A refugee said "I cannot go back to my country because of the following points: 1. Imprisonment and Persecution 2. Torture and punishment 3. Electric torture 4. Beating with the stick on the feet (corporal punishment) 5. threatening me to be killed 6. Lack of human rights organizations which can lobby against human rights violation in the country. 7. Threatening to abuse my family members. 8. Demolition of my house. Due to all that I can’t go back".

Home Page

Oct 31, 2011

Slain lensman's wife in plea to Libya's new leaders

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Oct 31 2011


The wife of photojournalist Anton Hammerl has pleaded with Libyans to help find her husband's body, which has not been found since his death there seven months ago.

"Dear people of Libya, we call on you to please be our hearts, eyes and ears in our search for the whereabouts of Anton's remains," Penny Sukraj-Hammerl wrote in a open letter posted on Facebook.

"Dear people of Libya, On November 5 it will be seven months since our lives became inextricably linked with your struggle for liberation," she wrote.

"On April 5, my husband, photojournalist Anton Hammerl, was gunned down by Gaddafi forces in the desert outside Brega."

He had been travelling with journalists James Foley, Manu Brabo and Clare Morgana Gillis, to document what was happening on the frontline.

They were arrested immediately after Hammerl was shot and were detained for six weeks before being freed. Hammerl's family only learnt of his death after their release.

Sukraj-Hammerl wrote: "I know your fight for freedom has come at a huge cost and immeasurably broken the lives of far too many families, who have been cruelly robbed of their brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters."

She said the family could not rest until Hammerl was given a proper burial at a site where his children -- Aurora, Neo and baby Hiro -- could go to.

"God willing, one day we will make a pilgrimage to Libya, to celebrate your liberty, but to also find our own sense of peace and visit the place in the desert where my beloved husband fell."

No comments: