Call to Action: STOP FUNDING VIOLENCE NOW!
May 27 – 29, 2020
Transbalkan Solidarity invites you to participate in a 48-hour return-the-bullets-back protest campaign directed at the European Union and its decision-making bodies (the European Parliament, the European Council, the European Commission and the Council of the European Union), which are accountable for funding acts of systematic violence that amount to crimes against humanity.
Why do we need to take action?
Through the Internal Security Fund (ISF) allocated to Member States’ national programmes for law enforcement cooperation and the management of the union’s external borders, and the Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) cross-border collaboration programmes for non-member states, European Union is responsible for committing acts of violence against peoples that are residing, settling in or migrating to Europe by land or sea.
Acts of violence occurring daily in more or less all the current camps, police stations, courtrooms, deportation centers, prisons and border areas in Europe:
- are not isolated or sporadic events but are a part of a wide systematic practice tolerated and condoned by our governments and the European Parliament,
- are funded by public funds,
- are a stable source of profit for privately-owned companies and shareholders,
- are reinforcing the arms industry, arms trade, and war economy,
- are direct degradation of the international humanitarian and human rights law, and subsequently the derogation of the right to asylum.
Dehumanisation, deportations, extrajudicial punishments, kidnappings and forced disappearances, imprisonment, enslavement, human trafficking, torture, rape, political repression, racial discrimination and other human rights abuses experienced by people that reached Europe as migrants and refugees are a part of a widespread and systematic practice enforced by governmental policies and are conducted by law enforcement agencies, police and military forces, private security services, criminal groups, vigilante groups, judicial systems and other governmental bodies in Europe.
Therefore, Transbalkan Solidarity holds the European Union’s decision-making bodies together with the Member States’ and non-member states’ governments accountable for:
- every bullet fired,
- every baton injury, every dog bite wound, every painful stitch,
- every drowning in the sea and rivers, every lack of rescue, every ban of docking,
- every tragic death, every disappearance, every family separation, every pushback, every human trauma caused by hunger, thirst, humiliation, and pain,
- every illegalisation and criminalisation of human existence,
- every criminalisation of activism and solidarity,
- all the acts of violence committed in the name of racial bias and xenophobic prejudice,
- all the acts of violence committed in the name of territory governance and border management,
- all the acts of violence committed in the name of profit!
How to participate in the campaign?
- return the bullet that killed hope back (photo attached) to the European Commission at
Secretariat-General, Ursula von der Leyen (president):
Migration and Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson (commissioner):
cab-johansson-contact@ec.europa.eu
Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi (commissioner):
cab-varhelyi-contact@ec.europa.eu
If you are concerned about your privacy, open a new email address.
- share the bullet that killed hope (photo attached) on your social media with hashtags
#stopfundingviolence, #thisbulletkilledhope, #protestcampaign, #transbalkansolidarity, #europeancommission #eu
- distribute this call to action among your comrades and in your community
- return and/or share a bullet that killed hope anytime between May 27 – 29, 2020
Take action now! Return the bullet that killed hope back to those who are funding it!
Transbalkan Solidarity
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Why do we organize this protest campaign?
“They were just following orders” is the most common justification of violence we get, known as the Nuremberg Defense. But we are asking back: Whose orders? Whose funds?
Who ordered the acts of violence against the kids in Bogovađa in Serbia this May, the violence against the people under protection in Obrenovac camp in Serbia and the beatings and the application of tear gas indoors in Krnjača camp in Serbia this April? Who gave orders for the urgent acquisition of razor wire for enclosing the camps in Serbia or fencing off the Porin camp in Zagreb in Croatia? Who ordered the use of lethal force of private security personnel and the consequent death of Ahmed from Kurdistan in camp Ušivak in Hadžići in Bosnia and Herzegovina in early May? Who ordered the forced transfers from camp to camp in Bosnia and Serbia? Who ordered the state-administered burning of personal possessions in Velika Kladuša in Bosnia and Herzegovina? Who ordered the access restrictions to prevent entry into the Bosnia camps that led to the tragic death of Ahmed from Morocco in Miral camp near Velika Kladuša? Who gave orders for random beatings in Miral camp this May, or regular cruelty of Croatian police and countless pushbacks, dog attacks, and injuries to the people? Who gave the order to stamp people on the move with the red cross sprayed on their heads and bodies? Who gave and funded those orders? Who ordered firearms shots at people on the move on multiple occasions, including children? Who ordered to let the dogs out? Who?
There is no end to such horrible acts that were committed in the very short time of the Covid-19 lockdown? What fascists think and talk, the European Union’s decision-making bodies are funding and implementing, or is it the other way around? Such politics and crimes are shaping public opinion and encouraging hate speech, hate crimes, the recruitment of white supremacists and fascism. “Strike the scum, strike the animals,“ has become a normalized and widely accepted way of social commenting on every news of violence committed against the people on the move. It is those who are there to officially promote universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe who are committing these acts and should be held accountable.
Transbalkanska solidarnost 