Copenhagen - ‘Rebellion’ challenges EU Terror lists
While the whole world will be watching what happens at the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen from the 7th to 18th December 2009, there is another lesser known event going on in Copenhagen at the same time.
There is Court case against a Danish organisation called ‘Opror’ in Danish, or ‘Rebellion’ in English which is due to be heard at the Copenhagen City Court, from December 3rd to December 7th.
This case is a very important one for anyone who believes that our civil rights have been restricted by the blanket anti terror legislation which has criminalised political activity and proscribed political organisations across the globe without justification.
The organisation ‘Rebellion’ was formed in 2004, is to challenge ‘terrorist legislation’, both in Denmark and internationally.
‘Rebellion’ believe that Terrorist legislation seeks to undermine progressive organisations, resistance movements, trade unions and solidarity movements throughout the world.
‘Rebellion’ have appealed for support from all movements to:
Defend the right of peoples to resist illegitimate government and foreign occupation!
Defend the right of peoples to take up arms against oppression where all other means have been exhausted!
‘Rebellion’ is being prosecuted by the Danish State for the transferral of substantial funds to Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) which they did as deliberate challenge to terrorist legislation.
‘Rebellion’ have said “the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has for decades been a leader of the struggle of the Palestinian people, engaged in legitimate conflict with occupation forces. We support the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in its struggle for a secular and democratic state for all. It can in no way be defined as a ‘terrorist organisation’.”
“FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) has for decades worked and fought for the democratic rights and the equality of the people. The present regime has with US support and in alliance with ‘death squads’, controlled by landowners and drug cartels, continues to persecute the leaders and members of trade unions, political activists, students and peasant organisations of Colombia. Several Latin American nations have negotiated peace by legalising insurgency groups, allowing them to participate in an open political process. The criminalization of FARC is preventing a political solution in Columbia.”
Rebellion is part of an increasing challenge to ‘terrorist legislation’in Europe, a growing defiance against the concept of the ‘global war on terror’.
On September 18, 2008 the High Court overturned the non-guilty verdict of the Copenhagen City Court, sentencing five members to between 60 days and six months imprisonment. In March 2009 the Supreme Court revised imprisonment to conditional sentences, also expressing some doubt on the legislation itself.
The campaign of Rebellion is a continuation of struggle which has been waged in Denmark against the automatic updating of the EU terror list which bans financial transactions with specific groups and individuals.
In 2002, the Council of the EU updated the list, the amendment was adopted by “written procedure”, where the text is simply circulated among the governments and agreed without discussion if there is no objection The PFLP, the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were included for the first time with another five groups based outside of the EU.
To protest against the inclusion of the PFLP, Ung Vänster the youth organisation of the Swedish left party organised a collection and transferred 300 euros through an account used by aid organisation Emmaus Bjorka for humanitarian work in the Shatila refugee camp in Lebanon. The organisation has long cooperated with the PFLP on a project to support Palestinian widows in Shatila. Ali Esbati, chairman of the Young Left, said the donation was being made to highlight “The fact that EU can add or remove organisations on the list, without anything specific having happened, is arbitrary and clearly demonstrates its political character.”
Christer Johansson, chair of Emmaus and Christer Ascher, a board member and well known paediatrician, met with the Swedish government to discuss their donation and attempt to clarify their legal liability. They explained that the PFLP was part of a legitimate resistance movement in an occupied land and that its right to armed struggle against military occupation is recognized in international law. Emmaus demanded the removal of the PFLP from the list, though the organisation did not challenge the law in the courts for fear of jeopardizing its other foreign aid projects.
The organisation ‘Rebellion’ was established in 2004 to continue that campaign, they have stated stated that Palestine and Colombia are the focus that they have chosen, but, from Turkey to Kurdistan, from the Basque Country to the Philippines, there are many others who also could have been chosen. An important criterion for their choice was that liberation forces advance secular, democratic, and humanist goals together with their people.
Through present terrorist legislation, states have attempted to curb the freedom of expression and the political rights of their citizens. The right to extend moral and material support to resistance and liberation movements throughout the world is threatened. The civil and labour rights of citizens to wage legitimate struggles for welfare and democratic reform are also increasingly being curbed.
‘Rebellion’ have appealed to all movements for democracy and international solidarity to join us in challenging national and supranational terrorist legislation and the so-called ‘global war on terror’.
‘Rebellion’ was charged with transferring approximately 14000 Euro to the resistance movements FARC (Colombia) and PFLP (Palestine) in October 2004. The second charge concerned a statement on Danish television on 1 August 2005 by a spokesperson for ‘Rebellion’ announcing that the association was in the process of collecting further funds in support of organisations on the EU ‘terrorist list’, and that it had issued an international appeal to democratic and solidarity organisations in the European Union urging them to similarly challenge national anti-terrorist legislation and the EU ‘terrorist list’.
The international appeal, which they sent in both English and Spanish to approximately 300 European democracy and solidarity movements, was removed from the association’s homepage by order of the Copenhagen Magistrate’s Court on 12 August 2005. This injunction was upheld 14 October 2005 by the High Court (Landsret). This was appealed by ‘Rebellion’ to the Supreme Court, as such confiscation involves both paragraph 77 of the Danish Constitution “prohibiting the re-introduction of censorship at any time”, and the European Declaration of Human Rights, Article 10, on freedom of expression.
Immediately following the confiscation of the appeal, ‘Rebellion’ encouraged other Danish organisations to publish it on their homepages, and to contact their own international networks. The appeal is now to be found on over 50 national and international websites.
The Danish police authorities have approached a number of the Danish organisations, including the parliamentary party, Red-Green Alliance, requesting them to remove the appeal from their websites, or face court action, The organisations refused and the Police authorities remove the international appeal from the websites of the parliamentary party Red-Green Alliance, of the left daily newspaper ‘Arbejderen’, and of a socialist youth group.
This Danish campaign being led by Rebellion is a part of a European wide challenge to the legitimacy of the inclusion of so many international and European groups in the EU terror list.
Recently, on 30 September 2009, Prof. Jose Maria Sison Chief Political Consultant for The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Negotiating Panel won a resounding legal victory in the decision of the European Court of First Instance to take him off the so-called terrorist black list of the European Union.
Seven years of EU terrorist listing and injustice were put to an end! The ECFI nullified the decisions and a regulation of the Council of the EU which unjustly labeled Prof. Sison as a “terrorist”. The ECFI decision of demonstrated that Prof. Sison was not the subject of any investigation or conviction for any act of terrorism and therefore the Council of the EU had no valid ground at all to put Prof. Sison on its terrorist blacklist.
The case of rebellion and the campaign against the EU Terror lists has been well documented by the website Statewatch.org http://www.statewatch.org/terrorlists/listsrebellion.html
Rebellion (Denmark) appeals to all movements for democracy and international solidarity to join them in challenging national and supranational terrorist legislation and the so-called ‘global war on terror’.
Rebellion are calling on international supporters to organise demonstrations at Danish Embassies demanding their acquittal in the coming court case also to send letters of protest to the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Ministry of Justice: Slotsholmsgade 10,1216 Copenhagen K
Telefon: +45 / 72 26 84 00 Telefax +45 / 33 93 35 10
Email: jm@jm.dk
Ministry of Foreign Affairs:Asiatisk Plads 2,DK-1448 Copenhagen K
Telefon: +45/ 33 92 00 00 Telefax: +45/ 32 54 05 33
E-mail: um@um.dk
Please send all information on activities – Rebellion need your support!
Rebellion (Denmark): opror@linuxmail.org
Rebellion (Denmark): www.opror.net/blog
Patrick Mac Manus,Midgaardsgade 13, 3. th.2200 København / Copenhagen N