Simon Mol

Simon Mol (6 November 1973 in Buea, Cameroon – 10 October 2008) was the pen name of Simon Moleke Njie, a Cameroon-born journalist, writer and anti-racist political activist.[1] In 1999 he sought political asylum in Poland; it was granted in 2000, and he moved to Warsaw, where he became a well-known anti-racist campaigner.

In Poland, Mol was accused of knowingly spreading the HIV virus and was charged in the cases of eleven women and remanded in custody.[2] However, Mol's trial was suspended due to his severe illness.[3] He died from HIV-related complications on 10 October 2008.

Life in Africa

Mol was born into an English-speaking family in Cameroon. His autobiography states that he worked as a journalist; was persecuted and jailed for his writing; sought political asylum in several African countries; and was granted asylum in Ghana, where he was persecuted again.[4]

On 6 March 2007 newspaper Rzeczpospolita published an article on Simon Mol (Na tropie oszusta Simona Mola by Bertold Kittel and Maja Narbutt in co-operation with Anna Machowska from TVN), stating that his biography was fabricated. An editor of the Cameroonian English language weekly The Sketch denied that Njie worked there; his mother said he was employed at a refinery; didn't write about government corruption in Cameroon; and was not jailed in 1996. A representative of Ghanaian journalists said that while in Ghana Njie published newspaper articles about football and was never arrested in that country.

Life in Poland

In June 1999 he arrived in Poland as a member of the Ghanaian PEN Club delegation to a PEN annual congress in Warsaw. Immediately, Njie applied for asylum, which was granted in September 2000.

In Poland Simon Mol wrote poems, founded a small theatre, and engaged in political campaigns for the rights of mostly African and Chechen refugees, anti-racism, anti-fascism and environmental protection.[5] A journal article, Post –Unification Anglophone Exile Poetry: Introducing Simon Mol & Kangsen Feka Wakai, reviewed his poetry in 2006.[6]

His activities brought attention to presumed racial discrimination in Poland,[7] with him filing reports to Amnesty International about the alleged institutional racism.[8]

Sports

He was a football player in the Mazur Karczew football team. One of the matches that he organized himself for his all-Black team was against Polonia Warszawa, according to the bulletin of the Polish Humanitarian Organisation.[9]

He later used his sports team for political campaigns.[10]

Public career

He became an advisor with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a journalist of The Warsaw Voice, the secretary general of Association of Refugees in the Republic of Poland, the chief editor of "The Voice of the Refugee" ("Głos Uchodźców”)[11]

In 2005 he organized a conference with Black ambassadors in Poland to protest the claims in an article in Wiedza i Życie by Adam Leszczyński about AIDS problems in Africa, which quoted research stating that a majority of African women were unable to persuade their HIV positive husbands to wear condoms, and so later got caught HIV themselves. Mol accused Leszczyński of prejudice because of this publication.[12]

As a cultural representative of the international anti-racist sports campaigns organized by UEFA,[13] he was sent to conferences in Italy and the UK.[14]

Accusations of HIV criminal infection

South African Press Association (SAPA) and Agence France Presse in their article described him as "a darling of Poland’s liberal press" due to his political campaigns[15] Thus some of his victims were reportedly intimidated and threatened[16] and Polish police delayed his arrest for long because of his political connections,[17] thus allowing him to infect new victims.

In February 2006, further to his partner's request for him to take an HIV test, Mol declined and published a post on his blog explaining why not:

Character assassination isn’t a new phenomenon. However, it appears here the game respects no rules. It wouldn’t be superfluous to state that there is an ingrained, harsh and disturbing dislike for Africans here. The accusation of being HIV positive is the latest weapon that as an African your enemy can raise against you. This ideologically inspired weapon, is strengthened by the day with disturbing literature about Africa from supposed-experts on Africa, some of whom openly boast of traveling across Africa in two weeks and return home to write volumes. What some of these hastily compiled volumes have succeeded in breeding, is a social and psychological conviction that every African walking the street here is supposedly HIV positive, and woe betide anyone who dares to unravel the myth being put in place.[18]

According to the police inspector who was investigating his case, a witness stated that Mol refused to wear condoms during sex. An anonymous witness in one case said that he accused a girl who demanded he should wear them that she was racist because as he was Black she thought he must be infected with HIV.[19] After sexual intercourse he used to say to his female partners that his sperm was sacred. [20]

In November 2006 he was suspected of criminal infection of HIV and proceedings started.

On the 3rd of January 2007 Mol was taken into custody by the Polish police and charged with infecting his sexual partners with HIV.[21][22] According to the Rzeczpospolita newspaper, he was diagnosed with HIV back in 1999 while living in a refugee shelter, but Polish law does not force an HIV carrier to reveal his or her disease status.

