We bring you the second part of Ruth's chronology on the hunger strike of Bernard Rappaz (BR) and the activities surrounding this affair.
07.10.10 Card to BR.
10/14/10 Card from BR.
17.10.10 On the radio: BR back in hospital in Geneva. Sandra writes letters to the editor…
19.10.10 Letter to BR to the hospital.
26.10.10 NZZ: Federal Court publishes reasons for judgment in BR case.
01.11.10 Letters to BR and State Councillor Waeber-Kalbermatten.
04.11.10 Again letters to BR and State Councillor Waeber-Kalbermatten, with various newspaper reports.
05.11.10 Tagi: Geneva University Hospital stands by - BR will not be force-fed. He has now been on hunger strike again for 76 days.
07.11.10 Sonntagsblick: Judge threatens prison doctor. Canton Valais orders hemp farmer BR to be artificially fed.
I write to 75 deputies in Valais: Please be merciful to hemp farmer BR and read his petition.
08.11.10 Aargauer Zeitung: Valais authorities are powerless. Doctors refuse to force-feed BR. Phone from Maggie: In Welschland and Wallis many press reports.
Peter Bodenmann attacks State Councillor Waeber-Kalbermatten: This is the death penalty in Switzerland.
11.11.10 I receive a reply from a member of parliament in Valais.
12.11.10 The Valais Cantonal Court has rejected BR's appeal. No break in detention. Now BR has been on eating strike for 78 days!
12.11.10 10vor10: BR's farm was foreclosed for 350'000 francs.
13.11.10 Luzerner Zeitung: BR's ex-girlfriend breaks her silence: One wants to break him, he disturbs.
NZZ: Geneva University Hospital still refuses to force-feed. It takes the case to federal court.
15.11.10 Letters to BR, State Councilor Waeber-Kalbermatten, National Councilor Geri Müller, Federal Councilor Simonetta Sommaruga.
16.11.10 Infrarouge: discussion about BR on French TV.
17.11.10 Tagi: Federal Councillor Calmy-Rey at a loss in the BR case. Aargauer Zeitung: Federal Court decides that BR remains in custody. Request for a stay of imprisonment rejected again.
18.11.10 WOZ: Merciless Valais. Valais hemp farmer BR has been starving for 84 days. His life is in acute danger.
Blick am Abend: The hemp farmer drinks only water in prison. Today his fate will be decided. The parliament of Valais makes this afternoon the decision on his request for pardon.
Tagi: Federal Council cannot intervene in BR case. Responsibility lies with the cantons and courts. Tagesschau: No mercy for BR. The Valais parliament votes 113 to 14 against a pardon.
19.11.10 Luzerner Zeitung: Fronts remain hardened. “Everyone voted according to his conscience,” says Parliament President Jean-François Copt.
20.11.10 Phone from Maggie: She is on her way to Geneva to visit BR.
NZZ: Valais hemp farmer challenges the rule of law with his hunger strike.
21.11.10 Sonntagszeitung: Rappaz wants a compromise.
22.11.10 Letter to State Councilor Waeber-Kalbermatten.
23.11.10 SF Aktuell: Doctors at the University Hospital have turned to the Federal Court: No force-feeding. Waeber-Kalbermatten wants forced feeding. Lawyer of BR Aba Neman has again turned to the Valais government and demands a break in detention.
25.11.10 Federal Council does not want to draw up rules for force-feeding.
29.11.10 Letter to BR, with various newspaper articles.
30.11.10 Tagi: The Valais District Court III has postponed the trial against BR. He was not fit to stand trial for health reasons.
Mail from National Councilor Geri Müller: He was able to give an interview on Valais TV and to work with people from Geneva. He has the feeling that it will be good.
01.12.10 Tagi: The hemp farmer has also been turned down by the Valais authorities with his latest request for a stay of execution.
03.12.10 Tagesschau: BR now turns to the Federal Court.
05.12.10 Sonntagszeitung: Jean Ziegler and Daniel Cohn-Bendit stand up for BR.
Sonntagsblick: Hemp farmer BR has been starving for 100 days, with photo: This is what he looks like now! Phone from Maggie: Visited BR yesterday. He was depressed. On 11.12. his yard must be cleared.
06.12.10 Luzerner Zeitung: In Paris an international committee consisting of Jean Ziegler, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and the French farmer activist José Bové demands the release of BR. Bové announces that he will deposit a corresponding appeal at the Swiss embassy today. Bové also wants to make representations to the Vatican. Letters from me to BR and the Federal Councillors.
