இஸ்லாமிய அல்ஜீரியாவில் பரவலாக இருக்கும் அடிமைமுறை

இஸ்லாமிய அல்ஜீரியாவில் பரவலாக இருக்கும் அடிமைமுறையை கண்டறிந்து ஒரு ஆஸ்திரேலிய திரைப்பட குழு அதனை ஆவணப்படமாக எடுத்துள்ளது. பல ஆயிரக்கணக்கான வருடங்களாக குடும்பம் குடும்பமாக ஜாதி ஜாதியாக அரபுகளின் கீழ் அடிமைகளாக இருக்கும் மக்களை பற்றிய ஆவணப்படம் இது.

அடிமை முறை ஒழிக்க போராடுவோம்.

film crew uncovers slavery in Western Sahara

Thursday, November 8, 2007
PRNEWSWIRE



"My name is Matala Magluf X. I am a slave, my mother is a slave, my sisters are slaves, all my relatives are slaves. I am asking the international community to help us. We don't care about the political situation anymore. We have the right to be free."


These are the words of a Saharawi, one of a handful of witnesses quoted in an upcoming documentary shot on location in the Frente Polisario-controlled and United Nations-monitored Tindouf refugee camps in the Western Sahara Desert.

A group of Australian filmmakers discovered widescale slavery in the camps in Algeria and reported it to U.S.-based human rights groups, media and legislators.

"The Wall of Shame," their documentary, to be released in 2008, unfolds in one of the longest-running refugee camps in the world, sustained by hundreds of aid organizations, accessible to the world's press and monitored by the U.N. The testimonials, witnessed and documented by two Australian journalists, Violeta Ayala and Daniel Fallshaw, were made public during the crew's U.S. visit sponsored by the New York-based Together Foundation, a human-rights organization.

Fallshaw and Ayala went to the Saharawi refugee camps in the Algerian desert to make a film about the human price of the long-lasting political conflict in the Western Sahara. They found more than they bargained for: several thousand slaves living in the camps, trapped in their country's fight for independence.

According to the journalists, the slaves are passed from one owner family to another. Black people work for their white owners for free and are deprived of education and human rights. The women are sexually abused by their Moor masters and do not have the right to get married without the masters' consent.

Ayala says it is ironic that the Frente Polisario, a socialist liberation movement, apparently condones the practice of slavery, with the cooperation of local and international authorities.

Fallshaw said that at the point at which the filmmakers' findings became obvious to Polisario officials, "our personal safety became problematic." He said the film crew was detained and interrogated for almost a day in a room without light, and the U.N. had to intervene to provide them with safe passage out of the country.

"We felt obliged to the Saharawis to bring their case to the U.S., world media and the human rights groups," said Fallshaw. "We had very productive presentations and briefings with the staff of Sen. Edward Kennedy, Jesse Jackson and the Human Rights Watch D.C. office."

Human Rights Watch, an independent, nongovernmental organization that shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its international campaign to ban landmines, plans to send a group of journalists and researchers to investigate the camps and other possible human rights violations later this month.

Back in New York, the film crew met with the media at the U.N. and presented its case before the Committee to Protect Journalists, a media-freedom watchdog organization.

The United Nations Decolonization Committee of the General Assembly has taken up the issue of Western Sahara. These meetings take place annually and investigate various issues, often without reaching a solution. "Many think that those are just a formality to keep the so-called dialogue afloat and maintain the appearance of the U.N. doing something useful," said Gregory Temkin, vice president of The Together Foundation. His organization is dedicated to protecting and promoting human rights and individual freedom around the world, with a special focus on slavery practices and exploitation of human beings.

He said the U.N. and other organizations need to do more to protect the refugees. "The reality is very different from what the participants pretend to know or not to know. And they would probably once again fail to put forth a very concrete and significant question: Are there circumstances that could mitigate (the excuses) for condoning human slavery?"

The organization seeks donations and volunteers to further its work. Contact The Together Foundation at 545 Saw Mill River Road, Suite S6, Ardsley, NY 10502, telephone/fax: 914-231-6804, e-mail togetherf@optonline.net, Web site www.togetherworld.org/. Further information can be viewed at the Web site of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, http://www. refugees.org/article.aspx?id=1506.