My story of the 1992-93 Alsace-Sarajevo aid convoy

A Citizens' aid convoy to besieged Sarajevo:
A personal account
© Yves Messer

I (that is the author of this Blog, Yves Messer) was living then in Strasbourg (Alsace, North-East of France), a city famous for its wine and among other things for hosting the European parliament.

It was the time when Europe was watching, impotently, the first war and first crimes against Humanity on its soil since the end of the Second World War: the new strong man of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Miloševic had used “Serbian nationalism” to justify military action against newly independent Yugoslav republics like Slovenia or Croatia. This was 1991, the year that saw the end of Soviet Union. The Yugoslav republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina also declared its independence that year. When they held a referendum for its independence, their vote was boycotted by their sizable Serb population (35% of Bosnian population), which advocated a continued union with Miloševic‘s Yugoslavia. Immediately following the international recognition of the republic's independence in April 1992, the country's Serbs and Croats, backed respectively by Serbia and Croatia, began to claim large chunks of the country's territory. The referendum was however declared valid, the opinion of the Serbs was ignored, and the Bosnian republic's government declared its independence. The Bosnian Serbs immediately declared the independence of their Republika Srpska. Sarajevo, a city famous for hosting the Winter Olympics in 1984, was under siege from Bosnian Serbs and their infamous snipers in the surrounding hills and suburbs. Daily atrocities were committed in front of everybody's eyes...

Being politically involved at the time I had the chance (thanks to common Serbian student friends who were horrified by what was happening to their country) to meet somebody who, like myself, wanted to do something about this tragedy. We wanted to act as Citizens despite the criminal apathy of our governments and institutions. This was December 1992. His name is Yves Dubois, a journalist presenter at the local TV network FR3 and his partner Vera Simic, a former TV presenter from... Sarajevo. He had many, sometimes foolish, ideas but the soundest and most realistic one was to organize and send an Aid convoy to Sarajevo. Such a Citizens' initiative was unprecedented and wasn't to the professional NGO's taste... 

At that point he was desperate because of the lack of response from anyone he had contacted so far, especially "established" persons… and was about to give the idea up altogether. I and my partner at the time, Kathrine, proposed him to start with a demonstration and see the people's reactions from there…

We printed out and distributed some 4,000 small leaflets in Strasbourg calling for a protest demonstration against the massacres in Yugoslavia, to be held in front of the European parliament on the 16th of December...

Despite of the lack of time because of the urgency of the situation (he wanted to reach Sarajevo next month...) and despite of the relatively small size of the demonstration, the event was noticeable enough to be covered by the TV news (obviously) and in the local press

The leaflet
First signs...
. ... and finally some 300 showed up!!

The operation was a success! The day after, we held a meeting to officially create the "Alsace-Sarajevo" association in a room packed with hundreds of people! People of good will, from all walks of life, touched and horrified by what was happening there and angry against their own government (Mitterrand's France was de facto siding with Miloševic's Serbs). They would become the core of the whole operation. Normal citizen would show to the world they do care. They will become one-time heroes of an unprecedented humanitarian operation.

A key person joined us; Ms Anne Schumann who, thanks to her organizing abilities and political connections, helped the operatrion to gear up. Thanks to her, we received the support from a major local political and historical figure and respected from all: Mr Pierre Pflimlin. This was essential for the next stage of the operation: the fundraising. 

The practical decision was that we preferred to collect money rather than goods. Why? Because we know from experience that one could be appalled by what people would literally "get rid of" for "charity." We didn't want that. The other reason was time. It would have required far too much time to pack objects of various sizes, sort them out etc... And we were in an emergency situation. The option was to create one standardized "aid-pack" parcel whose size would optimize the space in the trucks, and also guarantee the quality and necessity of their contents: i.e. nonperishable food, products of hygiene (like soap, toilet paper or make-up set for women...), etc... that is for people living in exceptionally rough conditions.

So, one month later, on January 17, the "City Councils Open Day" operation was launched and announced by all local medias, an operation by which local authorities would help us with their staff to collect people's donations.

