—ENG—

Solidarity with the struggle of the imprisoned in camp at Veliki Otok near Postojna

In the shadow of the normalized state of emergency in the name of protection of public health the entrenchment of the authoritarian regime at the borders of Fortress Europe continues. The current government of Slovenia continues the policies of terror, dehumanization and criminalization of people that was first set and then faithfully followed and deepened by the previous governments. In recent years razor-wire, fence, military patrols, police terror, employment of high technology in human hunting have all become part and parcel of everyday experience for both people that are trying to find a way to a secure and better life and for many others that have long lived in the areas that were chosen by the security experts as a testing ground for their violent games. While the latter count the euros on the accounts of sub-contractors that erect the fence at the border, the rest of us regularly read in sadness about yet another death in Kolpa river, on the road and in the forest.

Suffering that the phrase "migrant crisis" at the same time implies and hides indicates the double nature of the system we live in. On the one side there is a mirage of democracy for the citizens and on the other a totalitarian management of lives of the non-citizens. But the boundary between the two is becoming increasingly fragile. Declarations of this or that emergency situations - due to people on the move, dangerous virus, war, soon also climate crisis - have become common and are clear indications that we live in the midst of an accelerating transition towards the openly undemocratic regime with clear fascist flavour. This explains why the governments - both of the extreme centre and the extreme right variety -respond to every new crisis, regardless of its nature, with the same move towards ever more militarized society. In the wake of the recent pandemic the local Slovenian government thus reacted to what clearly was a health crisis with a push for an increase in the militarization of its borders, the move that was itself made a legal possibility only during one other not so distant crisis episode that was imposed on the population by government of the time. On the one hand the normalization of fascist and/or para-military formations opens the way for discarding of any doubts about the use of brutal and open violence against those that are officialy recorded as ’surplus’, ’illegal’ and ’unjustified’. On the other hand the declaration of an epidemic opens the way for the hidden use of medicine for the purpose of policing the population.

None of this is an excess, but only already well established contours of the regime of modern totalitarianism. This is why the struggles of migrants who by their very existence and disrespect for the borders of Fortress Europe threaten its very foundations are also struggles for a real life of all of us. We need to connect our future with the future of everybody, regardless of where they were born or where they want to live.

One of the places where terror of the Slovenian state and police is most obviously visible also to the eyes of general public is a concentration camp in Veliki Otok near Postojna. In many years of its existence the so called Center for foreigners has been a place of most brutal violations of human rights of people which due to many different sets of circumstances find temselves its prisoners. There people are imprisoned without ever having commited a crime and with very limited options to claim their rights. In addition they are regularly targets of police violence, psychological harrasment, are subjected to threats and to many other forms of dehumanization.

Lately the need of Fortress Europe to intensify the terror over migrants is adding to the determination of local human hunters. In last few months the police added new facilities to the camp in Veliki Otok. Since the number of the imprisoned has risen sharply it has even established a ’container department’ in a big, old and previously unused warehouse. It has put fence around it and now many people who applied for asylum are forced to wait there for weeks and months to see what the destiny will bring them. Many of them are put there still injured from the police violence and left without proper clothing and basic provisions.

Despite the fantasies of the police officers, their political bosses and those who embrace politics of hate those who are imprisoned in the camp in Veliki Otok are people who want nothing else but what all of us desire and deserve: freedom, dignity, respect, possibility of life. In last few weeks again in the middle of all the horror of a concentration camp these legitimate desires gave rise to a wave of resistance. For more than a month the imprisoned are engaging in different forms of protest, including a hunger strike, to bring public attention to their seemingly hopeless situation.

As an expression of our solidarity with the imprisoned in concentration camp in Veliki Otok near Postojna (and in all the other camps) and of our support to their struggle we will assemble on Tuesday 25th August 2020 at 5 pm in front of the camp at a public protest. We demand an immediate closure of the camp and a stop to all the deportations. At the same time we express our anger with the murderous borders and with the police violence against migrants at Kolpa river, in Aegean Sea and elsewhere.

We reject the regime that divides people to citizens and migrants!
We reject racism and nationalism!
Destroy Fortress Europe!

25th August 2020
Anarchist initiative Ljubljana - Federation for anarchist organizing (APL-FAO)

Source: <http://komunal.org/teksti/585-solid...>

See the video report of Komunal about the protest at Veliki Otok: <http://komunal.org/video/protesti/5...>

— SLO—

Solidarnost z bojem zaprtih v taborišču Veliki Otok pri Postojni

V senci normaliziranih kriznih razmer pod krinko varovanja javnega zdravja se nadaljuje utrjevanje avtoritarnega režima na mejah Trdnjave Evropa. Slovenija tudi pod taktirko aktualne vlade nadaljuje s politiko terorja, razčlovečenja in kriminalizacije ljudi, ki so ji zvesto sledile in jo poglabljale tudi prejšnje vladne garniture. Rezilna žica, panelne ograje, obmejne vojaške patrulje, policijski teror, uporaba visoke tehnologije za lov na ljudi so v zadnjih letih postale stvar vsakdanje izkušnje tako za ljudi, ki iščejo pot v varno in boljše življenje kot za številne ostale, ki že dolgo živimo na področjih, ki so si jih varnostni strokovnjaki izbrali za poligone za svoje nasilne igrice. In medtem, ko oni preštevajo evre na računih pogodbenih izvajalcev, ki postavljajo ograje, ostali redno v kroniki beremo o še eni smrti v Kolpi, na cestah in v gozdovih.

