..SOLIDARITY with RAYMOND GURÊME.......( Petition, please share ! ) (Please Sign & dontt forget to Confirm by e-mail !!! ).... ....We strongly condemn the despicable violence which 89 year-old Raymond Gurême, experienced during a Police search on his property, this past September 23rd 2014. Raymond Gurême is a former resistant who escaped from the special camps created in France for “Gypsies” under Vichy’s regime as well as Nazi Concentration Camps. Raymond’s doctor certified that the assault has left the victim with multiple bruises and injuries. In an attempt to defend Raymond, four of his sons and grand-sons were also beaten and condemned for “outrage and rebellion”, a decision which they are currently appealing. We shall not content ourselves with police denials, especially considering that the Police Chief in charge of this Police operation was not present on the site when the aggression occurred. Showing a strong support for Raymond Gurême we want to tell him our admiration for everything he embodies. We call the French Institutions, the Prime Minister Mr, Francois Hollande, the Minister of Intern, the Minister of Justice, Secretary of State for War Veterans and the European institutions to guarantee a thorough and impartial investigation on the circumstances of this police intervention as well as on the conditions in which Raymond Gurême was violently assaulted. We strongly denounce the multiple obstacles he met when trying to file a complaint since September 23rd, these obstacles being unfortunately usual in France for the procedures instituted by citizens against the police or the gendarmerie. In particular, we want to emphasize that Raymond Gurême did not receive any request for appointment from the medical experts (Unité de consultations médico-judiciaire-UCMJ) who are the only authorities able to make specialized findings and to establish the severity of his wounds for a legal prosecution. And this after several requests to the Local gendarmerie, to the Public Prosecutor’s department in Evry and the Police Disciplinary Body (IGPN). So far, the complaint has not been properly taken into account and it seems that his destiny is a first class funeral in three months, after the terms of investigation set up by the Public prosecutor of Evry. We urgently call the French and European authorities to take concrete actions to ensure that the policemen involved in this case be prosecuted, and more generally, to put an end to the impunity that security forces enjoy in France. We also call to end the multiple forms of discriminations which the travelers (gens du voyage) still undergo in France, wether they have a nomad, semi-nomadic or sedentary lifestyle. It is unacceptable that, in spite of the numerous international condemnations (UN, Council of Europe) and its partial abolition by the Constitutional Council in 2012, the French gens du voyage are still prisoners of a special status dating back to 1969. That law deprives them of basic rights, makes them fall victims of the vindication of society and makes them vulnerable to all forms of arbitrary power, in particular police. More than 70 years after the arbitrary imprisonment in camps in France and the Roma Genocide in Europe, it is inadmissible that reports of the French administration, in particular that of the Police chief of Arpajon, continue to speak about camps when referring to family properties owned by French travelers and Roma people, and to use the word “gas-machine” (gazeuse) when speaking of gas-tears devices. As French authorities are celebrating the centenary of the First World War and the 70th Anniversary of French Liberation, we would like to remind all of those who consider the French gens du voyage as forever foreigners that, as many “forains” and “nomads”, Raymond Gurêmes father gave his blood for the Nation during the First World War and that Raymond was part of the French Underground Resistance that liberated France after he escaped the concentration camps. It is this very man, who is an essential milestone for our collective memory, that was beaten during a police operation a few weeks ago, 70 years after receiving endless blows, bruises and wounds in the camps the French Vichy police was running on French territory when collaborating with the Nazi We demand that French authorities finally put an end to their silence and publicly condemn Anti-gypsyism, which like all other forms of racism, cannot be tolerated in France and Europe in the 21st century, but remains entrenched in peoples minds as well as in public institutions. petitions24.net/solidarite_avec_raymond_gureme romareact.org/news/view/2071
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 11:17:20 +0000