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Attacked by Racists, Then Thrown in Jail: Free Femi Now

11-9-2012

By Christopher Plummer
Communications

Once the breadbasket of the Soviet Union, known for its rich black soil and sweeping fields of grain, Ukraine is now gaining notoriety for its contentious party politics. In the past few years, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was jailed on a corruption conviction, and a video of an all-out brawl on the floor of the Ukrainian parliament went viral.

While these incidents certainly don’t showcase a democracy working at its finest, Ukraine’s partisan bickering has led to even worse consequences. As reported previously, the country’s parliament, Verkhovna Rada, has been advancing a discriminatory ‘propaganda of homosexuality’ bill that flies in the face of Ukraine’s human rights commitments.

Olaolu Sunkanmi Femi behind bars

Olaolu Sunkanmi Femi behind bars

While international observers balked at the most recent parliamentary election, the Verkhovna Rada is now set for the coming session and will include a record number of politicians from the country’s biggest nationalist, fringe right-wing party Svoboda (Freedom). Svoboda’s progress could signal future setbacks for human rights in the country, which has a history of racist and nationalist violence targeting migrant laborers. Neo-Nazi aggressors also targeted foreign students attending university in Kyiv and Luhansk.

One of these students, Olaolu Sunkanmi Femi, left Nigeria for Luhansk to pursue higher education. Instead he found a jail cell and now faces prospect of a life behind bars.

In November 2011 Femi was attacked by five drunk men shouting racist slurs. Femi managed to fend off his attackers with the help of a broken bottle he picked up off the ground. Instead of arresting the attackers, police handcuffed Femi and threw him behind bars. A year later he remains in police custody, charged with attempted premeditated murder motivated by hooliganism. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. Femi should be testifying on the witness stand, not sitting in a jail cell.

Femi’s case in not unique. Human Rights First’s Universal Periodic Review report for Ukraine notes that although the level of hate crime violence peaked in 2008, attacks continue while the government struggles to enact and implement policies to address the problem. Steven Okurut, Charles Asante-Yeboa, and countless others have fallen victim to violence at the hands of private citizens and police officials.

Foreign nationals, sexual minorities, refugees and all vulnerable and need protection. Ukrainian officials have a responsibility to address hate crimes and eliminate institutional discrimination; States can and should take a number of practical actions to combat xenophobic and other bias-motivated violence. Ukraine should listen to civil society groups in the country and Free Femi, because Self-Defense Is No Offence.

See updates on Femi’s status via the Facebook page established by his supporters.


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Posted in Blog | 7 Comments »

  • LinuxLewis

    Lets talk Human Rights SHALL WE?

    EVERY White country on the planet is forced to become multicultural and multiracial.

    EVERY white country is told to end its own race and culture.

    No one asks that of ANY non-White country. Immigration and forced-assimilation is for ALL & ONLY White countries.

    Anti-Whites call themselves “anti-racist”, but their words & actions lead to the genocide of only one group: White people.

    The true goal of anti-racism is to genocide my people.

    Anti-racist is a codeword for anti-White.

    • Kris Cohen

      Shame on you, this is the most hypocritical comment I’ve ever had the misfortune to read. But apart from your bigotry, your comment lacks coherency and logic.
      1) Re-read the first sentence of your comment. And then read your pathetic, uneducated, lowlife rant about ‘white countries’. I do not see any discussion of human rights there.
      2) Do you know what “genocide” means? It is a legal term that is extremely narrowly interpreted to label the most heinous crimes known to mankind.
      3) There is no such thing as a ‘white country’. And if you have a problem with immigration, take it up with your politicians, not those that come to your country (in many cases, only temporarily anyway) legally and with papers.
      With humble regards.

      • Urther

        Definition of a white country: A country that’s native population belongs to the white race.
        Every European country is a white country, kike boy.

      • LinuxLewis

        Genocide is defined LEGALLY and DEFINITIVELY AS – THE DELIBERATE DESTRUCTION OF A RACIAL GROUP – which is EXACTLY what you anti-whites have forced on to white children

    • ussmithweb

      LinuxLewis, this is common sense – If white folks didn’t decide that they were not satisfied with what they had and were so power hungry that they had to conquer something that didn’t belong to them in the first place – they would be living now in a far more peaceful world. (Oh by the way lets not forget the whole slavery / supremacy thing too…)

      You see my small friend, what goes around comes around – If white folks had left well enough alone then the people of color would be enjoying their life in nice sunny weather and white folks would be enjoying their life on and around Mount Elbrus.

      • LinuxLewis

        Moors colonized, raped, robbed, stole land and enslaved southern Europe for a thousand years.

        “Anti-Racists” do not say that African children deserve genocide for this.

        The Japanese colonized thousands of islands, a large chunk of asia, and nearly exterminated indigenous tribes like the Ainu.

        “Anti-Racists” do not say that JAPANESE children deserve genocide for this.

        “Anti-Racists” single out white children for history and say that THEY must be forced into GENOCIDE to “pay” for their ancestors misdeeds.

        At least you are HONEST and ADMIT that you want to single out white children and lie about history to justify the GENOCIDE you demand on to white children.

        Anti-Racist is a code word for Anti-White

    • hottotrotsky

      I could sit here and deconstruct each one of your points and get into that endless debate with you, I could point out that your rhetoric COULD be considered racist, and that that sort of racism is no less narrow-minded simply because you couch it in misguided cultural preservation…but I won’t. Instead I’ll forgive you, because it is more than apparent that you thought this article was actually a tweet and you just read the first three words of the title and felt that you/your culture was under assault. It’s ok, you can douse the torches and disband the angry mob, you’re safe and sound.

      Let me break this down for you:
      A man was attacked based solely on the color of his skin.
      He successfully defended himself from the racist attack even though he was outnumbered five-to-one.
      When the police arrived he was arrested for defending himself and thrown in jail, where he sits now…a year later.

      I’ll let you regroup so you can address your previous mistake. Because you obviously wouldn’t want to champion the superiority and preservation of a ‘culture’ that would allow such a crime to occur.