny cells, lit 24/7, with only food tray slots as portals to the outside world, in the many Guantánamos within the US. Massive prisoner hunger strikes and protests across the US have spotlighted prison conditions, and prisoners are organizing for a national prison strike, in July 2013. On September 18, a hearing on the brutal effects of solitary confinement was held in Philadelphia, drawing a dozen legislators who listened for four hours to testimony from advocates, former prisoners and prisoners’ families. There are now six states proposing to close solitary confinement units.
