After the Rebellion of the Voiceless, the Trial comes –
FREEDOM FOR THE HARMANLI 21
On April 24, 2018 in the local court of Harmanli the first hearing of
the process against the arrested during the uprising in the detention
centre in the town during the autum of 2016 will take part. Remember
these people? They were treated as animals by the state and its
repressive machinery – unlawfully put under quarantine, later
brutally beaten for daring to resist being treated that way and
finally – charged and sent to court. Of course, you won’t see
persecuted the cops perpetrators of brutal violence during these days
or the nationalists, which stirred anti-migrant sentiments and
ultimately resulted in the quarantine and the uprising against it. How
did that happen? The camp in Harmanli was built in 2014 as an open reception centre,
where the living conditions were extremely basic. By 2016, only two
years after the construction of the camp, hot water, basic sanitary
facilities and medical help are absent in the camp. On 02.10.2016
nationalists, among whom MEP Angel Dzambazki, the current minister of
defence – Krasimir Karakachanov and MP Magdalena Tasheva, marched
through the small town with demands the open camp to be turned into a
prison and the migrants not to be let out. One of the reasons quoted
were „diseases“ that allegedly were spread by the migrants. A month
later, after the nationalists had stirred the hysteria around the
camp, the state put it in full quarantine, completely imprisoning all
of its inhabitants with a police siege. On a sanitary or a medical
level it was proven that such measures were absolutely unnecessary and
the whole ”spreading diseases” situation was just like coming out of a
Goebbels propaganda book. The migrants, now imprisoned without any
right to leave the camp, rebelled on 22.11.2016 bulding barricades and
fighting the police with stones. Against them was mobilized the
gendarmerie, which got to try its new water canon (quite
unsuccessfully as well as the whole operation, during which panicking
police were running like chickens most of the time). However, later on
the police raided the camp and brutally and indisciminately beated
hundreds of migrants in their rooms and beds. Only in the Afghan wing
the injured, among whom several – very seriously, were 125. 21 were
sent to court despite the clear evidence of the police brutality and
the random mass beatings after the riot. No police was investigated.
We call for actions in solidarity with the 21 rebels from Harmanli.
Bulgaria, currently heading the presidency of the EU, its institutions
and politicians should be exposed for their total crackdown on
migrants and the repeated use of brutal force. Solidarity, justice and
freedom for the Harmanli 21!
Antifa Sofia