Press Release: Initiative in Memory of Oury Jalloh, Berlin/Dessau 03-21-2005

MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES DEMAND CLARIFICATION IN THE CASE OF OURY JALLOH

The Initiative in Memory of Oury Jalloh (Dessau) condemns the attempts of the State Attorney of Dessau to block further investigations of the body of Oury Jalloh—necessary in order to resolve unanswered questions—before his body is sent back to Guinea-Conakry. Oury Jalloh died on the 7th of January under still unclear circumstances. Together with other migrant and anti-racist initiatives we demand an x-ray to be carried out on the corpse in order to determine the true causes of his death as well as an immediate stop to attempts to repatriate his corpse before a final forensic report is emitted and can be medically confirmed. Furthermore, the Initiative in Memory of Oury Jalloh denounces that city officials have denied the possibility of carrying out the funeral proceedings in the city center.

The death of Oury Jalloh should have provoked a wave of condemnation. The death of Oury Jalloh should be a shame for a country which is this year celebrating the 60th anniversary of the end of Nazi horror. But this is not the case. On the contrary: German officials, the society and the press are silent. Even five years after Antonio Adriano from Mozambique was murdered by three Nazis on the streets of Dessau.

The facts:

Nobody doubts that Oury Jalloh, who died on the 7th of January in a police station in Dessau, tied by his hand and feet to a bed and burned alive, occurred under what are still unclear circumstances. Likewise, as anybody who has any knowledge about this case knows, there are still many, many unanswered questions. Nevertheless, everything is being done in order to hide the truth about what really happened on the morning of the 7th of January. Thus, for example, the State Attorney has refused Regina Götz, the attorney contracted by Oury's mother to represent her, requests to carry out a post mortem x-ray in order to determine the exact cause of death. This in spite of the fact that official police reported that Oury Jalloh violently resisted his detention, that force was used to subdue him, or the fact that early pressed reports stated that both Jalloh's wrists were broken.

According to the lawyer, still unclear is also the issue of how a lighter could have made its way into the cell when the responsible police officers claimed in their first interrogation that it would have been impossible to overlook when his body and belongings were searched. Furthermore, on the 10th of January, in the first official inventory taken of items found in the cell at the time of the death of Oury Jalloh, no lighter was registered. One day later, on the 11th of January, the lighter appears in the reports. Other open questions are: why was Oury Jalloh tied by his hand an feet to his bed for several hours? How can a fire-proof mattress be set on fire by a person who is tied to it? And how can it be that three police officers cannot hear the screams of a person burning to death—if this is to be believed—and not have noticed any fire in spite of the fire alarms and in spite of the intercom system of the police station.

Not just the State Attorney is in a hurry to close the case. The authorities also present a united wall of silence when the subject turns to what really happened on the 7th of January. Even the public funeral procession which is being organized by Oury Jalloh's friends—the only people who have done anything at all in support of the truth and the family of Oury Jalloh—has been prohibited by the authorities due to "political reasons," so that the funeral will now take place outside of Dessau. In all of this, the only thing clear appears to be the interest of the authorities to do everything possible to send Oury back as soon as possible to where he came from so that he and the truth can be buried, far from the place where he died.

Why did Oury Jalloh die? Why were there so few reports in the press, many of which contradicted each other? How can there be such silence from all parts? Perhaps because the victim was just another black, another African, another asylum seeker who died or was even murdered? Is this once again "normal" in Germany? Who would have thought that just fourteen years following the racist attack in Hoyerswerda and 60 years following Auschwitz that such a horrendous crime would be met by a wall of silence?

According to Attorney General Folker Bittmann: “[there] is no longer any criminal suspicion against the police officer who searched Oury Jalloh's upper body.” Perhaps this is the reason why the State Attorney denies the possibility of further examinations of the corpse before it is sent back to Africa. Likewise, local politicians must surely have good reasons to ban the funeral procession from the city center.

The press has the word.

We demand:

· Repatriation stop until there is an independent post-mortem forensic x-ray
· An independent investigation of the circumstances surrounding Oury’s death
· A judicial process against the responsible police for homicide
· Reparations for the family of Oury Jallow
· An end to police brutality and control
· ¡¡¡JUSTICE!!!

For more information about the death of Oury Jalloh, our demands, or the funeral procession, please contact: Mouktar Bah (0176-29435634) E-Mail: plataforma@riseup.net