Gay Holocaust exhibit opens in Belgrade

By Paul Canning

An exhibition documenting the Nazi treatment of gay people has opened in Belgrade.

According to ARTEQ, an association that helped organise the show in the Belgrade City Museum, the exhibition will seek to confront stereotypes and tackle prejudices around sexual minorities in Serbia.

Serbia has some of the lowest numbers for tolerance of gay people in the Balkans, according to surveys. In September, authorities banned the Belgrade gay pride parade, citing violent threats from right-wing and Orthodox activists.

After coming to power in Germany in 1933, the Nazis victimized tens of thousands of people because of their sexual orientation.

Homosexuals were sent to concentration camps, where they suffered a similar fate to millions of Jews and hundreds of thousands of Romany who were marked for death. While the Jews were forced to wear a yellow badge in the shape of the star of David, homosexuals were required to wear a pink triangle.

Homosexuals in Germany continued to suffer persecution after the end of World War II, as Nazi-era laws against them were kept in place for years.

The extent of Nazi crimes against homosexuals was only revealed in the late 1970s.

The exhibition, “Nazi terror over homosexuals 1933 – 1945”, runs at the Belgrade City Museum from December 2nd to 23rd.

The show has been jointly organised by ARTEQ with Queer Zagreb from Croatia. It is part-funded by the City of Belgrade and the Serbian Ministry of culture and information.

ARTEQ say:

“The objectives of this significant cultural and socially responsible project are to disclose the historical facts by using authentic documents from Nazi Germany era to raise awareness about suffering of the homosexuals under Nazi regime, to provide framework for combating stereotypes about LGBT persons in Serbian society, to promote tolerance towards minorities and to stimulate different social factors to take part in the process of fostering anti-fascist activism and building a non-discriminatory society.”

As well as the exhibits, visitors will have the chance to watch documentaries, a movie about the gay British computer scientist Alan Turing, and a TV show on Belgrade pride by Serbian broadcaster B92.
In March, Macedonia opened the first Holocaust museum in the region.

Related articles

• In Serbia, politicians accused of inciting violence against LGBT (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Serbia's election campaign "played role in canceling of gay parade" (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Video: In Australia, Amnesty leader critices 'Malaysia deal' and Serco accused of negligence and assault

Amnesty secretary-general Salil Shetty has criticised the Australian federal government's failed Malaysia solution, sending asylum seekers to the country despite its human rights record for 'offshore processing', saying Australia "should know better".

Source: NewsOnABC



Source: Corporate Watch

Events in Australia over the last month have shown outsourcing giant Serco's claim to have a worldwide reputation to be more than just corporate speak: the company gets accused of abusing refugees wherever it is.

The inquest into the Christmas Island tragedy in December 2010, in which an estimated 50 refugees entering Australia were killed after their boat crashed into rocks, heard that guards at the Serco-run Christmas Island detention centre were told by detainees that the boat was coming but did nothing to help them. A Serco officer allegedly told them they would have to wait until morning before they could do anything.

Things looked even worse for Serco, whose lawyers had tried to stop the detainees' evidence being heard, after staff members admitted they had not been advised what to do if detainees told them refugee boats were about to arrive. And as that inquest adjourned until November, 50 Iranian detainees were signing a complaint accusing Serco guards at the Curtin detention centre in Western Australia of assault and another inquest was concluding, this time into the suicides of three refugees detained in the Villawood Detention Centre, also operated by Serco.

The centre manager admitted to the inquest that some of the officers had not had sufficient training and the coroner heard how Josefa Rauluni killed himself the day he was due to be deported to Fiji after a one-and-a-half hour stand-off with Serco staff, who were reportedly taunting:

“One way or another, you are going to the airport. The boys are going to come at get you.” 

And just as people in the UK are wondering how a company with such a record can keep winning contracts in an ever increasing variety of public services (it is even trying to run the London Fire Brigade's training programme), aboriginal activists in Western Australia were dismayed to learn that Serco had won the contract for running prisoner transfer services in the state, which were tendered after an Aboriginal elder had died of heat stroke in the back of a G4S van. This shouldn't cause too much concern for G4S; it remains the second biggest profiteer from Australia's immigration system.

