Lifting VOICES
Friday was the last day of the conference and as much as I appreciated participating, I was thrilled to be a few steps closer to returning home! I started the day late again, but made it in time to run into some friends outside the UN and learn that, thanks to the great folks at the Urban Justice Center and the US Human Rights Network, namely Ejim Dike and Ramona Ortega, WOCU’s name and language made it into the official proceedings of the Durban Review. In response to an offer to contribute from Ramona we shared the following comment: Black women and Latinas in the US, while representing only 24% of the population, represent 81% of people living with HIV&AIDS and rates are also elevated in Native American and Asian and Pacific Islander communities. Women of color and lesbian, bisexual and transgender women suffer significantly higher rates of violence and mortality as a result of violence in the US and worldwide. Recognizing that racism and racial disparities in our health, economic and social wellbeing are compounded by gender based discrimination against women and against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, it is critical that we look at the multiple dimensions and intersections to achieve justice for women of color and LGBT persons of color. Thanks, Sisters Ramona and Ejim, for making sure our voices were heard!
Speaking of voices I arrived in the UN building to hear two sisters share their testimonies during the special session entitled “VOICES: Everyone affected by racism has a story that should be heard.” I had the blessing of hearing the stories of Doreen Lawrence of the UK and Nusreta Sivac of Bosnia.
Doreen Lawrence started out by saying “Before the death of my son, I was wearing rose tinted glasses, but since then my eyes are open to the suffering of our black people in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world. Divide and rule is what the politicians are trying to do with people in black communities.”
On April 22nd, 1993, when Doreen returned home from a field trip connected to her studies, she learned that Stephen and his friend had been attacked at a bus stop. From the beginning Doreen saw signs of race based discrimination in how Stephen’s murder was handled, “The racism that we as a family suffered initially took the form of Stephen’s murder not warranting the same urgent investigation in tracking down the killers that would have happened as a matter of course should Stephen have been white. For the first two weeks they police focused their time on investigating us as a family, looking into our background as they believed that we must have been involved in criminal activities and therefore Stephen’s death was related to this, including looking into whether Stephen must have been part of a gang. Even though info was passed onto the police by witnesses, no arrest was made. Only after a high profile meeting with Nelson Mandela three men were arrested.” The family went as far as to hire a solicitor (lawyer) to act on their behalf in pursuing justice and making sure the investigation stayed on track because even after the arrests the process was slow and not all bases were covered.” In September of 1995, the covert operation revealed videotaped recordings of the suspects making racists comments about what they would do to black and Asian people, including visuals showing them making stabbing movements with knives.”
However, during the subsequent trial, this information was not allowed to be shown to the jury and the hearing resulted in a not-guilty verdict and “the case collapsed.”
In February 1997 (nearly four years after the crime occurred) the inquest into Stephen’s murder took place and the five suspects were asked about Stephen’s murder. The suspects refused to answer the questions but the jury eventually came back with a verdict of “unlawful killing”.
An inquiry was ordered by Jack Straw, after he met with Doreen’s legal team. This inquiry, which occurred in March of 1998 and lasted 69 days with 88 witnesses and 1200 pages of transcripts, resulted in a declaration that the police handling of this case was characterized by “institutional racism” and condemned the police officers involved for committing “fundamental errors” in their investigation.
Since the “Stephen Lawrence Inquiry” there have been many changes in the law. The Race Relation Amendment Ac of 2000 ushered out the Double Jeopardy law which had been in place for 800 years. Schools now have to record all racist incidents and police have to record all stops and searches they carry out. Police training has changed, including the way they investigate racial murders and how the courts sentence “racially aggravated crimes.”
February of this year marked the tenth anniversary of the publication of the “Stephen Lawrence Inquiry.” Some ministers are saying that institutional racism in the police forces have ended. Doreen argues that this is not the case” The statistics say that black people are still seven times more likely to be stopped and searched in the UIK. During the time when Stephen was killed, it was six times. I, like those from the black community, still see the police as institutional racists and the evidence available supports this.”
Nusreta Sivac was from Prijedor, a city in the northwest part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She shared her experience in a concentration camp in Omarska. In 1992 the Bosnian Serbs forcibly took power in Prejedor where the majority of the population was Muslim (Bosniak) then Orthodox Christian (Serbs), Catholics (Croats) and other groups. Areas populated by Muslims and Catholics were bombed, plundered, and otherwise destroyed. “’Ciscenje’ or ‘Cleaning’ was the terminology Serbs used for ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Croats. All the Muslim and Croats were taken to concentration camps.”
Nureta was a judge in the Municipality Court of Prijedor and she was at work when a group of Serb soldiers came to her with a list of names informing her she no longer worked at the court. She was later taken to the concentration camp where there were 3,500 men and 36 women. (Most women had been sent to the border where they sought protection from the Bosnian army.) The prisoners were allowed one meal per day, which they had 2-3 minutes to eat or they would be severely beaten. Every day the detainees were questioned, beaten, and tortured.
“In Omarska, persons were dying mostly due of torture. I have seen once a Serb guard took a knife and made a cross on a women’s face. I saw in front of my eyes how they were torturing my former colleagues, friends, and persons I knew. The worse feeling I had was that I could not do anything. I felt helpless. I could not help all those who suffered so much.
The women had to work and had to clean and do everything they were asked by the concentration camp guards. Besides all that, the worst were the nights for women in Omarska because the guards would come to the rooms and take us somewhere in the camp and rape. That happened on a regular basis. I was regularly raped and beaten.
I today live in the same city, Prijedor and see some of the perpetrators and some of those that came already out from the Hague. Now, 99% of the people that live there are Serbs. I am surrounded in a society that does not recognize what happened, which I find very difficult. I have been called to witness in the Hague and I have seen the man who was regularly raping and beating me and the other women. I know that many of the women did not about their experiences because it is extremely difficult to thank and talk about it, even for me today. But I have to be strong and to let my voice be heard.
Lastly I would like to remind us that this is Europe where we thought that concentration camps belonged in the past and would never happen again. Unfortunately, the concentration camps in Bosnia are something very rarely spoken about, which is dangerous. We should not close our eyes to what happened. We should condemn it and never allow it to happen again.”
Leaving the UN, I was able to witness (and film for your imminent viewing) the gathering of the Tamil Tigers. Three thousand Tamil Tiger supporters were expected to gather in the plaza in front of the UN to raise their voices and demands for justice in the persecution of the Tamil Tigers. Both on the plaza and lining Rue de Lausanne one saw the throngs of protesters waving shiny red flags adorned with the yellow image symbolizing the Tamil Tigers. They were shouting in English for the media to take heed. My footage is a bit shaky, I must admit because I was walking and filming at the same time. Plus I was across the street and vehicles and pedestrians kept walking in front of me. I’m still a bit of a shy videographer in all situations and tend not to get too close, as you’ll note in some of my other filming….sorry. L
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