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Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 12:31:41 +0000
To: pajol@bok.net
From: "John O'Reilly" <johno@ncadc.demon.co.uk>

NATIONAL COALITION OF ANTI-DEPORTATION CAMPAIGNS
22 BERNERS STREET, BIRMINGHAM, B19 2DR, ENGLAND
VOICE 0121-554-6947 FAX 0121-507-1567
E-MAIL johno@ncadc.demon.co.uk

NCADC, sends you greetings and soldarity, we wish you every success.

We to have a Hunger Stike in Progress details attached.

Please send us as much information about yourselves and we will relay it
around our network. also address to which we can write,fax or e-mail
protests.

PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE

Tuesday 14 JANUARY 1997: 61 Asylum Seekers still on Hunger Stike

A mass hunger strike by Asylum Seekers in Rochester Prison England began
on Monday 6 January, in protest against their internment without trial.

SUPPORT THE ROCHESTER HUNGER STRIKERS!

Since last Monday (6th January) Asylum Seekers detained at HMP Rochester
have been on hunger strike . Below we reprint the detainee's .Statement in
full. We are asking everyone to support their demands and to protest in
what ever way they can, at the end of the statement there are the address
and fax numbers of those responsible for the detaining of Asylum Seekers.

"A decision from both Delta and Echo wings involving more than 200
detainees, who are in fact political Asylum seekers imprisoned in HM Prison
Rochester, Kent has voted in favour of a Mass hunger strike which will
commence on 6 January 1997. Several broadcasting organisations and
newspaper companies have received detailed accounts of the action and have
expressed a wish to publicise this unfortunate but necessary action.
Additionally, community organisations, having previously been informed of
our pending action, have expressed their determination to follow through
with their own lawful protest in support of our action from 4th January
1997.

We have clearly noted all previous unsuccessful attempts to resolve our
unlawful imprisonment without trial, hearing or process; which should allow
us the right to a fair and prompt hearing. Instead the prison authorities
hide behind the excuse that they answer to immigration authorities who in
turn use the judicial process as their reason for our continued unlawful
imprisonment. We in turn remain imprisoned under the prison regime
answering to prison discipline and orders without having committed crimes,
and answering to a system in which we have no voice.

Many of us have all ready served 2 years or more. We are detained with out
charge or time limit. We make this serious and urgent plea to be heard in
full by an independent body and judicial committee which must be
independent from the if immigration and other detaining authorities. Our
action will continue until such time as the above request is in motion.

Numerous suicide attempts, hunger strikes and official complaints by
individuals have gone unheard. The response of the prison authorities and
immigration is the forceful removal of the individual to the segregation
unit, placed under prison regulations without a hearing or trial pending
removal to another prison. In some extreme cases individuals are removed
to a hospital without their consent so as to shift the prison's
responsibility for action.

Approximately 45% of detainees have been diagnosed as having mental or
physical disorders and traumas following psychological and mental torture,
being poorly fed, and from deplorable sanitation. They are not given
adequate medical or alternative help but instead, because of their
condition and consequent behaviour, are segregated as trouble makers and
lunatics.

We are therefore left with no option but to go on a mass hunger strike
indefinitely."

Send letters of support to Meadway Detainees Support Group
c/o CRE 16 New Road Avenue
Chatham
Kent ME4 6BA
England

Send letters of protest to demanding that the Hunger Strikers demands are
met. To
Michael Howard Secretary for State
Home Office
Queens Anne Gate
London SW1H 9AT

You can also fax protests to
Michael Howard Fax 0171-273-4602

Misters reponsible for prisons
Anne Widecombe Fax 0171-273-4608
Timothy Kirkhope Fax 0171-273-4604

If possible please post, fax or E-mail copies of anything you send to
address at top of page