Celebrities call for justice for Kurdish girl Mawda

Famous names, including artist Roger Waters and award-winning director Ken Loach, called for justice for Mawda, a Kurdish girl who died in Belgium shot in the head by a police bullet. The trial starts on 23 November.

A two-year-old Kurdish girl called Mawda died after police opened fire on a van carrying migrants near Mons in Belgium, on 17 May 2018.

The Prosecutors had initially denied the account given to the British paper The Guardian by relatives of the girl, and suggested instead that she had been taken ill or died as a result of erratic driving.

The child was killed after a police patrol followed and intercepted a van containing 26 adults and four children, including Mawda, on a highway near the city of Mons.

The trial regarding the murder of Mawda against one policeman and two so-called “smugglers” will start at the correctional tribunal of Mons on the 23 November. The police officer who shot the little girl has been charged with "involuntary manslaughter", something that has sparked the cry for justice beyond Belgium.

Before the trial many well known cultural figures at international levave expressed their support for Mawda's family and call for real justice for the little girl.

Migrants organisation are saying that "criminalizing only the policeman or, worse, focusing the attention only on the “smugglers” are ways to avoid questioning the many political responsibilities of those who organize the migrants’ hunt."

Among those voicing the demand for justice are co-founder and former vocalist of Pink Floyd, Roger Waters and leading film director Ken Loach.

Roger Waters has stood against the injustice towards the refugees all around the world called for support to the ‘Justice For Mawda‘ campaign with a video in which he asked people to don’t sweep Mawda’s death under the rug.

Rogers said in the video after telling how things happened: "A cop pulls alongside and fires his gun, a pistol or a rifle, we don’t know or I don’t know, into this van, and it’s full of refugees and the cop shoots a two-year-old child, Mawda was her name, in the side of her head and kills her.

So there’s going to be a hearing about this in Belgium on the 23rd and 24th of November this year. Make a fuss, please. Go down there, I don’t know if it’s in a courtroom or hearing, go down there and make a fuss."

"It is clear that Mawda was shot dead by the Belgian police. Whatever the particular circumstances, it cannot be disputed," says Ken Loach in a video.

"What circumstances justify shooting at a van full of people? And these are people fleeing terror, fearful for their lives, fleeing across Europe. These are the most exploited people, the most in danger, the poorest and most vulnerable than we can imagine. Every life is as valuable as any other. "