email account of a phone conversation with Mika, in which he spoke about being attacked by Israeli soldiers near Nablus
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 22:36:05 +0100
hi all,
I just had a chat to mika on the phone. their group today tried to
walk into balata refugee camp with some palestinians, they got through but
on the way back soldiers charged them demanding that they hand over the
palestinians. as they refused to do this they were attacked and fairly
heavily beaten up, some of them literally lying on top of the palestinians
in a pile so that they couldn't be got at by the soldiers. unfortunately
the soldiers managed to arrest four of the palestinian men (including the
medic mika and the group are staying with). But in the end after the
internationals were all refusing to go away or to agree to hand over the
palestinians (there were only 6 p.s), the soldiers gave up and let them
walk home on the condition that the international men walked fifty metres
away from the palestinians and international women. They walked home,
having lost none of the party and extremely happy for that, although all
fairly bruised. Jordan has concussion, phil very bruised round the ribs
though apparently none broken, and mika reckoned he didn't have concussion but i reckon he must have as he was beaten and kicked in the head, thrown
on the ground etc (as were the others i believe) and was bleeding from his
head to his ear... he now apparently has a bandage on his head and he said
he did have a headache. Tomorrow they will either have a "quiet day" in
nablus riding with ambulances, or try to walk to the same refugee camp
again but without any palestinians this time. oh yes, and mika's camera
was smashed by a soldier, as were several other cameras, and all films
were removed. so no photographic evidence from anyone.
Rachel
From: Rachel Laurence
Subject: mika and co