People were moved to know they could help doing something about what was happening in Sarajevo, however small their contribution was... I remember seeing on TV an old lady, who remembered the Second World War's atrocities, putting some of her small savings in the box, with tears in her eyes and saying to the camera: "Thank you...!"

In total some €880,000 (about US$1 million then) were raised.

With that money we were able to hire lorries and buy some 350 tons of goods for a city of 200,000 people. One parcel per person....

A month later, on February 17, the convoy finally set off (despite some difficulties which delayed it ten more days). The day before, all the lorries were safe-guarded at the Illkirch-Graffenstaden military base. In all, the column was made up of over 60 vehicles: 34 trucks, 12 vans, 6 coaches, 6 4x4, an ambulance and some



private cars. 130 people were accompanying the convoy: 77 drivers, 40 guides and a dozen of journalists. The convoy would grow bigger progressively: several French and foreign associations would add their trucks to it. A particular effort was made on the safety of the convoy: all the vehicles were in radio connection and a safety leaflet was distributed to all, which detailed attitudes to be adopted in the event of control. Risks exist for this human mission in a country in war, since it wasn't part of the "regular" official aid operations....

The night before, we had a contact with three trucks from Toulouse (South of France), which were like our "scouts". Good news!; they managed to enter to Sarajevo. After Salzburg (Austria), the convoy had to load additional goods at Ljubljana (Slovenia) then to spend the next night to Rijeka, a Croatian port on the Adriatic. Then off to Split, Kiseljak (Bosnia), a station occupied by the UN blue helmets where they would await for the necessary green light to enter to Sarajevo.


Which they did after one week of travel through very hard wheather conditions on February, 24... The drivers were exhausted and sometimes close to mutiny... All of that disappeared at the gates of Sarajevo, the ultimate destination! Now the delivery operation! All of the parcels were stored in 8 different safe places and distributed by local district associations and hospitals. The majority of the drivers were invited in host families, feeling what it is living in cold winter with no running water, no electricity, no heating... The following day we all had to go back to our usual comfort, leaving behind so many emotions from thankful people who realised they weren't completely forgotten... Was that the reason why security was temporarily forgotten? To the exit of Sarajevo, the convoy left without any Bosnian guide and was found itself in ... Dobrinja, the most bombarded and exposed district of Sarajevo!
Eventually they all came back safe on March 1rst...

The local newspapers and medias covered, on a daily basis, the progress and successes of the convoy...

In conclusion:

How is that that in two months time a tiny, unknown, inexperienced association of a handful of dedicated persons have made the dream of an aid convoy to Sarajevo in wartime come true?

The lessons are that sometimes, apparently the impossible can be achieved by people like you or me...

What happened next?

As far as I am aware, people who were involved in this operation kept little contact with each other, all getting back to their normal lives... Anne Schumann, one of the key organizers received recently the medal of the city of Sarajevo by its new mayor, Mrs. Semira Borovac.

As for myself I returned eventually to my home country, Belgium, ... to help organizing yet another demonstration in front of the EEC in Brussels (is this an obsession?). I had then the opportunity to meet somebody who managed to escape from Sarajevo's thanks to his then-Belgian girlfriend (this is another story that was eventually published in a book). He told me he remembered the parcels quite well, "That was good, we were hungry..." he said. He took the chance to study cinema in Brussels (he was one of the Bosnian army cameramen...). In 2002, he won the Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film for his film "No Man's Land". His name is Danis Tanovic.
Now, I am living in the U.K. and hope this will inspire some.

alsace sarajevo
Posted by Yves Messer on Friday, 30 October 2015

The Alsace-Sarajevo aid convoy announced on National French

Muslim Chechen boys Movsar Zyamaev and Rustam Daudov tried to stop Anders Behring Breivik’s Utøya massacre

Two Chechen youths did their best to save children’s lives from the terrorist rampage.

When 32-year-old Anders Breivik started killing people at a youth camp on July 22, three teenagers reportedly made an attempt to stop him by throwing stones at the murderer, but once one of them was shot dead, the other two had to retreat in order to save their own lives.

