We were overwhelmed on Saturday
May 8th as over 650 people in Cardiff signed our petition to support
the family of Djamel Fahassi who was arrested on 6 May 1995 and has
never been seen since.
First Minister, Carwyn Jones,
was among over 100 of those who were also photographed with a banner
of support asking the Algerian government “Where is Djamel?”.
At several times during the day people were even queuing in the rain
to sign the petition.
A few days before the event
we were delighted to receive an e-mail from Djamel’s wife, Safia,
who said "What you are planning to do for my husband is wonderful.
I'll be doing the same thing in Algeria. I appreciate your help in sending
me the petition and all that you will be doing so far in the anniversary."
Members of the group are
now planning to travel to London this month to join with one of Cardiff’s
MPs to present the petition and the photographs to the Algerian embassy.
We will also be sending the photos to Safia to encourage her in her
ceaseless work to find the truth of what has happened to her husband.
Fundraising
Thank you to everyone who
has supported the recent fundraising events which between them have
raised over £800 for Amnesty International.
The September street collection
in Whitchurch raised over £146, an excellent total for just 5
collectors.
The bucket collection after
the Joan Baez concert in St David’s Hall raised £498 (and
gave the four volunteers a free evening’s entertainment at the
show!)
Finally, special thanks to
Jennie for holding a tea party in Creigiau which raised £170.
If anyone else would like
to hold a fundraising event such as a coffee morning, book sale or dinner
for friends please let us know and we can provide leaflets and ideas.
Aung
San Suu Kyi
Many of the group responded
to the appeal to send greetings to Aung San Suu Ki who spent her 64th
birthday in prison. We received the following message from Johnny Chatterton
of the Burma Campaign UK:
We've just heard
that from inside Burma’s notorious Insein prison Aung San Suu
Kyi has asked her lawyer to thank the tens of thousands of people
that wished her happy birthday last Friday.
Her lawyer Nyan
Win just released this message: "She said she thanks those at
home and abroad who wished her a happy birthday, because she cannot
reply to everyone".
Burma's brutal
regime wants the world to forget Aung San Suu Kyi. The tens of thousands
of people like you that left birthday messages of support to her sent
a strong message to Burma's General's. We showed that the world will
never forget Burma's democracy leader or any the 2,155 political prisoners
currently detained in appalling conditions inside Burma.
We'd like to
thank everyone that left messages of support for Suu Kyi on the website,
www.64forSuu.org and on her Facebook page.
Thank you for all your support, together we are making progress.
Demand
Dignity
Amnesty International’s
latest campaign is “Demand Dignity”, a new direction for
Amnesty, campaigning for the right to live in dignity, with access to
health care, education, secure housing and an adequate livelihood.
840 million people are chronically
malnourished. 100 million have no access to education. Every year 11
million children die before the age of five. This suffering should be
no more inevitable than torture, false imprisonment or censorship.
Amnesty is launching this
campaign:
• to highlight the way that poverty and human rights violations
often go hand in hand
• to empower and support those who have their rights violated
• to hold those responsible to account.
Why Amnesty?
Many development organisations have worked with a rights based approach
to international poverty for many years. But Amnesty International's
particular reputation on human right's campaigning will reinforce the
human rights dimension of poverty from one based around natural disasters
and charity to one fully based on human rights.
What do you think?
When we discussed the campaign at the last meeting it attracted a full
range of views on whether this is the right direction for Amnesty.
Some felt that this was a
very positive move for Amnesty, opening up Amnesty’s work to a
broader spectrum of the rights in the UN Declaration.
Others felt the opposite,
that this was stretching Amnesty too far from its core work on prisoners
of conscience, torture and the death penalty.
As a result we have decided
to show the campaign DVD at the next meeting on 13 July and discuss
the campaign - please come along as it is sure to be an interesting
debate!
(Note this meeting replaces
the previously advertised meeting on China).
