Stockholm 21st January 2002
His Excellency,
The Spanish Ambassador to Sweden,
ARREST SPANISH POLICE WHO MURDERED ESSA MARONG
According to reports published in The Independent newspaper in Banjul, Gambia, Mr Essa Marong, a 39 year old Gambian who is also a father of four children, has become the latest victim of cold blooded murder by racist Spanish police. According to available newspaper reports, the Spanish police gagged, tortured and fatally beat Essa in his cell where he was being detained for an undisclosed crime. After the brutal murder, Essas's body is reported to have been hastily transported to a hospital in Larida where authorities refused to conduct a post mortem on it to establish the exact cause of death. Mr. Ambassador, as you are probably aware, Essa's murder provoked violent protests by Gambians and other West Africans in Spain who rightly saw the murder as the product of a racist police force which has a record of brutalising and killing Africans at every opportunity.
In this latest case, police officers who murdered Essa have not been arrested, a clear indication that the Spanish State may be part of the conspiracy to let police walk away with this open act of murder. No post mortem has so far been conducted on Essa's body. This is in total violation of local and International medical norms which dictate that a corpse is liable to an autopsy at the earliest time possible especially if circumstances surrounding death are suspicious. It is reported that Essa did not resist arrest but ended up being beaten to death by blood thirsty police officers after he was restrained in a cell. This is a despicable act of barbarism only expected from a Police state where fundamental regulations governing the arrest and treatment of detainees are ignored with impunity.
Further, the responsible High Court Judge is reported to have refused to append his signature to vital documents which may set in motion the legal process to establish the truth about Essa's murder and to hold the responsible murderers responsible for their heinous crime. From our perspective, the inexplicable inaction on the part of the Spanish government, coupled with the lackadaisical posture of the authorities in implementing basic documentation and investigative requirements in a brutal and bloody murder of this nature smacks of dirty State conniving and collaboration at the highest level. For us, the question is why the Spanish authorities want to cover up this crime!
Essa left The Gambia in 1998 to become an immigrant in Spain. His untimely death at the hands of fascist Spanish police is in fact a reflection of the anti-African-anti-Immigrant-anti refugee immigration policy which, according to rough estimates by Human Rights groups, has created more than 300,000 so called "illegal immigrants" in Spain.
We, the undersigned, wish to remind your government that in August last year, 9 Africans died after they drowned while trying to cross into Spain through the Strait of Gibraltar. These deaths are part of the huge and growing statistics of deaths of Africans who have and continue to drown at sea as they try to cross into Europé to escape from poverty, deprivation, mystery and untold human suffering as a result of decades of colonialism, neo-colonialism, super-exploitation and endless plunder of Africa's natural and human resources by Western Imperialism.
Mr. Ambassador, Imperialist-instigated wars together with years of mental and economic slavery of Africans by Imperialist West continue to force many Africans to flee from the Continent in search of personal and economic security. In the year 2000 alone 15,000 Africans were blocked from entering Spain by Spanish boarder police while during the first half of the year 2001, 20,000 Africans from Morocco were blocked from entering the country. Take note that the Strait of Gibralter is now referred to as "The world's greatest mass grave" or "The cemetery of the Mediterranean" because of the countless number of African lives that have been lost in this region over time as a result of Spain's ambition to be part of "Fortress Europe".
Mr Essa Marong is one of the few Africans who "made it" to Spain but nevertheless, lost his life at the hands of a police force which appears to have been instructed to use all means available to reduce the population of Africans in Spain. The murder of Essa Morang is testimony that the Spanish police is a ruthless gang of fascists who have total disregard to the sanctity of life espcecially the life of Africans.
We, the undersigned, agree with Africans and other Internationalists who have protested in Spain and who have taken the position that Essa's brutal and cold blooded murder was the result of growing racism and discrimination of Africans within the Spanish political, social and economic system of government. We condemn the racist immigration politics under the Schengen rules and which is costing the lives of hundreds of Africans trying to cross into Europé through Spain. As the situation becomes clear in this latest murder, we are calling for:
1.. An immediate arrest of police officers who murdered Essa
2.. The establishment of an independent investigation into Essa's death and that all papers connected to the investigation be open to scrutiny by independent Human Rights groups, NGO and other interested parties.
3.. An independent and impartial post mortem of Essa's body
4.. Compensation of Essa's family following his death at the hands of racist State police
5.. An end to the racist and discriminatory immigration policies of the Spanish government under the Schengen convention which is designed to create Fortress Europe.
We will continue to follow this matter with keen interest and will do everything within our means to exert maximum pressure on the Spanish government to stop its systematic attacks against Africans in that country. Just like the life of any human being, the life of Africans are not cheap and we demand that your government act quickly so that the culprits can be brought to face justice.
Signed: