African Unification Front
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Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 11:30:45 EDT
Subject: GERMANY: police kills young mother from Senegal
Joint Press Release of the African Refugees Association, the
Black Students Organization - BSO and SOS Struggles of Students on the
Assassination of our Sister N'Deye Mar'me Sarr, by the German Police
on Saturday July 14, in Aschaffenburg.
We Demand Truth, Justice and Reparations.
On the 14th of July 2001 in Aschaffenburg, a German policeman killed
our Sister N'Deye Mar'me SARR, in what clearly appears to be a racist
crime. In effect, we do not understand how a policeman trained to
face any kind of situation in calm and serenity, needed to use his gun
against a mother of family who wanted nothing else than to live and to
ensure the future of her children. We are astonished that the
Aschaffenburg police is talking about "self-defense" while the officer
who killed our Sister was assisted by a colleague and we refuse to
believe that the two couldn't master Sister Mar'me otherwise than
shooting her. This crime is all the more incomprehensible and
unacceptable since the policeman could shoot at many others sensitive
parts of Mar'me's body to "neutralize" her without necessarily killing
her in such a cold blood and so cowardly. To us, Mar'me was killed
because she is Black and being Black for many people in this country,
particularly bureaucrats and police, is an unforgivable crime. Thus,
this is a clear case of crude racist crime which as such, must be
firmly condemned and punished all the more severely since the
perpetrator is a police officer.
We also condemn the conspiracy of silence which is being organized by
the German media and politicians around the murder of our Sister
Mar'me. Whenever a Black does anything wrong here, the information
will echo all over Germany and the media and politicians will beat
drums and sing songs to criminalise Africans and mobilize the "good
German people" against us. But when we are victims of brutality and
violence from German citizens, bureaucrats and police, everyone keeps
quiet. When we die in the German deportation prisons or when the
police kills us while deporting us, everyone will close the eyes and
suddenly be deaf. We strongly condemn this attitude which shows a
certain complicity with perpetrators of racist crimes and which
encourages them to carry on their dirty job. However, all these won't
intimidate or discourage us.
Thus: 1. We demand that the policeman who killed our Sister and his
accomplice be immediately fired from their duties and be prosecuted
before the courts.
2. We hold the police and administrative authorities of the City
of Aschaffenburg as well as the Interior Ministry of the Free State
of Bavaria/Bayern, to be politically responsible for this racist
crime perpetrated by one of their officers.
3. We summon the German State and Police to officially Apologize to
the family of N'Deye Mar'me and to Pay Reparations for the lost
inflicted, the damage caused and traumatism imposed to her relatives.
In this respect, the German State must assume all the costs for the
repatriation of our Sister's body back to Senegal as well as all the
costs for the mourning in Germany and Senegal.
4. Finally, We demand a Deep and Radical Critique and Complete End of
the racist Modes of Thought, Ideology and Behaviors that prevail in
the German society, Police, Administration and other State Structures.
For this is the only way to make it possible for all those who live in
Germany, regardless of their origins or skin color, to live in equal
human dignity, in the equal respect of their liberty, to enjoy equal
rights and be equally subject to the same duties, without being
victims of state racist discrimination and violence.
Lastly, we express our sympathy to the family of Mar'me and we
ensure them of our entire support in this painful situation. We will
fight together with you, until the truth is established, justice is
rendered and reparations are paid. And this struggle will continue
until the complete Abolition of the racist policies that are being
practiced in Germany against foreigners in general, Blacks in
particular, which favor this kind of crimes.
The struggle continues. Come what may, we shall conquer. Legal
Responsibility: Black Students Organization - BSO, African
Refugees Association - ARA, SOS Struggles Of Students, K=F6nigstr. 54,
D-22767 Hamburg, Germany.
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