No prizes for guessing who's the first.

Related articles

• Video: In Australia, skyrocketing self-harm rates spark detention inquest (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
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New mobile phone restrictions in UK detention centre

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Corporate Watch

New detainees arriving at Yarl's Wood immigration prison, run by outsourcing giant Serco, are being given new mobile phones locked to O2 SIM cards with the back covers glued on so that no other SIM cards can be used, Corporate Watch can reveal. The new system, criticised by campaigners for isolating, monitoring and exploiting detainees even further, follows a similar scheme introduced by G4S in Tinsley House, near Gatwick airport.

The new phone system in Yarl's Wood started last month for new arrivals, with the aim of rolling it out for “the majority of residents” by the end of October. According to Serco, there are no immediate plans to roll it out to its other detention centre, Colnbrook, near Heathrow.

A letter handed by the management to all detainees in early August 2011 stated:

“Every resident will be issued with a mobile phone on the O2 network, which has the strongest mobile phone signal of all the networks in the Yarl's Wood area ... This will be phased in over the next few weeks.” 

The letter adds that the phones have a “built-in SIM card and a fixed mobile telephone number”, and that O2 top-up credit “can be purchased from [the centre's] shop”.

Earlier this year, Corporate Watch revealed that G4S had contracted secure telecommunications company Global Comms and Consulting Ltd (GCC) to run a new phone system in Tinsley House, one of its Gatwick immigration prisons. Detainees were given special new phones that could be monitored and disrupted when necessary by the immigration authorities or the prison's management. Calls were also said to be more expensive and detainees were not able to call free numbers. The new contract between Serco and O2 seems to be Serco's response to G4S's trial scheme, which was expected to be rolled out to all other detention centres in the UK if “successful”.

'Best coverage'

The Yarl's Wood O2 phones come with an initial £5 free credit but detainees say this runs out “much faster than it should.” Although Serco claims that its rates are “competitive”, O2 is not the cheapest mobile network for calls within the UK or abroad, and many detainees prefer to use low-cost providers such as Lebara and Lyca. But Serco insists that the reason for choosing O2 is that it provides “the best signal coverage at Yarl's Wood”, declining to comment on whether other providers were considered before deciding on O2.

Read more »

Is self-harm in detention centres a 'bargaining tool'?

Oxford vigil following death at Campsfield detention centre

Source: Corporate Watch

Two people have died from suspected heart attacks and a third killed himself in UK immigration prisons in the last month. Meanwhile, a leaked memo by Serco, which runs one the prisons, reveals that the outsourcing and security giant had dismissed similar incidents in Australia, where it runs all immigration detention facilities, accusing detainees of “creating a self-harm culture” and using it as a “bargaining tool.”

Early in the morning of 2nd July, a 47-year-old Pakistani national locked up in Colnbrook immigration prison, near Heathrow airport, collapsed in his cell with “very bad chest pain.” According to his cellmate, Muhammad Shukat had been groaning in agony for hours but his repeated pleas for help were not taken seriously by the detention centre staff, who did not call the ambulance until it was too late (see here). A postmortem found the “provisional cause” of the death to be coronary heart disease. The Home Office would not give any more details.

Less than a month later, on 31st July, another man, aged 35, was found dead in his cell, also in Colnbrook. Again, the Home Office would not reveal any details, not even his name and nationality, though unconfirmed reports by detainees said he was American.

A postmortem found the cause of death to be “a ruptured aorta” and the death was treated as “unexplained.” Aortic ruptures can be caused by a number of things, including trauma, where the aorta (the largest artery in the body, which branches directly from the heart and supplies blood to the rest of the body) is ruptured as a result of severe distress.

Two days later, on 2nd August, a 35-year-old man locked up in Campsfield House immigration prison, in Oxfordshire, was found dead in the toilets. Conflicting reports suggest he either hanged himself or cut himself with a razor blade. According to fellow detainees, the unnamed Moldovian migrant was hours away from being deported and had been moved to the short-term holding facility within the centre, causing him to become “very anxious.”  