Seventeen-year-old Movsar Zyamaev and 16-year-old Rustam Daudov not only survived the massacre, but also managed to save many innocent lives and even attacked Breivik, pelting him from behind with stones, reports Norway’s Dagbladet newspaper.

When they first saw a shouting man who was running after a group of youths, they at first thought it was a joke, but after they witnessed the man shooting three people dead, including one of their friends, they retreated to the woods.

Some time after that, a man dressed in police uniform appeared and called them to come to him, but Movsar and Rustam chose to stay where they were  – only to see how the man, who was none other than Anders Breivik, shoot on the spot those who were trusting and unfortunate enough to approach him.

Movsar called his father, who instructed his son to stay calm, help others and try to stop the killer somehow – which the boys attempted without much luck, though reportedly one stone did hit Breivik’s head, making the latter curse the teenager who did it.

Once the teenagers understood they were unable to neutralize the terrorist, Movsar and Rustam began to gather those who had so far escaped the massacre into a sort of cave they discovered near the shoreline. Thus, they managed to save 23 people; three of whom were pulled out of the water by Movsar, who rightly considered they would not make it to the far shore because the water was too cold.

More from rt.com NBC.

This Man Realizes He’s Sitting Beside the People He Rescued From Nazi Death Camps

Before World War II, 669 children who were destined for Nazi death camps were rescued and transported to England by Sir Nicholas Winton. Years later, they came together for a touching surprise tribute to their hero...

Rosa Parks: the woman's action which sparked the Civil Rights Movement

Tired from a full day's work, Rosa Parks boarded a Montgomery bus on December 1, 1955. When she refused to obey the driver's order to give up her seat in the "colored" section for a white person, she was arrested for civil disobedience. Parks' act of defiance, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott that followed, are recognized as pivotal moments in the Civil Rights Movement.

1989: Man vs. tank (Tiananmen square, Beijing, China)

Tiananmen Tank Man: Faced Down the Chinese Army. The event took place on June 5, 1989, the morning after the Chinese military had suppressed the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 by force. Despite his anonymity, the image of the lone man in front of the tank has come to symbolize the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989 and is widely considered one of the iconic images of the 20th century.

Frank Wills: The Real Hero of Watergate

Security guard Frank Wills, the man who brought down president Nixon

On June 17, 1972, security guard Frank Wills was making his midnight rounds at the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C., when he noticed tape over the lock of a basement door. Thinking another worker had left it there accidentally, he removed it. Willis later found tape again in the same place. He called the police, and the rest is history. Two years later, President Nixon resigned in disgrace over his involvement in the coverup of the Watergate break-in.

MORE HERE

Frank Wills, an unsung hero of the Watergate break-in scandal suffered the consequences of his actions in 1972

Mohamed Bouazizi: the man's action which sparked the Arab Spring Revolution

This Tunisian street vendor never had any dreams bigger than saving enough money to rent or buy a pick-up truck. But when he set himself on fire out of desperation on 17 December 2010, he became a symbol of the suffering of all Tunisians. Bouazizi's death inspired the nationwide unrest that resulted in the overthrow of Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The Tunisian uprising, in turn, led to the Arab Spring Revolution that ultimately toppled dictatures in Libya and Egypt. The Syrian war has to be understood from this historical perspective.

Iranian teacher shaves head in solidarity with bullied pupil

Ali Mohammadian's gesture, copied by his entire class of more than 20 pupils, stops bullying and attracts praise from all over country

When Iranian schoolteacher Ali Mohammadian noticed that one of his students was being bullied after going bald as a result of a mysterious illness, he decided to show solidarity and shave his own hair. In no time, his entire class shaved their heads and the bullying stopped.




Now, Mohammadian, who teaches at Sheikh Shaltoot's elementary school in Marivan, a Kurdish city in the west of Iran, has become a national hero. President Hassan Rouhani has praised him, the government has offered financial support for the pupil's medical treatment and his story has reached the four corners of his country.