Trpljenje, ki se skriva za floskulo "migrantska kriza", priča o tem, da živimo v dvojnem sistemu: na eni strani navidezne demokracije za državljane in nad drugi strani totalitarnega upravljanja z življenji ne-državljanov. Toda meja med obema sistemoma se vse bolj krha. Ponavljajoče se izredne razmere - zaradi ljudi na poti, nevarnega virusa, vojne ali kmalu klimatske krize - pričajo o tem, da se nahajamo sredi pospešenega prehoda v odkrito nedemokratične in fašistoidne režime. Zato oblast tako ekstremnega centra kot ekstremne desnice na vsako krizo, ne glede na njeno naravo, ponuja vedno isti odgovor premika k militarizaciji družbe. Oblasti tako na zdravstveno krizo želijo odgovoriti z nadaljno militarizacijo družbe, opirajoč se pri tem na novo zakonsko možnostjo, ki jo je prinesel eden od prejšnjih vsiljenih kriznih momentov. Če na eni strani normalizacija fašističnih oz. paravojaških formacij odpira pot za odpravo zadržkov pred uporabo brutalnega in odkritega nasilja nad tistimi, ki so v uradnih evidencah zabeleženi kot ’odvečni’, ’ilegalni’ ali ’neupravičeni’, pa po drugi strani razglas epidemije odpira pot za očem javnosti skrito policijsko rabo medicine. V nobenem od teh primerov ne gre za eksces, temveč za že izdelane poteze režima modernega totalitarizma. Tudi zato so boji migrantk in migrantov, ki že s svojim golim obstojem in nespoštovanjem meja trdnjave Evrope rušijo njene temelje, hkrati tudi boj za resnično življenje vseh nas. Našo prihodnost moramo povezati s prihodnostjo vseh ljudi, ne glede na to, kje so se rodili ali kje želijo živeti.

Eden od krajev, kjer je teror slovenske države in policije najbolj očitno dosegljiv tudi pogledom splošne javnosti je koncentracijsko taborišče v Velikem Otoku pri Postojni. V dolgih letih svojega delovanja je t.i. Center za tujce prostor brutalnih zlorab človekovih pravic, v katerem se ljudje znajdejo zaradi spleta zelo različnih okoliščin. V njem so ljudje zaprti, ne da bi storili kakšno kaznivo dejanje ter z zelo omejenimi možnostmi za uveljavljanje svojih pravic. Tam so žrtve policijskega nasilja, psihološkega nadlegovanja, groženj in številnih drugih oblik razčlovečenja.

V zadnjem času je potreba Trdnjave Evrope po intenziviranu terorja nad migranti in migrantkami dala še dodatnega vetra v jadra lokalnih lovcev na ljudi. Policija je tako v zadnjih mesecih še razširila taborišče v Velikem Otoku, zaradi njegove prenatrpanosti pa je vzpostavila tudi “kontejnerski oddelek” v velikem, z rešetkami zaprtem skladišču, kjer prosilci za azil brez osnovne oskrbe, mnogi še vedno poškodovani od istih policijskih rok in brez čistih oblek, po tedne in mesece čakajo na odločitev o svoji usodi.
Ne glede na fantazije policije, njenih političnih botrov in zastopnikov politike sovraštva do soljudi, so zaprti v taborišču ljudje, ki zase ne želijo nič drugega, kot si želimo vsi ostali: svobodo, dostojanstvo, spoštovanje, možnost življenja. Iz teh stremljenj je tudi sredi groze taborišča v zadnjih tednih zrasel upor. Že več kot en mesec poskušajo zaprti in zaprte s protesti in gladovnimi stavkami javnost opozoriti na svoj brezupen položaj.

V znak solidarnosti zaprtimi migranti in migrantkami v koncentracijskem taborišču Velikem Otoku pri Postojni in povsod drugod ter njihovim bojem se dobimo v torek, 25. avgusta 2020 ob 17h pred tamkajšnjim Centrom za tujce. Zahtevamo takojšnje zaprtje taborišča in zaustavitev deportacij. Hkrati izražamo naše ogorčenje nad morilskimi mejami in policijskim nasiljem, tako na Kolpi, v Egejskem morju kot povsod druge.

Zavračamo režim delitve ljudi na državljane/državljanke in na migrante/migrantke!
Zavračamo rasizem in nacionalizem! Uničimo Trdnjavo Evropo!

25.08.2020, APL/FAO

Source: <http://komunal.org/teksti/585-solid...>

See the video report of Komunal about the protest at Veliki Otok: <http://komunal.org/video/protesti/5...>