Investigations, investigations

As usual, the UK Border Agency (UKBA) declined to comment on the specific circumstances of each case. It simply said: "the police and the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman always investigated deaths in immigration detention centres and it would be inappropriate to comment until these were complete.”

Similarly, Serco said: “While these enquiries are under way, it would not be appropriate for Serco to comment on specific cases.” However, campaigners say experience shows that these investigations are “unlikely to go anywhere” and that the whole detention system, which “drives people to such desperate measures,” should be reviewed.

A spokesperson from the Campaign to Close Campsfield, which held a vigil in Oxford following the death in Campsfield, said:

Read more »

Video: In Australia, skyrocketing self-harm rates spark detention inquest

Source: NewsOnABC




Source: ABC

By Tom Iggulden

The Commonwealth ombudsman has launched an inquiry into skyrocketing rates of suicide and self-harm attempts in immigration detention centres. New figures reveal an average of three threatened or actual self-harm attempts across the detention centre network per day. In just one week earlier this month, there were 50 such incidents.

Commonwealth ombudsman Allan Asher launched his official inquiry after seeing the evidence with his own eyes.

"I spent a week on Christmas Island myself at the end of June and there were 30 incidents in just that week," he said.

"We then heard that in the first week in July there were 50 in all the places of detention and it just tells us there is something wrong and it needs to be looked at."

Louise Newman, an independent advisor to the Government on mental health in immigration detention centres, is backing the inquiry.

"I think this is very appropriate, much needed. We're at a crucial time now within the detention system," she said.

The ombudsman has obtained figures from the Immigration Department showing there were 1,132 instances of actual or threatened self-harm across the immigration detention network over the last 12 months. One suicide has been confirmed over that period, while there are coronial inquests into another five suspected suicides.

Read more »

Video: Refugee Week 2011.. and something you can do

Source: British Red Cross



Today is international Refugee Day, the beginning of Refugee Week.

There are events and actions going on all over the world. One action which you can take would be to support the campaign in the UK to stop the removal of Iraqis to Baghdad, scheduled for tomorrow.

• See here for more information

In the UK, here is an update of events around the country. Here's info on events in Australia.

More videos:

Read more »

Video: Australia investigating detention contractor Serco

Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Reporter: Heather Ewart

The company appointed to manage Australia's detention centres, Serco, is now under investigation by a government appointed review, and the commonwealth ombudsman.

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: More questions about how Australia's detention centres are being run and whether there are enough properly-trained staff to handle the growing number of asylum seekers.

Serco is the outside company which manages the nation's detention facilities and it's currently under investigation by both the Commonwealth Ombudsman and a Government-appointed review. Those inquiries were sparked by last month's riots and breakouts on Christmas Island.

National affairs correspondent Heather Ewart takes a look at the pressures on detention centres and their workers, including new allegations that staff are being pressured not to report troublesome incidents.

HEATHER EWART, REPORTER: Detention centres in Australia are a growth business. When the large multinational corporation Serco signed on to manage them just under two years ago, there were five centres with around 1,000 detainees. These days, that number has ballooned to almost 6,500, housed at 23 sites around the country. Serco finds itself under greater scrutiny than ever before.

KAYE BERNARD, CHRISTMAS ISLAND WORKERS UNION: The increasing numbers of asylum seekers that have been stuffed into a poor facilities run by Serco who have proven themself not to be able to manage what they've been paid millions of dollars to do needs to be clearly looked at.

VICTORIA MARTIN-IVERSON, REFUGEE ACTION NETWORK: Look, we know from Christmas Island Detention Centre that there's been regular and fairly consistent levels of profound understaffing. We see dramatic staff turnover at all the centres.

SCOTT PRASSER, AUST. CATHOLIC UNI.: I think the problem is Serco's got a reputation for running prisons, and a good one, but these are very different types of detention centres.

LOUISE NEWMAN, MONASH UNI.: We're in a very precarious situation, a high-risk situation, where we're going to see, and unless something changes, increasing rates of self-harm and protest, and sadly, even suicidal behaviour.

Read more »