I. Preliminary remark:

Almost a year has gone by since our last newsletter was sent. The reason for this is by no means that we have had nothing to report. Not at all. The reason is rather, that in the light of our many activities we have been simply lacking the resources for putting together a periodic newsletter. We hope you can understand this.

II. Current activities:

a) NoBorder in Tunisia: In the beginning of september several activists of Afrique-Europe-Interact have participated in action days for freedom of movement in Tunis – together with (amongst others) relatives of missing (boat-)migrants as well as remained inhabitants of the former desert camp Choucha who had fled because of the war in Libya. First reports on the action days can be found here (mainly in english and french)

http://www.afrique-europe-interact.net/?article_id=1036&clang=1

In this context we want to refer to a 9-minute radio interview as well, in which Conni Gunßer (Afrique-Europe-Interact + refugee council Hamburg) reports on the action days in Tunis (german):

http://www.afrique-europe-interact.net/index.php?article_id=1056&clang=0

b) Choucha: The cooperation with refugees in the former desert refugee camp Choucha is still playing an important role for Afrique-Europe-Interact. Therefore we want to point here to the current press release:

http://www.afrique-europe-interact.net/index.php?article_id=460&clang=1

Also impressing is a current 10-minute video-interview with Choucha-refugees, in which they talk about the catastrophic situation in Tunisia (english respective with english translation):

http://www.afrique-europe-interact.net/index.php?article_id=1055&clang=1

c) Repression against refugees and migrants in Morocco: In July Afrique-Europe-Interact started a protest campaign with faxes in order to support the refugees and migrants in Morocco who are affected by massive repression in Morocco. The campaign was mainly addressing the Moroccan ambassy in Germany:

http://www.afrique-europe-interact.net/index.php?article_id=1028&clang=1

In this context it was of great importance, that there had been constant exchange with an activist of Afrique-Europe-Interact, who – as a migrant without official documents – is himself affected by the constant assaults by the moroccan authorities. Therefore we want to refer to a 17-minute video, in which refugees and migrants are giving witness to the experiences of massive violence and discrimination in Morocco (french/english):

http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2013/06/28/actualidad/1372440971_006327.html

d) Refugee struggles in Europa: Since the beginning of 2012 the struggles of refugees and migrants in Europe have noticeably come to a head. Activists from the European section of Afrique-Europe-Interact are involved in these struggles in different places, be it as persons who are concerned themselves, be it as supporters. As an example we want to highlight a tribunal in Berlin, which had been to a great extent organized by the „Caravan for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants“ and which took place in June in Berlin themed „United against colonial injustice“. Several activists from Afrique-Europe-Interact have spoken at the tribunal, among them Emmanuel Mbolela (Amsterdam/Ex-Morocco), Emmanuel Gatoni (Berlin/Ex-Choucha) and Romeo N’Tamag from the ARACEM from Mali. The inputs of those three can be watched on the youtube channel of the tribunal (french/english/german):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy4c9FBgiE8

e) Togo: On the occasion of the just mentioned tribunal Hans-Georg-Eberl from Afrique-Europe-Interact and the filmmaker Aylin Basaran travelled in mai to Togo and Nigeria, in order to document witness statements of people, who had been deported or urged to so-called voluntary return from Germany and Austria. In these interviews the deportees talk about the backgrounds of their flight, their experiences in Europe as well as their condition during and after their deportation. In the meantime a separate film has been produced, whereas some interviews can also be watched as youtube-videos (english, french, some with german subtitles):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aug8MpMMMQI&list=UUKlLfCSznSZTQ4Z6HGUBX8Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEAFW69XDGo&list=UUKlLfCSznSZTQ4Z6HGUBX8Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSaP8XpKTh8&list=UUKlLfCSznSZTQ4Z6HGUBX8Q

f) Mali: Because of the dramatic crisis in Mali, the focus of the Malian section was in the past 18 months on the effort to organize initiatives for dialogue among the different parts of the Malian society, not least in the shape of two open people's assemblies with each several hundreds participants taking place in Mai and June 2013:

http://www.afrique-europe-interact.net/index.php?article_id=835&clang=1

The European section has supported these activities financially with 9.000 Euro and politically by public relations, especially in Germany and Austria. Therefore we want to call the attention to the german version of our website which contains numerous texts, statements and videos on the topic of the crisis in Mali, among them three video interviews, which Andrea Plöger from Afrique-Europe-Interact did with Aminata Traoré (Mali) in Berlin (french with german subtitles):

http://afrique-europe-interact.net/index.php?article_id=682&clang=0

III. How to go on ?

Both the Malian and the European section of Afrique-Europe-Interact have been asking themselves in the past weeks, how to continue in the upcoming time – especially after the situation in Mali has improved a little bit. Both sides have asked themselves three questions: Firstly, how to get new fellow comrades, secondly how to manage to keep up the network despite the diversity of the topics and thirdly how to better coordinate the different activities on migration in Tunisia (including Choucha), Morocco and Mali. But generally we all agree that with immediate efffect we want to dedicate more time again to the cooperation with the (farming) communities, which are affected by landgrabbing (a project whis actually has been started in March 2012). In this context we as transnational network have discussed the question, in which way we could combine the struggle against landgrabbing in the Office du Niger as well as in the city with the struggle against the digging of uranium, which is planned to take place in the southwest of Mali from 2016. How such a combination would look like in detail is still an open question; but we want to point to several videos (french with German respective English subtitles), that detail the situation in Falea:

French/english: http://www.afrique-europe-interact.net/index.php?article_id=1067&clang=1
French/german: http://www.afrique-europe-interact.net/index.php?article_id=1066&clang=0

Beyond these fundamental questions (as well as every-day resistance) at the moment also two smaller delegation trips of activists from the European section to Mali respective Togo are planned, the one to Togo focussing on a circular trip with the film mentioned above.

IV Any other business:

a) Donations: For its daily work Afrique-Europe-Interact is still depending urgently on donations – whether as unique donation or standing order. More informations concerning our budget can be found on our website – including detailed informations what the money is needed for:

http://www.afrique-europe-interact.net/index.php?article_id=600&clang=1

b) Website: Only recently we have developed our website, in particular we have enlarged the french and english version (with messages on the front page which change regularly). Against this background we would be happy if the website would be used frequently and if many lingages would be made as well.

c) Participation in Afrique-Europe-Interact: New activists are always welcome ! There is also the possibility to sign up for our transnational mailing-list „Afrique-Euro“ (please send an e-mail to nolagerbremen@yahoo.de ). In addition one can find on our website contact details of several groups in Mali respective Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.