Protests over Death
Published by deviousdiva August 23rd, 2007 in Migrants.Nigeria’s charge d’affaires Mohammed Sani Dole, has appealed for calm in Thessaloniki following the death of Nigerian migrant, Tony Onouha on Saturday night. Mr Onuoha died after falling or jumping from a first floor balcony as he tried to escape plain clothed policemen he thought were trying to arrest him. He is one of hundreds of migrants who sell illegal CDs to make a living here in Greece. He was seeking asylum here.
It is common here in Athens to see dozens of migrant sellers suddenly pick up their merchandise and run from the police. I imagine it is the same in Thessaloniki. This tactic of chasing the sellers is not working and I am sadly, not surprised that this tragedy has happened. It was only a matter of time. If you really want to crack down on illegal CDs you have to get to the source.
Members of the Nigerian community, human rights groups and other sympathisers have gathered over the past few days in protest over the death. There have been some clashes between the protesters and the police. Depending on where you read, there have been some slight injuries to the police from stones that were thrown or there have been no injuries at all.
The Greek public television channel Net had a report which quoted local residents who said that the police were cracking down on immigrants in an operation that targeted the sellers of pirated CDs.
They are hunted like rabbits
one of them said. And when you see it with your own eyes that is what it looks like.
The Nigerian community have come together to protest this tragic death of Tony Onouha
It is the first time that an immigrant community in Greece reacts with such dynamism, and that is going to continue because the attitude of the police is unacceptable
Said Ahmet Moavi, president of the Greek immigrants’ forum.
Protesters have planned another demonstration in Thessaloniki today.
Via IC Publications and Kathimerini
His name has been written differently in every article I have read, so I apologise if I have used the wrong spelling.
UPDATE: This is a quote from the diplomat mentioned at the beginning of this post.
I call on my fellow Nigerians to remain calm and steer clear of the anarchists that have infiltrated their ranks
The police have also condemned self-styled anarchists for allegedly hijacking protests by immigrants to create unrest ahead of the forthcoming general elections.
More from Kathimerini
Also read this post at My Crossroads
Technorati: Greece, police, asylum, immigration, Nigeria
I saw the riots on last nights news, it is very sad. They are cracking down here in Canada on bootlegged items but fortunately the police don’t shoot. It is said the the money from bootlegged stuff goes to terrorism, is this true, I don’t know. The way to stop it of course is for no one to buy it, but everyone wants a deal or something cheap…ciao
Sorry, he didn’t get shot, he fell off a balcony. I missed that. We did recently have a young robber who had broken into an apartment who fell off a highrise balcony when the police entered the apartment. Not much sympathy for the bad guy here though…ciao
I actually haven’t seen the same scattering and chasing here that I used to see all the time in Athens. But maybe I don’t pass through the areas of Thessaloniki that are usually targeted.
This incident was so sad, and to think that he felt the need to jump to his death to escape. Most of the CD/DVD sellers and the misc. item sellers here in Thessaloniki are so friendly, it is just very, very tragic that this happened.