"Why didn't we see war coming? Certainly we could see the writing on the wall. There were many signs of the coming disaster, yet we were not capable of reading them properly until it was too late. But it is easy to be wise in hindsight. Could the war have been prevented? Perhaps. But too few people tried to do it."
-Slavenka Drakulic, They Would Never Hurt a Fly
Gathering testimony from victims of state crime is a central part of the Initiative's activities. Over the coming months we hope to document and share the experiences of people on the ground. We begin this work with a multimedia presentation entitled 'You Are Turkish' by New York based photographer Yusuf Sayman. If you are interested in becoming part of our testimony project please contact us.
This was a Berlin Wall moment. With the thousands of others in Guildhall Square, Derry on June 15th 2010, I was glued to a giant television screen to hear David Cameron in the House of Commons comment on the Saville Report – twelve years in the making and running to 5000 pages – into the deaths of 14 civil rights marchers in the city on January 30th 1972 at the hands of British paratroopers. Saville concluded what every right-thinking person has known since the event, that the dead were all innocent. Cameron announced that Saville had pointed the finger of blame at the Parachute Regiment and their commanding officer. He acknowledged that the deaths were ‘unjustified and unjustifiable’ and said that no democratic state had anything to gain from failing to tell the truth. He apologised with what seemed to be genuine sincerity on behalf of his government and country and was applauded loudly and warmly by the largely nationalist and republican crowd. This was a moment that in the darkest days no one in the Square, least of all the relatives of the dead, had ever expected to experience.
On Monday 31 May 2010 Israeli military personnel boarded a flotilla of ships carrying aid for Gaza. At least ten activists aboard the ships were killed and dozens were injured during the military action undertaken in international waters. The International State Crime Initiative is examining the events of the day and will report further in the coming days. Below we have collected information on the assault itself, as well as details of protests across Europe and the world in response. If you wish to become involved in this ISCI Testimony Project, please email
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'You ARE Turkish' is a multimedia piece that tries to communicate how it felt to be Kurdish in Turkey during the 80s and the 90s. It tells the stories of torture, forced migration and a banned language. It is photographed in south east Turkey, the predominantly Kurdish region, and in northern Iraq where the famous Mahmour refugee camp is located. The interviews with people who lived through the atrocities committed by the Turkish Military add a personal commentary to this piece about the plight of a people.
In Spring 2010 Yusuf Sayman visited Turkey and Iraq to carry out a photo essay on the treatment of the Kurdish minority. The images he captured tell the stories of torture, forced migration and a banned language. It is photographed in south east Turkey, the predominantly Kurdish region, and in northern Iraq where the famous Mahmour refugee camp is located. These photos are but a small sample of the work which will be unveiled in full at the ISCI Launch event at King's College London on 14 June 2010.
Testimony Project