09.12.10 NZZ: Federal Court defies BR's hunger strike. Third complaint is also rejected. No break in detention.
WOZ: Force-feeding means gagging, vomiting, trembling and the feeling of suffocating.
Letter to Dr. Hans Wolff, BR's doctor at Geneva University Hospital.
10.12.10 Phone from Sandra: BR turns to European Court of Human Rights. His lawyer says he is now taking vitamins, sugar and salt again.
11.12.10 NZZ: BR's lawyer is preparing an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. This is the last instance which can still be appealed.
13.12.10 Letter to BR with many press reports.
14.12.10 Phone from Maggie: On Friday Jean Ziegler will come to Geneva and give a press conference.
17.12.10 Mail from BR.
Sandra: Open letter to Waeber-Kalbermatten.
Letter from me to BR, Roger Liggenstorfer (Nachtschattenverlag), Legalize it!, Boris and Maggie.
20.12.10 Letter to new Federal President Micheline Calmy-Rey. Please, please save BR's life. Today is his 117th hunger day.
Letter to Geri Müller, with Sandra's open letter.
21.12.10 Luzerner Zeitung: Rappaz rebuffed at the Court of Human Rights. The court asks Rappaz to break off his hunger strike. A judgement will be made only in two to three years.
23.12.10 Teletext: BR will eat again from 24.12! Waeber-Kalbermatten is relieved. Phu, and so are we!!! Phone from Maggie: Yes, it's true, she is relieved too. After 120 days of hunger strike, BR will eat again starting tomorrow. She is going to visit him tomorrow.
Waeber-Kalbermatten threatens Sandra with “legal consequences” if her open letter is published.
24.12.10 Luzerner Zeitung, Aargauer Zeitung, NZZ, Tagi, Blick: BR wants to eat again. In a communiqué, the imprisoned hemp farmer says he is following the advice of the European Court of Justice.
29.12.10 Tagi: The hunger strike costs BR's health insurance dearly. The hospital stay costs 35'000 francs.
31.12.10 Card from BR.
03.01.11 Sven from Legalize it! asks if I can write a report about BR.
04.01.11 Letter to BR, with various newspaper reports.
05.01.11 Letter to Legalize it!: I try to write a summary of BR's ordeal.
07.01.11 Mail from Sandra: Reply letter to Waeber-Kalbermatten: Seeking conversation, not war, but am not aware of any guilt.
10.01.11 Radio: BR is said to be no longer in the University Hospital of Geneva, but back in prison. Mail from BR.
We are happy to inform you that our nationally known ex-hunger-striking prisoner is doing well again - according to the circumstances. He is working 100% in prison, he is doing sports regularly, and he is also working for his well-being and the well-being of his fellow inmates behind bars. Together with other prisoners, he is fighting for better, more humane prison conditions. He has put on a few kilos in the past four months, and his cholesterol levels are even better than before the hunger strike.
Yes, Bernard Rappaz is practicing top-class sports, which no one is recommended to imitate. But he seems to know his intentions and his limits very well. Most people couldn't do that because they would never have the discipline to do it; me included. But this also proves that he never wanted to die, as he has been accused of countless times in public. No, he “only” wanted to be listened to, taken seriously and treated like a human being. Not like an incarnated enemy image….
At a new trial, covering the period from 2002 to 2006, BR was sentenced on May 10, 2011 to an extension of his sentence by 12 months to 6 years and eight months. The sentence is not yet final, as BR's lawyer is challenging the verdict.
Not for the faint of heart: This is about the new Bröckers!
ISBN 978-3-938060-51-3, 214 pages, Westend Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, Piper Verlag GmbH, Munich, 2010.
Who knows that today's well-known drug prohibition and repression has its origins in the Opium Wars, which took place some 250 years ago? And that even then it was hardly a matter of protecting the health of the population?
If you want to know more about this, you should definitely read “The Drug Lie”! Mathias Bröckers has succeeded with this book a great hit: exciting like a thriller, carefully researched and well comprehensible compiled, the author leads us through a thicket of misappropriated information, political shenanigans and economic power struggles.
Let's clear up the widespread prejudices and clichés, confront ourselves with uncomfortable facts, and let the truth have its say for once.
Here's to good reading, everyone.
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