Putin Arms Off Queers & Syria – 2013 On Tuesday third September 2013, ten years in the past I photographed two completely different protests in Central London, starting at Downing St in opposition to Russian homophobia and happening the the US Embassy in Grosvenor Sq. for a fairly blended protest over Syria.
Love Russia, Hate Homophobia – Downing St
A number of hundred had come to Downing St two days earlier than David Cameron was to attend a G20 Summit in St Petersburg hosted by Putin, urging our Prime Minister to press him to repeal the Russian anti-gay legislation and prosecute violent homophobes.
The organisers had requested folks to put on purple, and plenty of did although others got here in additional vibrant apparel and several other have been in drag. The protesters together with a big African LGBT contingent and Peter Tatchell.
The protest which was part of a world-wide day of motion in opposition to Russian homophobia :
The organisers had listed eight themes for the motion together with some associated to the forthcoming 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics:
- David Cameron: What are you doing concerning the anti-gay legislation in Russia? We wish solutions. Inform Putin to drop the legislation.
- Russia: Finish the anti-gay legislation & homophobic violence
- Solidarity with Russian LGBT & human rights defenders
- Defend freedom of expression & human rights for all Russians
- Oppose the Putin regime’s escalating authoritarianism
- IOC should defend LGBT athletes and spectators, and guarantee freedom of expression
- Sochi company sponsors should condemn homophobic laws & violence
- The IOC should insist that Russia lifts its ban on a LGBT Pleasure Home at Sochi
Extra footage at Love Russia, Hate Homophobia.
Arms off Syria – US Embassy, Grosvenor Sq.,
A number of hundred folks, together with many Syrians residing within the UK, got here to the US Embassy for a protest rally known as by Cease The Warfare to maintain up the strain on President Obama to not bomb Syria.
Among the many Syrians current have been teams supporting each the revolution in Syria, significantly Kurds who’ve lengthy suffered discrimination and repression within the nation and supporters of the Assad regime who made the ridiculous declare that there had been no discrimination in Syria.
The Assad regimes have made greater than 300,000 Kurds stateless, not included within the census, unable to vote, stand for workplace, acquire faculty certificates or college levels, or journey exterior their very own provinces. Worldwide organisations have clearly proven that Kurds in Syria are topic to discriminatory insurance policies in opposition to their language and gown.
The Cease The Warfare protest was adopted by a prolonged protest by the pro-Assad Syrians in opposition to US intervention. They vociferously denied that Assad’s forces had used chemical weapons in Syria blaming others for his or her use. Stories by numerous our bodies now present there isn’t a room for any doubt that they have been utilized by authorities forces.
The failure by Obama and different western nations to take efficient motion in Syria – corresponding to implementing a no-fly zone in disputed areas left the door open for Putin to intervene offering direct army help for Assad in 2015. Putin was additionally capable of come to preparations with Turkey regardless of them being key members of NATO within the area and enabled them to take army motion in opposition to the Kurds who have been essentially the most environment friendly power within the combat in opposition to ISIS in Syria.
The failures of the USA in Syria was in all probability additionally key in giving Putin the arrogance to invade the Crimea and components of Ukraine in 2014 – after which on to the present invasion there. We have been additionally given a strong reminder of earlier US blunders by the presence exterior the US Embassy simply alongside from the protests I used to be overlaying of a protest camp already in entrance of the embassy over the assaults on Camp Ashraf in Iraq on 1 September.
Camp Ashraf in Iraq had been dwelling to the Folks’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the principle opposition to Islamic rule in Iran, in 1986. Earlier than the US coalition invasion of Iraq, the US had come to an settlement with Iran that they’d neutralise the PMOI, and coalition forces attacked the camp. Ultimately there was a ceasefire after which the PMOI agreed to surrender its tanks, armoured automobiles and heavy artillery and the residents of the camp got protected standing as civilians beneath the Fourth Geneva Conference.
However after the US left Iraq, the camp got here beneath management of the Iraq authorities, who attacked it on a number of events. The Iraqi military killed 34 and wounded 318 in a raid in April 2011, and a raid on September 1, 2013 had killed killed 52. The PMOI blamed Iraq for this however others blame Iranian militias directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The PMOI camp was calling for the US for help. The PMOI have been focibly moved to a different website in Iraq in 2012 and in 2016 the US brokered a deal to relocate them to a website in Albania, giving the UN refugee company $20million for his or her resettlement.
Extra footage of the Embassy protests at Arms off Syria.
Tags: anti-gay legislation, Assad, Assad regime, Camp Ashraf, chemical assaults, chemical warefare, chemical weapons, David Cameron, discrimination, Do not bomb Syria, downing st, Arms Off Queers, Hate Homophobia, homophobia, Kurds, LGBT+, London, Love Russia, MEK, Obama, Folks’s Mujahedin of Iran, peter Marshall, Peter Tatchell, PMOI, pro-Assad Syrians, protest, Putin, Russian homophobia, stateless, Cease the Warfare, Syria, Syrians
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