Dear Friends and Comrades,

at Sunday, the 19. December 1999 at 6 o'clock in the morning some hundreds of police officers, the GSG 9 (anti terror squad), the General prosecutor of Germany and other special forces of the German repression machinery raided the Mehringhof in Berlin. (The Mehringhof is a centre of left wing and alternative culture and politics. In the autumn of 1999 it launched its 20th anniversary.) This happened under the accusation of membership and/or support of the "Revolutionäre Zellen / Rote Zora (RZ)" (Revolutionary Nuclears). They searched for weapons and explosives, made a damage of estimate 100.000 German Mark, but they found nothing! At the same morning two colleagues of projects of the Mehringhof were arrested at home and were deported to Karlsruhe. At the same time Sabine E. was arrested in Frankfurt/Main. The two people who were arrested in Berlin are Harald G., working in the "Research society for refuge and migration", and our friend and comrade Axel Haug.

In 1981 Axel took part in a solidarity brigade constructing a school in Masaya (Nicaragua). At that time he worked in the "Spectrum", one of the first pubs in Westberlin which was run by a political collective. He was one of the founders. With the money earned in the pub the "Spectrum-Collective" realised two projects in Nicaragua. They built the school in San Gerónimo and a soap producing manufacture for female Salvadorian refugees in San Rafael del Sur.

While our solidarity work in Central America Axel worked close together with us. He was the co-ordinator of the project "Radio in Nueva Guinea", a medium wave radio for the campesinos. Radio Nueva Guinea was a common project of Coppi e.V. and some West German solidarity groups and the comrades in Nicaragua. Up to day Axel is supporting our radio projects in Central America and South Africa.

We reclaim the immediate release of the arrested comrades and are asking for your support.

General assembly Coppi e.V. from 6.Januar 2000