Brussels, September 6, 2000 THEY ARE AFRAID OF OUR SMOCKS AND THE INSCRIPTIONS ON THEM As part of the campaign "Freedom for Fehriye" which we started on August 5, we have conducted a hunger strike which was the target of a number of acts of arbitrary aggression. At the start, the Mayor of Brussels forbade all solidarity actions on the territory of Brussels. He thought in this way to undermine our sense of solidarity, underestimating our will to carry out such actions. He made a mistake. Although our request to set up tents to pursue our hunger strike was turned down, we found an alternative place: the Free University of Brussels. The Mayor hoped we would make less of an impact by isolating us in an enclosed space. He erred once again. In actual fact, every day, wearing smocks with the inscription "Freedom for Fehriye", hunger strikers went out into the streets of Brussels for eight or ten hours at a stretch, distributing leaflets. Fearing the contents of these leaflets, the justice of our demands and the strength of our solidarity and gripped by an arbitrary mentality belonging to another age, the PRL (a "liberal" party in Belgium) Mayor of Brussels, de Donnea, ordered the arrest of "the leaflet distributors who are wearing smocks". Thus he showed his powerlessness in the face of our solidarity and the indisputable justice of our demands. The bans and arrests result from nothing other than their fear of the opinions we hold. Henceforth, Brussels, which claims to be the capital of modern Europe, has been taking decisions worthy of the Inquisition. The ban on freedom of expression is more than just an anachronism, it also reveals bankruptcy in the face of any cause that is just. The roads of Brussels were characterised by tight surveillance and bans by the police and gendarmerie on anyone walking around in support of "freedom for Fehriye". We remained stubborn under all circumstances in the face of insults, primitive attacks and detention at the hands of police and gendarmes. Finally the Mayor gave way officially, forced to put a stop to such bans on freedom of expression. However, the forces of law and order lost none of their aggressiveness. In fact they intervened and prevented by force any distribution of leaflets in what they called a neutral zone, invoking the right to inviolability of the Senate, the Chamber of Representatives, the Ministries and other bureaucratic institutions. Since any march or demonstration in the neutral zone has always been banned, our leaflet distribution was banned under the same pretext. Dozens of police and gendarmerie patrols followed, attacked and arrested teams walking around in smocks and distributing leaflets on the grounds that they had violated the neutral zone, and sometimes even on the grounds that they might be about to! Every time this happened there was brutality in the police stations, with physical harassment accompanied by racist invective. This situation still persists. Our comrades have many times been the victims of such brutality. On September 5, seven of us were arrested and injured in several places, but despite an attempt to search us in a way harmful to our personal dignity, the sound of our slogans echoed through the walls of the police station. Once again, our smocks, the symbols of our resistance, were confiscated. No repression, no matter what form it takes, will be able to undermine our support for Fehriye. So our solidarity campaign will only end when she is granted the right to asylum. As for repression from the forces of law and order and their attempts to terrorise our solidarity actions, it is clear they will lead nowhere. While continuing legitimate methods of struggle, we will also continue to shout our slogan "Freedom for Fehriye". REPRESSION WILL NOT INTIMIDATE US IMMEDIATE RECOGNITION OF FEHRIYE'S RIGHT TO ASYLUM COMMITTEE FOR THE FREEDOM OF FEHRIYE ERDAL 197 rue Belliard 1040 Brussels Tel 02/ 280 2228 Fax 02/ 280 2229 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
