You, and fellow members of your faith community and congregation are invited to an Extra-ordinary General Meeting of the Middlesbrough Council of Faiths on

Thursday November 19th at 7.30.p.m.

at Middlesbrough Quaker Meeting House

131 Cambridge Road, Middlesbrough. TS5 5HL

to consider

1. Proposals to
1. lay down Middlesbrough Council of Faiths
2. settle our financial commitments
3. dispose of our assets
4. close our bank account.
2. Consider in what ways it might be appropriate for good relationships and co-operation between the diverse faith communities in the town may be taken forward.

Haji Jaber – Chair: Middlesbrough Council of Faiths 07939 369199

Middlesbrough Council of Faiths with Cleveland and Tees Valley Interfaith Group

Our next meeting will now be on:

Wednesday 28th October 2008

at 7:30pm at Middlesbrough Council of Faiths,

at 49 Grange Road, Middlesbrough

It is hoped that we can discuss at that meeting a new direction for the Interfaith Group with the emphasis being on a joint project and with younger people coming forward to run it. Any ideas for such a project would be welcome.

It is a long time since we have had a meeting so it is hoped that we have a good attendance.

Warm regards to all,

Dick Stainsby

Secretary Interfaith Group

Saturday October 17th 10 – 4 at Middlesbrough Quaker Meeting House, 131 Cambridge Road, Middlesbrough TS5 5HL

This is designed as a relaxed day to listen, share, ask, and explore aspects of the Quaker way. It will not be “heavy” but it will enable each person to discover aspects of Quakerism, with the other participants. You will be able to take away material to read and think about. It is an open exploration of anything you wish to enquire about in Quakerism. We will all experience the Quaker way of learning from each others’ personal experiences and insights.

• 10.00 Gather for coffee etc and biscuits
• 10.15/20 Lynne James – Welcome & Housekeeping – Silent gathering – Explaining the Programme
• 10.30 Susan Wood – “My Quaker life”
• 11.00 Small Groups – exploring “My Quaker life”
• 11.45 Michael Wright – The Quaker Story
• 12.30 Small Groups – Some Quaker Advices and Queries
• 1.00 LUNCH – provided as part of the day
• 2.00 Jane Booth – Game – “Dip in and discover”
• 2.50 Comfort break
• 3.00 Kate Allen – Testimonies and Questions
• Period of silent worship
• 4.00 Finish

As keeps being said by many, including Rev. Theodore Ngoy and Marie Therese NLandu (Congolese Presidential candidates in the UK), UK Congolese are seen as the spearhead of opposition to Kabila’s monstrous regime.

Below is a link to Blaise’s petition. We have sent it out over the UK and Ireland. Please feel free to send on too. This has been a tragedy orchestrated by UKBA. This little family must be re-united. Blaise is in great pain, physically and mentally, and is not safe where he is.

The Children’s Commissioner are involved and the MP Frank Cook, other MPs have offered to support him.

Catherine Ramos

www.ipetitions.com/petition/blaisekamba

I will give the good news. The church in Kinshasa confirmed Blaise has just got out of prison – of the two men that helped him, one man and his family are now in trouble with the authorities for having done so and we will send some financial aid to them. Blaise will head for the border and is not safe yet.
He will try to call his sisters here in Stockton when he is out of the country and we will find out a little more.

However, we must do our Blaise Action weekend – we want to protect the girls and get Blaise back and protect our Congolese, especially in light of the Guardian article. The girls have just received voluntary return info so this whole situation has been manipulated. These girls are numb with shock at losing their brother, knowing he was being held by the authorities that mistreated him in 2005.

The girls’ suffering is indescribable. He has cared for them since they were small girls.

Catherine

Petition

Click here to see the petition in support of Leitishia and Jeanine Kamba

There’s also an online petition at
www.ipetitions.com/petition/blaisekamba

Cath Ramos writes,

Our dear Blaise was removed last week and immediately arrested. Blaise had told us what he was wearing and this info was given to people in Kinshasa who hoped to meet him and get him to a safe house. He was arrested immediately and taken to a prison. The people followed him but dare not approach the prison at this stage lest they be arrested. We await information. I do not have words to describe how Leitishia and Jeanine are.

Two years ago Willy Mvemba was returned to torture, 2008, Serge, whereabouts unknown. Please God Blaise can be saved from that fate.

