Surjit Athwal and Banaz Mahmod should be treated equally with Lucy Blackman and Madeleine McCann Petition to Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister Do you believe the British Government and its Foreign Office should treat all British citizens equally? Should ethnic minority Britons like Surjit Athwal and Banaz Mahmoud receive the same level of protection and intervention as white Britons like Lucy Blackman, Kirsty Jones, Ian Stillman, Peter Bleach and Madeleine McCann?
The two 'honour killing' cases of Surjit Athwal (Panjaabi-Sikh) and Banaz Mahmod (Kurdish), powerfully symbolise the official failures at British government and police level, as well by the Indian and Kurdistan governments and police.
Whilst the UK Metropolitan Police made a combination of significant errors along the way in investigating these cases, they have ultimately attempted to address those failings by re-pursuing the cases with renewed detail and vigor; resulting in successful legal prosecutions in both cases. The Metropolitan Police have, also, expressed a desire to learn from those significant mistakes and a wish to discuss these issues with the family members and campaigners for the above victims. A further suspect has recently been arrested and charged in the Banaz case. In Surjit's case, the Metropolitan Police investigation team wish to progress their investigation to East Panjaab (India) in respect of two remaining suspects living there.
Double-standards & Discrimination by the British Government
Meanwhile, the British Government has remained inactive and unchanging in its failure to make any official representations on these cases to the Indian and Kurdistan Governments, in whose jurisdictions remaining murder suspects currently reside. This baffling official inaction, contrasts sharply with the pro-active UK Government intervention on the aforementioned 'white' British cases. For example, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, demanded an immediate re-investigation of Lucy Blackman's disappearance in Japan in 2000; as well as raising the case before the G8 Summit of governments days after her 'disappearance'. No such official representation was ever made to the Indian government about Surjit's case, who had disappeared in East Panjaab (India) in December 1998. Her case has never been raised with the Indian Government at an official level. In the Madeleine McCann case, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has made strong representations to the Portuguese Government about ensuring a competent investigation. In a BBC Newsnight documentary, given below, the British High Commissioner to India, states that Surjit's case has been left to drift with no positive action.
In both Surjit's and Banaz's cases, none of the same senior UK Government representations have been made to secure investigations into remaining suspects currently reside in India and Kurdistan. Earlier this year, the British Government provided significant help in securing the extradition from India of Indian national Maninderpal Kohli, to stand trial in the UK on charges of rape and murder of Hannah Foster (Hampshire). This wholescale unequal action on 'white' and non-white British cases, is self-evidently suspicious and unjust. It raises powerful questions about racial discrimination and double-standards. How is this fundamental disparity supposed to generate confidence in the supposedly fair and equal workings of the British Foreign Office? Why are non-white Britons not receiving the same level of protection and intervention as 'white' Britons? Further media features: Jagdeesh Singh JUSTICE FOR SURJIT campaign for truth, equality & justice
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