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LORD MAYOR OF BIRMINGHAM TO SEND GREETING CARDS TO VICTIMS OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE

Simon Ware, West Midlands Amnesty International | 08.12.2006 15:03 | Birmingham

Amnesty International activists from across the West Midlands are encouraging local people to send messages of hope and solidarity to those around the world who are facing persecution, torture and other human rights abuses as it launches its annual Greetings Card Campaign this Saturday. This year the launch at St Martin’s in the Bullring will be attended by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Councillor Mike Sharpe and local MPs including Steve McCabe and Lynne Jones.

With an opportunity to send cards until 31 January 2007, the campaign is expected to generate tens of thousands of messages of hope for the 26 cases included.

Those featured in this year’s campaign range from people like Fatima Hussein al-Badi, a 43-year old housewife in Yemen who faces execution following an unfair trial to the family of Claudina Velásquez, a 19 year old law student from Guatemala who was murdered in August last year and whose killers have not as yet been found – the family are still pursuing justice in the face of flawed investigations.

Anyone can get involved by coming along to St Martins Church in the Bullring on Saturday 9th December between 11am and 4pm where they will find details of individuals together with greeting cards and stamps – all in exchange for a donation to Amnesty International’s work. Several hundred local people took part last year and the same good turnout is anticipated this time.

Simon Ware, Media Officer for West Midlands Amnesty International, said:

“We hope that local people will send cards to these people who are suffering abuse of their rights or who are fighting for justice in the face of hostility.

“As well as offering a great source of hope, the cards send a powerful message to the authorities: that the eyes of the world are upon them, and we will not sit idly by while someone’s rights are abused.”

This year’s West Midlands Amnesty International Greetings Card Campaign includes:

HIV/AIDS counsellor in the Dominican Republic Adonis Polanco who has been receiving threatening phone calls since he began campaigning on behalf of people living with HIV/AIDS and criticising the government’s failure to provide adequate treatment.

Artur Akhmatkhanov, a Chechen-national student who in April 2003 ‘disappeared’ after being detained, apparently by Russian federal forces, near his home.

Professor Mesfin Woldemariam, a retired geography professor from Ethiopia who has been detained and put on trial in connection with demonstrations against alleged fraud in Ethiopia’s May 2005 elections. Amnesty International considers Professor Mesfin Woldemariam to be a prisoner of conscience, held only for the peaceful exercise of his freedom of opinion.

Simon Ware, West Midlands Amnesty International
- e-mail: media@wmai.org.uk
- Homepage: http://www.wmai.org.uk