Jeanine said to me she cannot live without hearing his voice, the voice she hears everyday. Please call Mps – the Guardian has been contacted but please pass all this to your MPs this week before they go back to Parliament. Frank Cook is still involved with Blaise’s case.
We have other men and women up for removal in this week to DRC. Now is the time to make a noise.

Please let me know if and where you will be getting petitions, individual letters signed. Send to jctc1@hotmail.co.uk

I will send petitions out when I receive them.

Catherine

Some background

Britain sending refused Congo asylum seekers back to threat of torture
Diane Taylor , guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 27 May 2009

Refused asylum seekers tell of imprisonment in DRC and violent persecution when they return.

Police at Kin Maziere intelligence HQ, Kinshasa, allegedly shown in this covertly taken picture with one of their detainees in 2008, before the arrival of the deportees Rabin Waba Muambi and Nsimba Kumbi.

The British government is sending refused asylum seekers back home, a Guardian investigation has revealed, despite the fears of human rights campaigners and lawyers that deportees could encounter persecution on their return.

The government claims that those forcibly returned will be safe.

There are an estimated 10,000 Congolese asylum seekers in the UK, many of whom are at risk of being forcibly removed. The sending back of such people to the Democratic Republic of the Congo was suspended in 2007 but recently resumed.

The revelations about the possible torture in Congo came as the government intensified its operation to forcibly remove Congolese nationals from the UK. Last Thursday there was a charter flight carrying 24 Congolese bound for Kinshasa, the first such flight for more than two years.

Nsimba Kumbi, 33, a refused asylum seeker, was removed from the UK on 13 March, following detention in the Campsfield immigration removal centre in Oxfordshire. He was then detained in the DRC capital, and taken to the notorious secret police headquarters Kin Maziere, the Kinshasa headquarters of the general directorate of intelligence and special services, where, he says, he was tortured for three weeks.

Kumbi says that during his incarceration he was badly beaten, that he received burns and was forced to give a male guard oral sex while his hands were tied behind his back. He says he is now in so much pain he can only move his neck in one direction. The wounds on his back from beatings are gradually drying. He says that nerve damage means he can barely move his fingers.

Another Congolese refused asylum seeker, Rabin Waba Muambi, 42, was also removed from the UK on 13 March on a separate flight. He arrived in Kinshasa the following day and was taken to Kin Mazière. Secret entries in the Kin Mazière log book, leaked to the Guardian, confirm the men’s detention there.

Muambi, who says he was beaten at Kinshasa airport, was later stripped, then continually beaten and forced to lie outside staring at the sun.

“The government in Congo views Congolese people deported back home from the UK as enemies,” said Muambi. “The guards who beat me kept saying to me: ‘You are a spy, give us information, why are you doing this to your country?’ I am in a lot of pain from the torture but I’m too scared to go to hospital in case someone recognises me and I get taken back to detention. The guards forced me to drink my own urine and kicked me. They beat me very badly on my knees and made me walk on my knees so they turned black.”

He was held there until 14 May when a friend paid a bribe that freed him.

Kumbi’s ordeal began in 2001 when he was studying law at the University of Kinshasa. He was arrested for political activities against the government and detained for more than a year in Camp Tshatshi, as place identified by Amnesty International in 2007 as a site where extra-judicial executions of a large number of detainees took place.

He escaped to the UK and claimed asylum in May 2002. Following the rejection of his asylum claim he was detained and removed. He resisted removal and was restrained on the flight. “I was handcuffed and my head was pushed down between my legs. They were beating me for no reason.” The escorts handed him over to Congolese immigration officials at the airport in Kinshasa and he was taken to a windowless room. “It was like a store room. The men were wearing military uniforms and they forced me to sign some papers without letting me read them. I had no choice but to sign and hoped that after I signed I’d be released.”

Instead he was taken to Kin Maziere. “The guards there demanded money. They said: ‘You’ve just come from England, you must have money.’ They said I wouldn’t be beaten as much if I gave them money but I had nothing to give them. I was taken to a cell and could hear sounds of screaming and crying coming from the other cells.”

Over three weeks at the centre he says he was tortured by the guards. Following his release he went into hiding. He says he is in urgent need of medical treatment but it is too risky to go to a hospital.

