<nettime> Freedom for all the accused of the Fire of Vincennes!

[Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>]

> From: Martin Zerner <zerner@paris7.jussieu.fr>
> Date: 9 April 2009 11:15:26 AM
> Subject: Call for a meeting of groups struggling against detention  
> centres


Freedom for all the accused of the Fire of Vincennes!

Since the end of 2007, the detainees of Vincennes (France), like many  
others detainees of detention centers for migrants, have ceaselessly  
struggled for their freedom. They have demonstrated and gone on hunger  
strike, they have refused to be counted or to come back in their  
rooms, they have burnt their mattresses.

The 9th of April a detainee of the center was already saying: "we have  
to think about struggling differently. People and cops don't give a  
shit about the hunger strike. They don't give a shit about sans- 
papiers. They don't give a shit if we die. People eat razor blades  
every day and nobody hears about them. The little things we do are not  
worth it. We have to create a damned mess to put them under pressure."

On June 21st 2008, a Tunisian called Salem Essouli died because of a  
lack of medical care. The next day, a silent demonstration organized  
by the detainees was harshly crushed. Then a revolt blew up, and the  
center was destroyed by fire. That night, the detainees were  
transferred to other centers all over the country:  Rouen-Oissel,  
Lille-Lesquin, Nîmes-Courbessac, Palaiseau, Mesnil-Amelot et Paris- 
dépôt-Cité. Salem Essouli's family has registered a complaint in  
January.

The center of Vincennes had 280 beds, its destruction means less  
arrests and deportations. During the next months we could observe a  
clear diminution of razzias and deportations in Paris. That's why the  
state hurrried to build a new center in the same place, which opened  
in November 2008.

Wanting to set an example, the state has arrested several ex-detainees  
of Vincennes: two were arrested the very day of the fire. One has been  
freed but stays under control as a witness with arisk of being  
charged, the other has been detained; six other arrests occurred  
during the months of July, October, November and December.  One of  
them as been assailteed in jail on November 4th and is still in an  
hospital with serious medical consequences.

So, eight persons are accused of destruction by fire of public good  
and violence against policemen. There may be other persons accused. At  
the end of February and beginning March, three of them have been freed  
but are still prosecuted. Four persons are still detained despite the  
numerous requests of liberation made by their lawyer. We still don't  
know when the trial will take place.

The Vincennes detainees' revolt isn't isolated. Others happened  
before, others happened during the summer at Mesnil-Amelot, Nantes,  
Italy, Belgium, and still others will happen.

The Vincennes detainees destroyed their jail. Solidarity with the  
prosecuted detainees means struggling against migration policies,  
their ideology and their practices!

We will hold on!

Free the prosecuted Vincennes detainees and drop the charges against  
them!
Close the detention centers for migrants! Freedom of circulation and  
installation!

Mail to liberte-sans-retenue@riseup.net
Send money for the defense of Vincennes detainees at : CICP-Vincennes,  
21 ter rue Voltaire, 75011 Paris



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