"I'm so happy that this has touched many hearts and people reacted enormously positive," the 45-year-old teacher told the Guardian by phone from Marivan. "Everyone in the school now wants to shave their head."

Earlier this month, Mohammadian posted a picture of himself with eight-year-old Mahan Rahimi on Facebook. "Our heads are sensitive to hair," he wrote on the social network in support of his student. "Mahan had become isolated after going bald, smile had disappeared from his face and I was concerned about his class performance. That's why I thought about shaving my head to get him back on track."

Mohammadian's Facebook post soon caught the eyes of hundreds of Iranian web users. "When I logged in to my Facebook the next day, I couldn't believe the number of people who had liked it and shared it," he said.

Iranian media, including national TV, interviewed him and Iran's education minister, Ali Asghar Fani, soon invited both to Tehran for a formal thank-you. The governor of the Kurdistan province, Abdolmohammad Zahedi, also conveyed the president's message to him.

In a matter of days, Mohammadian's 23 other students in the class were inspired by their teacher's action and insisted that they, too, wanted to shave their heads. "I told them to wait until the winter's cold weather was over but when we came back from Tehran, they had all shaved," he said. "This Saturday morning I stepped into the class and everyone had gone bald."

Doctors at the Razi hospital in Tehran told state television that Mahan had problems with his immune system but they were investigating the exact nature of his disease. According to the teacher, medics in Tehran have also sent samples to Germany for a possible diagnosis. "Mahan's classmates have since become supportive of him and a smile is back on his face," said the teacher.

Mohammadian has 23 years of teaching experience and has two daughters and a son. "In places like Syria and Iraq or Sudan, children are being killed every day and in places like Pakistan and India child labour is widespread. I'm extremely worried about the horrific ordeals those children face on a daily basis."

SOURCE HERE.

MORE: President orders devoted teacher to be appreciated

Hutu Muslims saved Tutsis during Rwandan genocide

Rwanda has been marking the 15th anniversary of the country's genocide when according to the government 1.2 million people were killed, the UN says 800,000 died, most of those murdered were ethnic Tutsis.

PAUL RUSESABAGINA LIFESAVER HERO DURING RWANDAN GENOCIDE (1994)

“There are stories to be told that must not be forgotten. We can never give up on the lessons learned from Rwanda.” - Paul Rusesabagina

Paul Rusesabagina

"On April 6, 1994, a 100-day run of terror and genocide took over the already divided nation of Rwanda. The two ethnic groups of Rwanda—the Hutus and the Tutsis—had long been at odds with one another, and despite some help from the United Nation to control the fighting, the Hutu extremists continued their battles with the Tutsis. When the United Nations’ peacekeepers began to be among those attacked, they withdrew most of their troops, leaving the battles to rage on. Soon the Tutsis had very few outsiders to help them survive; however one Rwandan—half Tutsi and half Hutu—stepped in. Paul Rusesabagina, the acting manager for the luxurious Hotel des Milles Collines, took in more than 1200 refugees into the hotel in effort to save them from the massacre. At the end of the 100 days, nearly a million people were murdered, most with machetes, but the refuges under Paul’s protection were unharmed. "

FROM LIFESAVER HERO: PAUL RUSESABAGINA by Kathy Crockett, The My Hero Project

SEE

• The Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation founded by Paul Rusesabagina,
• Rwanda: How the genocide happened

Dead at 98: Heroic Irena Sendler, who helped save 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazis

SOURCE HERE

A woman who risked her life saving 2,500 Jewish children from the gas chambers died yesterday aged 98.
Irena Sendler, a social worker, smuggled them out of the Warsaw Ghetto and gave them false identities.
She died at a Warsaw hospital after she had been in hospital for a month with pneumonia.

Mrs Sendler was serving as a social worker with the city's welfare department during World War II when she masterminded the risky rescue operations of Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto.
Records show that her team of some 20 people saved nearly 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto between October 1940 and April 1943, when the Nazis burned the ghetto, shooting the residents or sending them to death camps.
"A great person has died - a person with a great heart, with great organizational talents, a person who always stood on the side of the weak," Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising, told TVN24 television.
Under the pretext of inspecting the ghetto's sanitary conditions during a typhoid outbreak, Mrs Sendler and her assistants went inside in search of children who could be smuggled out and given a chance of survival by living as Catholics.
Babies and small children were smuggled out in ambulances and in trams, sometimes wrapped up as packages.