Muambi first came to the attention of the Congolese authorities in January 2005 when he was involved in anti-government protests. He was detained and tortured for a month and then escaped to the UK and claimed asylum.

He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He belongs to the human rights group Apareco,whose members risk torture in Congo.

Rudi Ramdarshan, a human rights lawyer at Trott and Gentry solicitors, said: “The implications of these cases are very worrying. The Home Office’s own operational guidance states that if people end up in detention in Congo they are likely to experience inhumane and degrading treatment, in breach of article 3 of the Human Rights Act. The fact that asylum seekers returned to Congo are ending up in detention is unacceptable.

“I am calling on Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to launch investigations. The secretary of state should suspend removals while this matter is investigated.”

Last month Amnesty International submitted a report to the UN highlighting the persistence of torture and ill treatment in detention in Congo.

A spokesman for the UK Border Agency confirmed that his department had removed the two men from the UK. “We continue to monitor developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and will take decisions on a case-by-case basis in light of the most current situation. The court of appeal on 3 December 2008 upheld a ruling that failed asylum seekers are not at risk of persecution or ill-treatment on return to Democratic Republic of the Congo simply because they have claimed asylum.

“We do not routinely monitor the treatment of individuals once removed from the UK. We would not remove them if we considered them likely to suffer persecution on their return and there is independent oversight by the courts.”

The spokesman, referring to Kumbi’s claims of being beaten by UK escorts, said: “We are committed to ensuring that removals are carried out in the most sensitive way possible, treating those being removed with courtesy and dignity. Any allegations of misconduct are thoroughly investigated and all allegations of abuse are referred to the police.”

The Congolese embassy was unavailable for comment.

Sunday 10th May 2009

It is with great pleasure that the Sikh community announce a very special Sikh occasion, the first Nagar Kirtan to take place in Middlesbrough since the Sikhs arrived in the town and established their temple and community 50 years ago.

The term Nagar Kirtan refers to the procession of the Sikh congregation through the town singing holy hymns with the concept to bring the message of the Sikh faith to the doorsteps of the community. Leading the procession are the Panj Piyare who represent the first five members of the Sikh brotherhood and are dressed in traditional Sikh costume. Carried behind on a decorative float is the Sikh holy book ‘The Guru Granth Sahib’, together with priests singing hymns. Following this are dhol drummers, vehicles and the congregation carrying flags, khandas (religious Sikh symbols) and bunting.

The procession will start from the Sikh Temple which is located at 23 Lorne Street, Middlesbrough and will go up Newport Road, up Albert Road and meet at Middlesbrough Town Hall at approximately 12 noon. At the town Hall there will be speeches and festivities including a demonstration of ‘gatka’ which is a type of Sikh martial arts.

Following the display and speeches the procession will return towards the temple at approximately 1pm via Borough Road and Newport Road.

If you require further information please write to the temple. You can also visit the website www.manchestergurdwara.co.uk and Enter events and Nagar Kirtan gallery to see a recent Nagar Kirtan held in that city.

Yours faithfully

G H SINGH
General Secretary

Those who approach their own MP please ask them to make sure the letter gets to either Phil Woolas or Jacqui Smith, so that you then have to have a reply (but send them direct as well).

Click here to download a sample letter with address details in Word format.

Jackie Fearnley

There will be a ‘vigil’ at St Mary’s Stockton for Anselme Noumbiwa on Tuesday 28th April, 4-7. Justice First hope to contact MPs etc.

Anselme is a Cameroonian Christian who faces a grave threat in his home country as a result of his beliefs. He was arrested again last week and may be deported imminently.

It is clear from the evidence of the Cameroonian Bishop, MP, journalists, Anselme’s tribalkingmaker and the local Police Commissioner that Anselme will face danger on return. The Home Office now accept his story is true but maintain internal relocation is possible, not so according to evidence from above. Anselme has removal on a charter – no pubic, no crew, only security.

The Bishop of Durham has written a powerful piece for the national newspapers.

Catherine Ramos

It is a very frightening to be arrested in a foreign country. People in detention feel very alone. I was lucky to have so many people praying for me and campaigning for me. I hope I will see some of you if I visit your community or your church to play drums.

I will see my lawyer next week. I hope that I will be safe here one day.

Merci

Jean Michel