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REFUSING
TO KILL
CAMPAIGNING
WITH & FOR MILITARY REFUSERS, WHISTLEBLOWERS & PRISONERS
TO
BUILD A MOVEMENT TO INVEST IN CARING, NOT KILLING
JUNE
/ JULY 2015 Follow links on WWW.REFUSINGTOKILL.NET
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With Stand Up for
Truth, organizing to support whistleblowers goes global. During
the 1-7 June Week of Action, whistleblowers speak in webminars and meetings in
London, Oslo, Stockholm, Berlin, Reykjavik, Los
Angeles, Minnesota…
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Compassion in Care and supporters
demonstrated at the opening of the UK Parliament (27 May) to press for "Edna's law" which would protect
whistleblowers and make it a criminal offence to fail to act on whistleblowers'
evidence and disclosures. Sign the petition and send
your own "support
photo" – you holding a sign saying I am Edna.
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Whistleblower seaman William
McNeilly was arrested on 18 May after
disclosing a dossier to
Wikileaks about the safety of the UK Trident nuclear submarine. His disclosure
triggered a debate in Parliament. Please sign Scottish CND’s Petition
to protect him. The £100 billion plan to renew Trident has been opposed by the
Scottish
National Party, the Green Party, Plaid Cymru and many protestors. Protect William McNeilly!
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Positive
development for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange,
still at the Ecuadorean
embassy: the Swedish public prosecutor Marianne
Ny
agreed to come to London to question him over rape allegations. Listen to his recent interview where
he speaks about McNeilly. Join the vigil at the embassy: Tue, Wed, Thu 4-6pm,
Sat 4.30 – 6.30pm and
on
19 June 5pm to mark his 3rd year
inside
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International
whistleblower Chelsea Manning will
be honoured as Queer Hero at London Pride after being proposed by Queer
Strike. Join
the whistleblowers contingent at Pride
on 27 June. There was
similar honour for Chelsea last year in San Francisco
– the largest Pride demo in the world!, Jailed for 35
years, Chelsea, recently published an article in
the Guardian on her 5 years detention experience. Write to Chelsea
to support her as she supports us!
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Anders
Kompass, field operations director for the High
Commissioner for Human Rights leaked to French prosecutors in 2014, an internal UN report
on the sexual abuse of children by French troops in
the Central African Republic. His employer suspended him, but an appeals tribunal just ordered the
suspension
of
the
whistleblower
to be lifted.
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CLOSE
DETENTION CENTRES FOR IMMIGRANTS
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15-
21 June is an International Week of actions to
close detention centres for
immigrants and asylum seekers. The times they are a-changing! In the UK, a
cross-parties parliamentary report proposes to limit indefinite detention to 28 days. In the US
a Bill calls
for reform while the New York
Times calls for an end to detention. The All African
Women's Group is calling a protest to end the practice of detention: Parliament Square in London on 15 June, 12 - 2pm.
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Wikileaks has
recently disclosed European
Union documents exposing military plans to destroy ships in Libya which are used to transport
migrants, thereby preventing
them from reaching Europe.
The plans foresee a year-long campaign which could include putting troops on the
ground – aka war. Scheduled for late June, the plans were formally
approved
by
28 countries on 18 May.
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Kevan
Thakrar
was convicted in 2007 of murders under the “Joint Enterprise” law despite no
forensics, hearsay evidence and inconsistent eyewitness testimony. He has been
in solitary ever since. On 22 May, a hearing for allegedly throwing excrement at
a guard in self defence was postponed because the prison guards refused to
release him for the hearing and the prosecution refused to turn over documents
to the defence.
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Mumia Abu-Jamal was hospitalised on
30 March in a diabetic coma. An international protest denouncing this "execution by medical neglect" forced
the prison authorities to provide some care and to stop keeping Mumia out of contact with family, colleagues and his own
medical people. But the campaign to bring
Mumia home continues. Keep on the pressure on the
authorities!
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On 3 May the Israeli group Breaking the Silence issued a report of
soldiers’ testimonies about
the intentional savagery, criminality and murder committed by the Israeli
military during its attack on Gaza in Summer 2014. Meanwhile conscientious
objector Efi Drishner started a third term in prison on 26
May. Please write to him and to the authorities!
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