More HERE.

'Hero' Teacher Stopped Shooting With Hug

March 16, 2006
Source HERE

A Nevada gym teacher who risked her own life to stop a 14-year-old student who allegedly was shooting his classmates is being called a hero, but Jencie Fagan says any mother would have done the same thing.

"I think anybody else would have done it," Fagan told "Good Morning America." "I look at the students as if they're my own, and I'm sure the teachers at my daughter's high school look at my daughter as if she's their own."

When three gun shots were fired in the halls of Pine Middle School just after 9 a.m. on Tuesday, students scattered, but Fagan walked toward the alleged shooter, 14-year-old James Newman.

"As soon as I came to the doors of the cafeteria from the gym, he discharged the weapon once and I looked at what was going on," Fagan said.

Police say Newman managed to get off three shots, hitting one boy in the upper arm. A girl was hurt when a bullet ricocheted off the floor, hitting her knee. Both students are doing fine.

Fagan persuaded Newman to put down the gun, then held Newman in a "bear hug" until other teachers arrived to help.

"He tossed the gun down, and then I hugged him, and I told him I wouldn't leave him," Fagan said.

"She's a hero in my book," said Reno police Lt. Ron Donnelly. "She displayed uncommon courage and character. That's not a natural reaction, to hear gunfire and walk toward that gunfire."

Newman was booked on suspicion of attempted murder and remains in jail on $150,000. He will be tried as an adult.

Fagan said she was shocked by the shooting.

"We had no clue this might happen," she said. "I knew him [Newman] pretty well. We had had several conversations. He was even talking about joining the track team. He wasn't a problem student, and he wasn't an unhappy kid."

Donnelly said detectives had found drawings and writing in Newman's school locker that suggested he was planning to kill.

"We found stick drawings in his locker and James Newman had labeled one of the figures as himself and he had a gun and there were other figures lying on the ground," Donnelly said. "We also found a note, or a letter to himself, that essentially says 'No one knows who I am now, but they will tomorrow.'"

Fagan said that she felt bad for Newman, but that she was grateful no one was more seriously injured. She said she was not scared at any point.

"I was just glad it was over, and no one was killed," Fagan said. "And I was sad for him, because I know him. I care about my students immensely. I felt real emotion for him, and I knew at that point his life would never be the same again."

A Victim Treats His Mugger Right

Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.

But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.

He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.

"He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, 'Here you go,'" Diaz says.

As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm."

The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, "like what's going on here?" Diaz says. "He asked me, 'Why are you doing this?'"

Diaz replied: "If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me ... hey, you're more than welcome.

"You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help," Diaz says.



Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.

"The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi," Diaz says. "The kid was like, 'You know everybody here. Do you own this place?'"

"No, I just eat here a lot," Diaz says he told the teen. "He says, 'But you're even nice to the dishwasher.'"

Diaz replied, "Well, haven't you been taught you should be nice to everybody?"

"Yea, but I didn't think people actually behaved that way," the teen said.

Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. "He just had almost a sad face," Diaz says.

The teen couldn't answer Diaz — or he didn't want to.

When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, "Look, I guess you're going to have to pay for this bill 'cause you have my money and I can't pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I'll gladly treat you."

The teen "didn't even think about it" and returned the wallet, Diaz says. "I gave him $20 ... I figure maybe it'll help him. I don't know."

Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen's knife — "and he gave it to me."

Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, "You're the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch."

"I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world."

Produced for Morning Edition by Michael Garofalo.

SOURCE HERE.

Hero jumps in front of a train to save a stranger

David Benke: Teacher Saves Lives By Tackling Gunnman at School

David Benke, Hero Teacher: Hailed for Tackling Gunman, Says He Hoped He Would Be Ready

LITTLETON, Colo. (CBS/AP) David Benke says he has been thinking about the moment that he might have to act to protect his students, but he didn't know if it was "courage or stupidity."