In an unusual move, his photo with an epidemiological warning, was ordered to be publicly displayed by the then Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro.[23] MediaWatch, a body that monitors alleged racism, quickly denounced this decision, asserting that it was a breach of ethics with racist implications, as the picture had been published before any court verdict. They saw it as evidence of institutional racism in Poland, also calling for international condemnation.[24]

After his arrest, Mol stated he had no knowledge of being an HIV carrier and accused the police of racism.[25][26]

Mol was put on trial in July 2008, but the trial was suspended when Mol's health deteriorated. Due to this and previous procedural delays, at this point the case on behalf of his victims was taken over by the then current minister of Education and Deputy PM Roman Giertych, who demanded that the case be requalified as intentional murder and demanded life sentence for Mol, thus increasing the profile of the case.[27]

Mol was hospitalised, suffering from acute renal failure. Mol died on 10 October 2008 in Warsaw.[28] Until his death he stated he had no knowledge of being infected by HIV, claiming that his case was political.[29]

Social and political impact

Mol's affair had a "high domestic profile" and political impact.[30] A study by Agnieszka Weinar stated that "The incident was widely discussed in the media, but it did not have any political repercussions". The study, conducted before Mol's death, showed that that the number of articles compared with Polish coverage of the London bombings of July 2005; urban riots in France in autumn 2005; and Danish cartoons affair.[31]

Epidemiological impact

Initial testing panic

After police published Mol's photo and an alert before the start of court proceedings, Warsaw HIV testing centers were "invaded by young women". A few said that they knew Mol. Some of the HIV tests have been positive. According to the police inspector who had been monitoring the tests and the case: "Some women very quickly started to suffer drug-resistant tonsillitis and fungal infections. They looked wasted, some lost as many as 15 kilograms and were deeply traumatized, impeding us taking the witness statements. 18 additional likely victims have been identified thereby".[32] Genetic tests of the virus from the infectees and Simon proved that it was specific to Cameroon.[33]

Record number of HIV virus cases were detected in the central Mazovia region and the whole Poland in January 2007.[34] Simon Mol's had visited Gdańsk in September 2006, where he helped organize the anti-racist "Music against Intolerance and Violence" festival. After publishing Mol's epidemiological alert, the number of HIV tests in the Gdańsk provincial centers exceeded 100, day in day out, including two worried males who learnt that their partners had slept with Mol, while the usual number had been hovering over a dozen cases daily beforehand.[35]

Changed refugee law

Despite concerns voiced by UNHCR in April 2007 the plans for HIV testing of asylum seekers were fully introduced in Poland shortly after Mol's well-publicised trial.[36] Poland joined Iceland and Slovakia as the only three countries in Europe to offer HIV testing prior to entry for all migrants on arrival, with other EU countries targeting their tests to ethnic groups, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe.[37]

Awards and recognition

In 2003, he received the award "Antifascist of the Year" given by the Nigdy Więcej ("Never Again") anti-rasism association.[38]

In 2004, on behalf of the President of Poland, he was nominated for the Sergio Vieira de Mello Prize, alongside the ex-PM Tadeusz Mazowiecki and other Polish luminaries, for "rebuilding peace in post-conflict communities", under the patronage of the High Commissioner of the United Nations for Refugees, among other institutions.[39]

Honorary member of the British International Pen Club Centre.[40]

