Elias Bierdel

Elias Bierdel (2011)

Elias Bierdel (born November 14, 1960 in Berlin ) is a German journalist. He has been working at the Austrian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution since 2010 . From 2002 to 2004 he was head and chairman of the aid organization Cap Anamur / German emergency doctors .

Life

After graduating from high school in 1979, Bierdel studied economics and social sciences from 1980 to 1983 . He then worked as a trainee at the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung . In 1985 he became an editor at the Westfälische Rundschau . From 1986 to 1993 he worked as a freelance journalist on radio and television . In 1994 he switched to Deutschlandfunk as an editor .

During his work as a radio correspondent in the ARD studio Südosteuropa in Vienna , he reported extensively from Kosovo . He was one of the last journalists to leave the country when NATO intervened in the Kosovo war with air strikes . There he made the acquaintance of the aid organization Cap Anamur . In 2002 he became a project worker for Cap Anamur in Afghanistan . In December 2002 he was elected to the board of the organization.

On July 12, 2004, he hit the headlines when he was arrested by the Italian authorities after he had landed 37 African refugees in Porto Empedocle in Sicily on the aid ship Cap Anamur, who had been rescued from distress by the aid organization. The Italian authorities initially approved the landing, but then withdrew the permit. As a result, several African refugees on board threatened to commit suicide, forcing the captain of the ship to declare an emergency and to ultimately ask the Italian authorities to allow the port to enter. This was promised the following day; after the landing, however, all 37 rescued persons were arrested, Bierdel, the captain Stefan Schmidt and the first officer Vladimir Daschkewitsch imprisoned for “smuggling” and the ship was confiscated as a “instrument of the murder”. The arrested persons were subsequently investigated for “aiding and abetting illegal entry”, but they were released on July 16, 2004, accompanied by numerous demonstrations of sympathy throughout Italy. As a result of these events, Bierdel was not re-elected to his post as chairman of the Cap Anamur Committee and his behavior and that of his crew were also criticized by the former chairman of the organization, Rupert Neudeck . In November 2006 the trial of Elias Bierdel and his two co-defendants was opened in Agrigento , Sicily. On October 7, 2009, Bierdel and his two co-defendants were acquitted by a court in Agrigento, Sicily, because a skipper who rescues emigrants from danger on the high seas is fulfilling international maritime law obligations of sea rescue and this cannot be punishable under national law. The prosecutor had demanded four years in prison and a fine of 400,000 euros.

Elias Bierdel wrote the book End of a Rescue Journey (Verlag Ralf Liebe, September 2006) about the events that led to the arrest . In this book he describes his view of the events and the whole history of the ship Cap Anamur - from the renovation in the port of Lübeck to the confiscation by the Italian state. At the same time he addresses the refugee problem on the high seas.

Since 2007 Bierdel has been a founding member and board member of borderline-europe - human rights without borders e. v. , which is supposed to document the numerous refugee dramas at the EU's external borders. Since March 2010 he has been working at the Austrian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution , where, among other things, he is responsible for training civilian peace workers for UN missions.

Bierdel now lives as an author and journalist in Burgenland , Austria , is divorced and has two daughters. He lectures on his experiences during his time at Cap Anamur. His private passion is making music. He plays the piano and composes chansons with German texts.

Awards

2007 Georg Elser Prize from the Georg Elser Initiative Berlin for his commitment to refugee rights within the framework of the Borderline Europe organization he co-founded.
2009 Ute Bock Prize for moral courage
2010 Blue Planet Award from the ethecon Foundation Ethics & Economics in Berlin
2012 Aachen Peace Prize : 2012 awardees Alejandro Cerezo Contreras and Borderline Europe e. V.

Publications

End of a rescue trip. The refugee drama of Cap Anamur . Verlag Ralf Liebe, Weilerswist 2006, ISBN 3-935221-65-7 .
Fucking Greece: Who is the "Greece crisis" good for? Verlag Ralf Liebe, Weilerswist 2015, ISBN 978-3-944566-40-5 .
Alessandra Sciurba: Lawless Zone. The Cap Anamur case - an anti-racist diary . From: Analysis & Criticism . No. 489 / November 19, 2004.
Frank Drieschner: Rescuer in Need . Comment. In: Die Zeit , No. 42/2004; on leadership change and the importance of public attention

Web links

Commons : Elias Bierdel - Collection of images, videos and audio files

borderline-europe - human rights without borders e. V. (Information platform on mass death at the EU's external borders)
Declaration on the beginning of the process ( memento of July 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) on the Cap Anamur website, November 24, 2006.
Gerrit Wustmann : The military isolation of Europe. Telepolis , November 10, 2007. (Interview with E. Bierdel)
Double room special. Broadcast on April 5, 2010, accessed on October 25, 2013.

Individual evidence

^ A Guide to State Practice in International Humanitarian Law . published in: Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law 2010 . Eds. Schmitt and Arimatsu, Cambridge University Press 2011, ISBN 978-90-6704-810-1 , p. 545.
↑ Acquittals in the Cap Anamur case. ( Memento of October 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) October 7, 2009.
^ Matthias Thieme: Rescuers, not tugs. Cap Anamur. In: Frankfurter Rundschau. October 7, 2009, accessed May 13, 2011 .
↑ Gerrit Wustmann: The dead that nobody wants to see Telepolis, July 29, 2007.
^ Austrian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution (ÖSFK). In: "Austrian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution (ASPR)". Retrieved May 13, 2011 .
^ Georg Elser Prize
↑ Current announcement / Elias Bierdel receives Blue Planet Award 2010. In: “Ethik & Ökonomie”. ethecon - Ethics & Economics Foundation, October 11, 2010, accessed on May 13, 2011 : “This year's positive award goes to human rights activist Elias Bierdel. As head and chairman of the aid organization Komitee Cap Anamur / Deutsche Notärzte e. V. a lot of attention. He was involved in the rescue of 37 shipwrecked African refugees, [...] "

personal data
SURNAME	Bierdel, Elias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German head of an emergency aid organization
DATE OF BIRTH	November 14, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH	Berlin

[1] A Guide to State Practice in International Humanitarian Law . published in: Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law 2010 . Eds. Schmitt and Arimatsu, Cambridge University Press 2011, ISBN 978-90-6704-810-1 , p. 545.

[ts20091007-2] Acquittals in the Cap Anamur case. ( Memento of October 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) October 7, 2009.

[3] Matthias Thieme: Rescuers, not tugs. Cap Anamur. In: Frankfurter Rundschau. October 7, 2009, accessed May 13, 2011 .

[GW-2007-07-29-4] Gerrit Wustmann: The dead that nobody wants to see Telepolis, July 29, 2007.

[5] Austrian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution (ÖSFK). In: "Austrian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution (ASPR)". Retrieved May 13, 2011 .

[GEP-6] Georg Elser Prize

[Blue_Planet_Award_2010-7] Current announcement / Elias Bierdel receives Blue Planet Award 2010. In: “Ethik & Ökonomie”. ethecon - Ethics & Economics Foundation, October 11, 2010, accessed on May 13, 2011 : “This year's positive award goes to human rights activist Elias Bierdel. As head and chairman of the aid organization Komitee Cap Anamur / Deutsche Notärzte e. V. a lot of attention. He was involved in the rescue of 37 shipwrecked African refugees, [...] "