The Deer Creek Middle School math teacher is being credited with intercepting a gunman who shot two students outside the school, and preventing what could have been a far worse toll of violence.

"If something happens and there's something that I can do about it, I want to try and do something about it," an emotional Benke said at a news conference Tuesday with other staff members of the Littleton, Colo. school outside of Denver. "I said, 'I hope that I'm capable of doing something about it."

Benke, a father of 7-year-old twins and a 13-year-old girl, is a 6-foot-5 former college basketball player who oversees the school's track team. He was monitoring the parking lot in the afternoon when he heard what he thought was a firecracker and began walking toward the noise.

Authorities said 32-year-old Bruco Strong Eagle Eastwood had already wounded two students, and seemed ready to unleash more violence when Benke sprung into action.

Benke said he confronted the gunman, tackled him and pinned him to the ground with the help of another teacher, stopping what could have been a much more violent encounter in a city all too familiar with tragic school shootings. The shooting occurred less than three miles from where the Columbine High School massacre happened nearly 11 years ago.

"At first when I was walking over there, it was kind of what a teacher does," Benke said, still shaken hours after the shooting. "`Hey kid, what are you doing,' you know that kind of thing."

"I grabbed him from the front and we were dancing around pushing and shoving," he said.

School officials praised the quick actions by Benke and his colleagues as further proof that preparations put in place after Columbine have paid off. But authorities are still investigating to better understand what happened, including why and for how long the alleged gunman, Eastwood, was inside the school building before the shooting.

As for Benke, he said he still wishes he could have done more, "it bugs me that he got another round off" before Benke tackled him to the ground.

Source HERE.

Real Life Heroes [Good people]

Yohan Cohen: Hero Hostage Died Saving Child

Hostage Yohan Cohen died trying to wrestle a gun from terrorist Amedy Coulibaly as he held up innocent shoppers saving a child's life

By Nicola Harley1:11AM GMT 11 Jan 2015

Brave hostage Yohan Cohen died trying to protect the innocent shoppers with him, saving the life of a three-year-old, as he tackled armed gunman Amedy Coulibaly.
Yohen, 22, is one of four hostages killed when terrorist Coulibaly targeted the Hyper Cache supermarket in Porte de Vincennes in the east of Paris on Friday.
"The police said the terrorist threatened to kill a three-year-old boy and Yohan tried to stop it," his cousin Yonatan Cohen told Israeli media.
"He managed to grab the terrorist's weapon but before Yohan had a chance to shoot him, the terrorist put a bullet in his head and killed him on the spot."
He died along with Yoav Hattab, 21, Philippe Braham and Francois-Michel Saada.

Source HERE.

Muslim worker at Paris kosher store saves 6 people from attack

Muslim worker at Paris kosher store saves 6 people from attack

SOURCE HERE

Lassana Bathily from Mali worked at the kosher supermarket and led six people to safety during the attack by hiding them in the supermarket's freezer.

Rachel Cadars

MORE 

Paris shootings: 200,000 sign petition for Muslim hero who hid hostages to get French citizenship and prestigious Legion d'honneur

More than 200,000 people have signed a petition calling for a "hero" of the kosher supermarket siege in Paris to be given French citizenship and the country's highest honour.

The Change.org petition calls on President Francois Hollande to grant Lassana Bathily French nationality and the Legion d'honneur for saving 15 lives during the siege last week.

Mr Bathily, a Muslim man originally from Mali in west Africa, reportedly shepherded terrified customers to safety in a switched-off storeroom freezer to avoid gunman Amedy Coulibaly.

Islamist terrorist Coulibaly - the main suspect in the fatal shooting of a policewoman a day earlier in the Parisian suburb of Montrouge - killed four of the 19 hostages before police stormed the building and shot him dead.

Mr Bathily, 24, later escaped through a fire escape to talk to police.

