Free Baba Jan & the Hunza 5! Political prisoners of the climate change crisis

Contact Phone: 
0437237010
Date and Time: 
Wednesday, June 27, 2012 -
12:30pm to 1:30pm
Contact Email: 
tonyiltis@hotmail.com
Contact Name: 
Tony
Location: 
cnr Bourke & Swanston Sts, Melbourne

Speakout for International Week of Action.
Background:
Baba Jan is an activist from a community that has fallen victim to climate change. He is also a victim of the “War on Terror”. In January 2010 several communities were engulfed by flooding and landslides in the Hunza River valley, in the remote Himalayan Pakistani-administered territory of Gilgit-Baltistan. These floods and landslides were the result of deforestation, soil erosion and climate change.
In 2011 Baba Jan, a member of the Labour Party Pakistan, was involved in organising protests demanding compensation for effected communities. Police repression of these protests included the shooting of two villagers — a father and son. In the aftermath Baba Jan and four others were arrested and charged under Pakistan’s Anti-Terror Laws. On April 28, Baba Jan was taken from his cell by elite security agencies and has since been subjected to beatings and torture.
Others charged under Pakistan’s Anti-Terror Laws include the Faisalabad 6, who led a textile workers’ strike and textile worker unionists in Karachi. The Pakistani state’s contribution to the “War on Terror” also includes disappearing hundreds of civilians in border regions and collaborating with US drone strikes.

Geography: