Report from 7-2-2009 demonstration of Congolese refugees opposing government plans to deport them to face war and political oppression.
“We need to fight the big corporations illegally exporting minerals. We have to stop them sending arms to people so they can extract our minerals.”
This was the message today from Manchester's Congolese community, who are protesting British government plans to return refugees from the UK to the Congo despite a recent escalation of the war there, which has killed millions over the last decade.
The war in the Congo, claim Congolese refugees and human rights organisations such as Global Witness, has been fuelled by competition for the country's mineral wealth, which includes major deposits of gold and coltan, a rare metal used in mobile phones and laptop computers.
Campaigners called on companies such as T-Mobile and Orange to take steps to ensure that raw materials used in their phones do not come from sources which involve mass bloodshed and environmental destruction.
They also demanded that the British government cancel an charter flight which it has booked to take Congolese refugees back to Africa from the UK. It's believed that the flight has been chartered for around February 20th and around a third of Manchester's Congolese residents are said to have been told to appear at Dallas Court, the UK Border Agency reporting centre in Salford Quays, from which many asylum seekers have been forcibly taken and incarcerated or deported.
The Congo has for the last decade been the scene of the bloodiest conflict since World War II. But despite this and human rights abuses including the arrest and torture of political opponents to the current regime, the British government still claims that it is safe to return some refugees to the country.
The global monitoring organisation Human Rights Watch has also listed child soldiers, children in detention, sexual violence against young girls and women and abuses against street children – including war orphans – as problems in the country.
“This is the hypocrisy of the British government,” declared a speaker at the 150-strong rally in the Peace Gardens in Central Manchester. “This is the hypocrisy of the EU. This is the hypocrisy of the United Nations.
“If you sign the piece of paper at the end of your interview at Dallas Court,” he went on to warn Congolese people in the audience, “you could be signing away your life and death.”
This report was originally published on the Hive Magazine website,
http://hivecentral.ning.com/profiles/blogs/manchesters-congolese
This was the message today from Manchester's Congolese community, who are protesting British government plans to return refugees from the UK to the Congo despite a recent escalation of the war there, which has killed millions over the last decade.
The war in the Congo, claim Congolese refugees and human rights organisations such as Global Witness, has been fuelled by competition for the country's mineral wealth, which includes major deposits of gold and coltan, a rare metal used in mobile phones and laptop computers.
Campaigners called on companies such as T-Mobile and Orange to take steps to ensure that raw materials used in their phones do not come from sources which involve mass bloodshed and environmental destruction.
They also demanded that the British government cancel an charter flight which it has booked to take Congolese refugees back to Africa from the UK. It's believed that the flight has been chartered for around February 20th and around a third of Manchester's Congolese residents are said to have been told to appear at Dallas Court, the UK Border Agency reporting centre in Salford Quays, from which many asylum seekers have been forcibly taken and incarcerated or deported.
The Congo has for the last decade been the scene of the bloodiest conflict since World War II. But despite this and human rights abuses including the arrest and torture of political opponents to the current regime, the British government still claims that it is safe to return some refugees to the country.
The global monitoring organisation Human Rights Watch has also listed child soldiers, children in detention, sexual violence against young girls and women and abuses against street children – including war orphans – as problems in the country.
“This is the hypocrisy of the British government,” declared a speaker at the 150-strong rally in the Peace Gardens in Central Manchester. “This is the hypocrisy of the EU. This is the hypocrisy of the United Nations.
“If you sign the piece of paper at the end of your interview at Dallas Court,” he went on to warn Congolese people in the audience, “you could be signing away your life and death.”
This report was originally published on the Hive Magazine website,
http://hivecentral.ning.com/profiles/blogs/manchesters-congolese 
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