The following communication comes from the office of Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the Interim Committee of the African Socialist International (ASI). The African Socialist International is an international party of African revolutionaries. The ASI has as its historical mission the unification and liberation of Africa under an all-African socialist government under the leadership of the African working class and poor peasantry.
The ASI calls on all who receive this document to forward it to as many contacts as possible and to call and email the nearest Sierra Leonian embassy immediately to protest the arrest and political harassment of Chernoh Alpha M. Bah and the leadership of the Africanist Movement. There is no cutoff time when these calls and email messages should stop. Please help us keep track of this mobilization by emailing us at uhuruasi@aol.com to let us know that you were able to call-in and/or email!
For more information, contact the African Socialist
International:
Omali Yeshitela, ASI Chairman
1245 18th Avenue South
St. Petersburg, Florida 33705
USA
Luwezi Kinshasa, ASI Secretary-General
BILT Mansions
4-16 Deptford Bridge
London SE8 4HH
United Kingdom
077 8412 1709 (cell)
uhuruasi@aol.com
www.asiuhuru.org
Earlier
today, March 6, 2007, Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Director of the Africanist
Movement a regional African Internationalist organization based in Sierra
Leone and several neighboring "countries" was stopped while
driving in Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone. The two police women who
stopped the car carrying Chernoh Alpha M. Bah and two other persons
said they got a radio message to stop the car for previously refusing
a police order to stop.
The men were detained for four hours by the police and the car's driver
had his license confiscated by the police. The men were charged with
“defying police officers” and “driving without paying
attention.”
The police have told them that they must come to the police station
on March 7 at 10 am to answer “certain questions” before
their court hearing at 2 pm.
The charges are completely false. They never disobeyed a police order
to stop as should be obvious by the fact that they did stop for the
police women when they were asked to do so.
The attack on Chernoh Alpha M. Bah is directly tied to his political
activities in the region, especially in Guinea-Conakry where the Africanist
movement has played a role in protesting the neocolonial regime presiding
over the growing emiseration of the people there.
The fact is that the demands of the Africanist movement calling for
economic, political and social justice in Guinea-Conakry have made all
the neocolonialist governments in the region nervous because of the
obvious implications they have for all of the neo-colonial regimes and
their imperialists sponsors. This is especially true for Sierra Leone
that only recently suffered a spontaneous teachers' strike.
We demand the immediate cessation of the harassment of Chernoh Alpha
M. Bah and the Africanist movement.
We demand that all charges be dropped and that the security
of Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, the men arrested with him, as well as the entire
membership of the Africanist movement be guaranteed by the government.
We demand that the Africanist movement and the people of Sierra Leone
be allowed the rights of freedom of speech, press and political association.
Call in and/or email to the Sierra Leonian embassy nearest you to make these demands and defend the Africanist Movement and its leaders.
For those in the U.S., the contact information for the Sierra Leonian embassy in Washington D.C. is as follows:
Phone numbers:
(202)-939-9261 / (202)-939-9262 / (202)-939-9263
Extension 112 for the Ambassador’s voice mail
Ambassador's email: he@embassyofsierraleone.org
Deputy ambassador: dcm@embassyofsierraleone.org
Head of chancery: hoc@embassyofsierraleone.org