He was praised for his quick-thinking actions since his role in helping customers. Speaking after he escaped the supermarket, he told BFMTV: "When they ran down, I opened the door (from the freezer).

"There are several people who came to me. I turned off the light, I turned off the freezer.

"When I turned off the cold, I put them (hostages) in, I closed the door, I told them to stay calm."

As of Wednesday afternoon it has been signed by more than 220,000 people, with a target of 200,000.

Additional reporting by PA

Actress Laurie Holden Helped Rescue 55 young girls

‘Walking Dead’ Actress Goes Undercover And Saves 55 Sex Slaves In Real Life

Source HERE

Here’s a pretty unbelievable story: Laurie Holden is an actress who plays Andrea on “The Walking Dead,” but she isn't just an actress.

Holden also works as a human rights activist with a group called Operation Underground Railroad.

It’s an organization run by an ex-CIA agent named Tim Ballard that works to take down unsavory human traffickers and the like.

So, Holden and the group went down to Colombia to try to take down a group of men who were trafficking in underage prostitutes. Ballard, Holden and co. ingratiated themselves into this group and set up an elaborate party in an effort to catch these men in the act.

The party was held at a massive mansion and the sex traffickers believed it was an event set up to facilitate the sale of these underage girls to interested parties.

A film crew as well as Colombian law enforcement were hiding out during the party.

Holden watched over the young girls as Ballard coerced the traffickers into making a faux transaction with him. Once that happened and was caught on tape, the police jumped out and arrested the guilty parties.

All in all, 55 young girls were rescued. And it’s in no small part to the work of Laurie Holden. Doesn't that beat any episode of TV you've seen lately?

Malala Yousafzai will 'inspire a new generation'

Source HERE

Pakistan schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by a Taliban gunman for campaigning for girls' education is an inspiration to other young Muslim girls, a UK human rights group has said.

Inspire, an organisation which seeks to address inequalities facing British Muslim women, has condemned the shooting of the 14-year-old.

"It is disheartening that in a country like Pakistan, which did have a female Muslim prime minister, there are people that feel threatened by the empowerment of women and young girls," said director Sara Khan.

"I hope Malala makes a full recovery and she continues to inspire a new generation to advocate for Muslim women's equality both here in Britain and Pakistan."

Malala, who had a bullet removed from her skull last week, is being treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham where she has been since Monday.

She was flown from Pakistan via the United Arab Emirates by air ambulance, almost a week after she and two other schoolgirls were attacked as they returned home from school in Mingora in the Swat Valley.



'Almost inevitable'

Qayyum Choudhury, chairman of the Council of British Pakistanis, based in Birmingham, said he was pleased the city had a role to play in her recovery.

He said: "There is a strong connection [between the two places] because of the large number of Pakistanis who live in the city, I am proud that Birmingham has stepped in to help this situation."

Malala became widely known as a campaigner for girls' education in Pakistan as a result of a diary she wrote for BBC Urdu about life under the Taliban, when they banned all girls from attending school.

Mr Choudhury said the assassination attempt by the Taliban had been "almost inevitable".

"Whoever it was advising her, putting her at the front of this campaign, should have thought that she would be in immense danger," he said.

"They should have thought about whether she could defend herself and how vulnerable she was, because if you make a statement of that sort against the Taliban, you will be targeted."

'Right not privilege'

The Taliban said they had attacked her for "promoting secularism".

The gunman, who boarded the van in which she was travelling, asked for her by name before shooting at her three times.

Urooj, 18, who is a student from the Sparkhill area of Birmingham, said that "an education for young Muslim women was a right not a privilege."

She said: "In the Islamic faith they do say that education for everyone is a really important part of our faith and this is what she wanted.

"Girls in Pakistan do have a lot of skills they want to project but because of certain people they just really can't.

"I do possibly feel that this will turn opinions against those who attacked her because the Taliban did admit they did this to her and there's an outrage in Pakistan at the moment about it."

Doctors at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital said they were hopeful Malala could recover from her injuries.


Speaking on Tuesday, Dr David Rosser said she was making good progress, but had a long way to go and was not "out of the woods yet".