[Marxism] Mau Mau veterans sue Britain for torture

[Stuart Munckton <stuartmunckton@xxxxxxxxx>]

Mau Mau veterans sue Britain for torture June 26, 2009

http://www.smh.com.au/world/mau-mau-veterans-sue-britain-for-torture-20090625-cy81.html


**

LONDON: A group of elderly Kenyans allegedly tortured and assaulted during
the repression of their country's independence movement in the 1950s have
presented a letter to Downing Street calling on the British Government to
launch an investigation into their treatment.

The three men and two women, who say they were variously beaten, raped and
castrated during the Kenyan "emergency" from 1952 to 1960, lodged a claim
for compensation against the British Government and demanded an official
apology.

The five are veterans of the Mau Mau movement, which rose up against the
British colonial administration. Their lawyer, Martin Day, said he believed
they had a good chance of success. "This will be the first time that the
British government has had to account for its terrible, terrible deeds. This
case is about justice for those individuals who had a terrible, terrible
time. A number of them suffered from castration, women suffered from
horrendous sexual abuse, many, many Mau Maus were beaten, tortured and
killed," he said. "This case is about bringing all those issues before the
British court and a British judge to say, 'what we did was wrong'."

Wambugu Wa Nyingi said he survived a massacre only because he lay for three
days amid their corpses and the guards assumed he was dead.

Guardian News & Media

-- 
"The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of
dummy?" — Jarvis Cocker

"The basis of optimism is sheer terror" — Oscar Wilde
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