PRESS RELEASE
TWO SENEGALESE KILLED IN ITALY: A CRIME THAT
REINFORCES A MORE AND MORE RACIST POLICY
The Rencontre Africaine pour la Défense des Droits de
l’Homme (RADDHO) expressed its profound
indignation over the racist crime against two Senegalese legally residing in
Italy, Modou Samb age 40, and Mor Diop age 54.
On Tuesday 13 December 2011, a man named Gianluca Casseri
fired at close range at the two Senegalese at Dalmazia Square (Florence,
Italy), injuring another person named Cheikh Mbengue age 42. Two hours later,
the same man shot and injured two other Senegalese in the central market of
Florence before committing suicide.
This racist and xenophobic act corresponded with a new
option in the policies of the Italian government that seeks the instrumentalization
of xenophobia and criminalization of immigration for electoral purposes.
Cet acte raciste et xénophobe corrobore avec une nouvelle
option de la politique du gouvernement italien tendant à l’instrumentation à
des fins électorales de la xénophobie et de la criminalisation de
l’immigration.
We recall that on Thursday 4 June 2009 at a meeting with a
far right Italian party, the Ligue du Nord, Mr. Silvio Berlusconi, then the
President of the Italian Council, affirmed that there are “too many blacks in
Milan, one has the impression of being in Africa.”
These comments were made following a law passed on 13 May
2009 by the Parliament that criminales immigration, making illegal entry and
stay in Italy a crime punished by a fine of 5000 to 10,000 Euro with the
extension of the length of detention to two (2) to six (6) months.
The Rencontre Africaine pour la Défense des Droits de
l’Homme (RADDHO):
- Condemns emphatically the racist crime perpetrated against
Africans, particularly Senegalese;
- Demands the new Italian government and parliament to shed
light on this affair, which -- contrary to the position of the Mayor of
Florence who has rushed to characterize it as an isolated act -- could be the
act of a network;
- Denounces the political instrumentalization of xenophobia and
immigration in Europe for electoral ends, in particularly in Italy, a country
where until then, had been the most welcoming of African citizens;
- Recalls that this policy is contrary to the spirit and
letter of the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950 (art. 14), of the
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers
and Members of their Families adopted in 18 December 1990, the UNESCO
Declaration on the Principles of Tolerance of 18 November 1995, the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination of 4 January 1969 (art. 2(a)), and the Declaration of the Third
World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and
Intolerance, which is associated with that held in Durban in September
2011;
- Calls
on the European Union and Italian
authorities to vigorously combat racism and xenophobia in all its forms;
- Demands the Senegalese government to condemn this ignoble,
cowardly, and unacceptable act; but also, to take up all its responsibilities
of assuring the security and respect of the rights of Senegalese emigrants,
particularly those that live in Italy;
- Invites the African Union to engage in the situation of
African emigrants.
Issued in Dakar, 14 December
2011
President
Alioune Tine
RADDHO
Villa 4024 Amitié 2 Allées Seydou Nourou Tall
BP 15246 Dakar - Sénégal