In 2006 Mol received the prestigious award „Oxfam Novib/PEN Award for Freedom of Expression”.[41][42]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "More victims of Simon Mol".
  2. ↑ Simon Mol usłyszy 13 zarzutów.
  3. ↑ Umierający Simon M. wychodzi z aresztu Polish newspaper Gazeta.pl, 25 September 2008.
  4. ↑ http://www.molsimon.art.pl/biography.html
  5. ↑ "Simon Mol outside public profile".
  6. ↑ Besong, Bate. "Post –Unification Anglophone Exile Poetry: Introducing Simon Mol & Kangsen Feka Wakai". Interculturel Francophonies.
  7. ↑ "Simon Mol's political website". Archived from the original on 2014. As a young journalist critical of corrupt governments in his home country Cameroon and Ghana, Simon Mol, now 33, ended up in jail twice and was tortured. He refused to stop although he could. As a political refugee in Poland he has been fighting discrimination and for refugee rights. Now, the one-man-institution who inspires thousands is on the verge of giving up.
  8. ↑ Préoccupations d 'Amnesty International en Europe Janvier-Juin 2001 (EUR 01/003/01 ed.). Simon Moleke Njie, un ressortissant camerounais qui bénéficie de l’asile politique, et Issa Amadou Tall, un Sénégalais venu en Pologne à l’invitation de l’Institut des mathématiques de l’Académie des sciences, ont été abordés par quatre hommes. [...] Au moment de la rédaction du présent rapport, Amnesty International n’a connaissance d’aucun progrès dans les enquêtes menées sur ces deux allégations de violences racistes. Amnesty International a exhorté les autorités polonaises de veiller à ce que toutes les personnes résidant sur leur territoire soient traitées de la même façon et bénéficient de la même protection. L’ organisation les a aussi exhortées à conduire une enquête approfondie et exhaustive sur les faits signalés, y compris sur la conduite des policiers mis en cause.
  9. ↑ "Simon Mol, Anti-Fascist of the Year 2003". 22 January 2004. Archived from the original on 2007. Jest też miłośnikiem piłki nożnej, gra w drużynie Mazura Karczew.
  10. ↑ "Mazury Karczew player is the "Antifascist of the Year"". Archived from the original on 2014. we współpracy ze Stowarzyszeniem "Nigdy więcej" zorganizował m.in. serie imprez w ramach Tygodnia Akcji "Futbol przeciwko Rasizmowi w Europie", w tym mecz z udziałem drużyn Polonii Warszawa oraz Afrykańczyków mieszkających w Polsce
  11. ↑ "Sekretne życie Simona Mola". Polityka. 2007. Archived from the original on 2014. Zostaje doradcą w Ministerstwie Spraw Zagranicznych, jest dziennikarzem pisma „The Warsaw Voice”, sekretarzem generalnym Stowarzyszenia Uchodźców RP, redaktorem naczelnym „Głosu Uchodźców”.
  12. ↑ "Sekretne życie Simona Mola". Polityka. 2007. Archived from the original on 2014. Gdy w „Wiedzy i Życiu” ukazał się artykuł Adama Leszczyńskiego o tym, że w Afryce trzy czwarte żyjących z HIV to kobiety, które są pod tak silną presją, iż nie są w stanie wymusić na niewiernym małżonku, aby używał prezerwatyw, Simon Mol rozpętuje burzę. Na konferencję zaprasza czarnoskórych dyplomatów, żeby pokazać, jak się w Polsce pisze – dzika Afryka! .
  13. ↑ "The Warsaw Voice - Tackling Racism". www.warsawvoice.pl. Retrieved 2015-09-22.
  14. ↑ "The Value of Italy, Proceedings of the Festival of Modernity, December 2006" (PDF).
  15. ↑ "Cameroonian Refugee on Trial for Infecting 11 Women with HIV". South African Press Association's SAPA and Agence France Presse:. Archived from the original on August 30, 2014. Retrieved August 2014. Njie became a darling of Poland’s liberal press for organising vocal campaigns against racism and supporting the cause of refugees in Poland.
  16. ↑ "Cameroonian activist guilty not only of spreading HIV in Poland?". Polskie Radio. February 2, 2007. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014. Reportedly, he was so influential in some elite circles, that the witnesses who have testified against him are now being intimidated and threatened.
  17. ↑ "Legend which kills". Rzeczpospolita. English: Police was hesitating for long if to arrest Simon M because of his position and connections. Polish: Policja wahała się dość długo, czy zatrzymać Simona M. Uznano. że ma taką pozycję i znajomości, że nie można sobie pozwolić na najmniejszy błąd
  18. ↑ Mol, Simon. "Son of Efasamoto: I Stand Accused".
  19. ↑ "All women of Simon Mol". Rzeczpospolita. Polish quote directly from police officer Mr Siewert: W czasie intymnych spotkań Mol stanowczo nie zgadzał się na używanie prezerwatyw. - Kiedy jedna z dziewcząt zaprotestowała, Kameruńczyk zareagował bardzo ostro. Miał pretensje, że jest rasistką, że domaga się prezerwatywy dlatego, że jest czarny i na pewno ma HIV. W rezultacie ona poddała się i uległa - dodaje Siewert.
  20. ↑ "Sekretne życie Simona Mola". Polityka. 2007. Archived from the original on 2014. "He used to tell the girls after sex as follows: My sperm is sacred" Polish: "Tak lubił mówić dziewczynom po stosunku: – Moja sperma jest święta. Moja sperma jest święta.".
  21. ↑ "Notice of Warsaw Police about arresting Simone Moleke Njie". Archived from the original on 11 March 2007.
  22. ↑ "Cameroonian arrested for infecting women with HIV". PAP. Cameroonian arrested for infecting women with HIV
  23. ↑ "Cameroonian arrested for infecting women with HIV". Simon M.'s photo will be displayed to the public at justice ministry website, Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said.
  24. ↑ "http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/01/360600.html?c=on". MediaWatch Poland. ethic rules were broken. The whole story was used in a racist way, as the verdict was given both by the authorities and the media before any trial was conducted. MediaWatch has to declare the existence of institutional racis External link in |title= (help)
  25. ↑ RMF FM article, 4 January 2007.
  26. ↑ Na tropie oszusta Simona Mola, "Rzeczpospolita", 6 March 2007, Bertold Kittel, Maja Narbutt; with help from Anna Machowska (TVN).
  27. ↑ "Roman Giertych, obrońca kobiet, chce zmiany zarzutów na usiłowanie zabójstwa.". Archived from the original on September 5, 2014.
  28. ↑ http://fakty.interia.pl/fakty_dnia/news/simon-mol-nie-zyje,1192982,2943 http://www.dziennik.pl/wydarzenia/article250189/Simon_Mol_nie_zyje.html.
  29. ↑ "Cameroonian activist accused of infecting women with HIV is dying". Today Mol still denies the accusations, claiming that the case is political.
  30. ↑ Shevel, Oxana (2011). Migration, Refugee Policy, and State Building in Postcommunist Europe. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 1139502336. "issues that have high domestic profile are evident in the following episode. [...] much-publicized trial of a Cameroonian refugee...
  31. ↑ Weinar, Agnieszka. Multiculturalism debates in Poland (PDF). Open University UK. Minimum requirement being 10 articles on the given topic. The events that were chosen for analysis were as follows: London bombings of July 2005; urban riots in France in autumn 2005; and Danish cartoons affair and Simon Mol case.
  32. ↑ "New victims of Simon Mol". Rzeczpospolita. Polish: Odkąd ujawniono informację, że znany uchodźca, poeta i obrońca praw człowieka Simon Mol zarażał niebędące tego świadome partnerki wirusem, stale rośnie liczba kobiet, które chcą wykonać anonimowy test. Tylko niektóre przyznają, żeznały Kameruńczyka. Od piątku przynajmniej u kilku kobiet test wypadł pozytywnie: zostały zarażone HIV. Wirus, którego nosicielem jest Simon Mol, dla Europejczyków jest wyjątkowo agresywny. - Niektóre kobiety praktycznie od razu zaczęły chorować na anginę, której nie leczą żadne antybiotyki, pojawiły się grzybice. Są wyniszczone, niektóre schudły nawet 15 kilogramów - mówi nadkomisarz Marek Siewert, zastępca komendanta żoliborskiej komendy, który nadzorował śledztwo. Kobiety, które dowiedziały się o zarażeniu, przeżywają szok. -Musieliśmy przerywać przesłuchanie jednej z nich, bo miała napady płaczu i histerycznego śmiechu - dodaje policjant. Policja sprawdza informacje o 18 innych kobietach. Podczas przesłuchań Mol nie przyznał się do winy. Był uśmiechnięty i odprężony.
  33. ↑ "Legend that killed". Badania genetyczne wirusa wykazały, że jest to subtyp typowy dla Kamerunu.
  34. ↑ "Record number of HIV cases detected in Poland". Polskie Radio. 7 February 2007. Archived from the original on 2014.
  35. ↑ "Mol was infecting also in Gdańsk".
  36. ↑ Shevel, Oxana (2011). Migration, Refugee Policy, and State Building in Postcommunist Europe. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 1139502336. "The limits of UNHCR's lobbying capabilities on issues that have high domestic profile are evident in the following episode. [...] The introduction of HIV testing of asylum seekers came on the heels of much-publicized trial of a Cameroonian refugee and renowned human rights activist accused of knowingly infecting dozens of Polish women with HIV.
  37. ↑ HIV in Migrants (PDF). p. 8.
  38. ↑ "Kameruński uchodźca antyfaszystą roku". Archived from the original on 26 February 2005.
  39. ↑ Rebuilding Peace in post-Conflict COmmunities (PDF). Nominated: Konstanty Gebert, Father Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski, Antoni Malczak, Liliana Olech, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, and Moleke Mo-Nije (a.k.a. Simon Mol).
  40. ↑ "Fluechtlinge in Polen, Simon Moleke Njie". Simon Moleke Njie - pen name of Simon Mol. Cameroun. Political exile. Left Cameroun after the publication of an article disclosing a corruption scandal in his country. Initially seeking exile in Ghana, where he obtained refugee status in 1998, he then had to escape on account of breaking censorship laws. Mol continues writing poetry and prose, and is published regularly in an Indian monthly - an anthology of international poetry - as well as other Indian, British and American periodicals. He is also writing a memoir. He is an honorary member of the British International PEN-CLUB Centre. Contributor to the 'Warsaw Voice'. The photo shows Mol during a writersÝ evening in a library in WarsawÝs Zoliborz district.
  41. ↑ "Wolność Ekspresji trafiła do Polski". Gazeta Wyborcza. It is not only due to my merit, but thanks to effort of some people, said Mol, Polish: Prestiżową nagrodę przyznawaną przez Międzynarodowy Pen Club otrzymał Simon Mol [...] Ta nagroda to nie tylko moja zasługa, ale efekt starań wielu osób - podkreśla Simon.
  42. ↑ www.pen-international.org

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