OutRage! press release 4 Nov.

Subject: Sizzla denied visa - £100,000 losses
Date: Nov 04 2004, 09:52 AM

Sizzla denied visa

Reggae star barred from Britain

OutRage! gets all concerts cancelled

Singer, promoters and venues lose £100,000


London - 4 November 2004

Jamaican reggae star, Sizzla Kalonji, has been denied a visa to enter
the UK.

The Home Office has indicated to gay rights group OutRage! that it has
not issued Sizzla a visa for his five-city UK concert tour, which was
to have begun last night at the Empire nightclub in Milton Keynes.

The visa denial follows lobbying by OutRage! and the Green Party, both
of which urged the Home Secretary to issue an exclusion order against
Sizzla on the grounds that he has incited the murder of white people
and homosexuals (details below).

“Following our request for an exclusion order, we have been advised by
the Home Office that the Home Secretary David Blunkett is minded to
exclude Sizzla from the UK,” said Peter Tatchell of OutRage!

“While an exclusion order is being considered, the Home Office will
not allow him to enter the country.

“Our understanding is that Sizzla has not, and will not, be issued
with a visa. He therefore cannot perform in Britain, which means that
none of his concerts will go ahead – either now or in the foreseeable
future.

“It is estimated that the concert cancellations have cost Sizzla, his
promoters and the venues over £100,000 in lost income”, said Mr
Tatchell.

All five of Sizzla’s UK concerts have been cancelled following
protests by gay rights group OutRage!. The group protested to the
venues, local police and council officials.

The cancelled concerts are Bradford, Birmingham, Bristol, London and
Milton Keynes.

“We organised hundreds of our supporters to blitz the venues with
emails urging the cancellation of Sizzla’s concerts on the grounds
that he incites racist and homophobic violence,” said co-organiser of
the OutRage! protest campaign, Brett Lock.

“This is the second UK concert tour by Sizzla that OutRage! has got
cancelled in the last two months. His gig at the White Pearl Club in
Birmingham on 3 September was dropped after we lobbied the venue and
local police.

“It is sickening the way the Stratford Rex venue in East London was
trying to proceed with Sizzla’s concert this Saturday, despite the
horrific gay-bashing murder of David Morley.

“The Stratford Rex is making money out of promoting murder-music
singers like Sizzla,” said Mr Lock.

OutRage accuses Sizzla of inciting racist and homophobic violence.

“Burn all white people in Jamaica,” Sizzla told his audience at the
1998 Reggae Sumfest Festival in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

The racist performer has also urged his listeners to kill gay people.
His current album, Red Alert (2004), includes the song Boom Boom,
which says: “Queers must be killed.” Another, Pump Up, says: “Shoot
queers.”

At a concert, in Chicago in April 2002, Sizzla appeared to boast to
his audience that he has personally murdered homosexuals: “I kill
sodomites and queers, they bring AIDS and disease upon people…shoot
and kill them”.

Sizzla’s real name is Miguel Orlando Collins.

See full details and references for Sizzla’s “kill gays” lyrics and
stage comments at the end of this news release.

“Sizzla has refused to apologise for his incitements to murder white
people and to kill lesbians and gay men,” added Mr Tatchell.

“His ‘kill gays’ songs are still in circulation. He has not withdrawn
them. He is still profiteering from his murder music.

“His encouragement to kill white people stirs up racial hatred and
violence.

“Sizzla’s songs promote the murder of gays and lesbians. If his
performances had gone ahead they may have led to public disorder and
to homophobic and racist hate crimes.

“No one would give a platform to a singer who advocated killing black
or Jewish people. A performer who brazenly encourages the murder of
whites and gays should not be rewarded with concerts and financial
success.

“Securing the cancellation of Sizzla’s concerts will hit him in the
pocket. It will help pressure Sizzla and other anti-gay Jamaican
singers to abandon their murderous incitements. Once they start losing
money, they will soon drop their violent lyrics. Driving homophobic
violence out of Jamaican music will have a huge positive impact on
Jamaican culture and attitudes – to the benefit of all Jamaicans, gay
and straight.

“In a free society, Sizzla has a right to criticize homosexuality.
But he does not have a right to advocate the killing of lesbians and
gay men. He has gone too far.”

“Free speech does not include the right to encourage the killing of
other human beings. Incitement to murder is a criminal offence. We
want his tour cancelled because he endorses violent hate crimes, not
because he insults gay people.

“Inciting murder is a criminal offence under UK law. He is a threat to
public order and could provoke hate violence against white people and
lesbians and gays.

“The Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service are currently
conducting a criminal investigation into Sizzla Kalonji and seven
other reggae singers on the grounds that their lyrics commit the
criminal offence of incitement to murder,” added Mr Tatchell.

“Sizzla Kalonji does not merely express his disapproval of
homosexuality,” said Brett Lock of OutRage! and co-organiser of the
Stop Murder Music campaign.

“He calls for all homosexuals to be killed and incites his listeners
to murder gays and lesbians. This goes way beyond an acceptable
expression of opinion. Lesbian and gay people have a right to live
their lives free from threats to kill them,” concluded Mr Lock.

For Further Information:

Brett Lock (OutRage!)
Telephone: 0770 843 5917
Email:  brett@outrage.org.uk

Peter Tatchell (OutRage!)
Telephone 0207 403 1790

For more background on the ‘Stop Murder Music’ campaign, see:
 http://www.outrage.org.uk/briefing.asp?ID=43

- - - - - - - - - - - -

At the 1998 Sumfest Reggae concert in Jamaica, Sizzla urged his
audience to “Burn all white people”:
"Sizzla sported controversy when he made public endorsements at the
1998 Reggae Sumfest Festival in Montego Bay. During his performance he
agitated his audience, and in particular the world press, after
denouncing Queen Elizabeth II, homosexuals, and even the Sumfest
Festival. He saved his most controversial racist diatribe for the
finale when he stated, "Burn all white people in Jamaica", this led to
a stunned silence from the multi-racial crowd. His attempts to win
approval failed, which resulted in a talented performer being regarded
as an embarrassment to Jamaican music"
See:  http://www.icebergradio.com/artist.asp?artist=24340


“Kill gays” Murder Music lyrics by Sizzla Kalonji

Lyrics in Jamaican patois, with the standard English translation
underneath in brackets [ ].


Sizzla - Pump Up

Step up inna front line
[Step up to the front line]

fire fi di man dem weh go ride man behind
[burn the men who have sex with men from behind]

Shot battybwoy, my big gun boom
[Shoot queers, my big gun goes boom]
See:  http://reggaesound.com/lyric/main.php?mod=lyric&id=440


Sizzla – Boom Boom

Boom boom! Batty boy them fi dead
[Boom boom (as in gunshots) Queers must be killed]
See:  http://www.unitysounds.com/riddims/audio/REDboomb.rm


Sizzla - Get To Da Point

Sodomite and batty bwai mi seh a death fi dem
[Sodomite and queers, I say death to them]

Mi no trust babylon fi a second yah so
[I don’t trust Babylon for a second]

Mi a go shot batty bwai dem widdi weapon ya
[I go and shoot queers with a weapon]
See:  http://www.dancehallreggae.com/lyricsview.aspx?songid=1275


At a reggae concert in Chicago on 12 April 2002, Sizzla bragged that
he kills queers, and also incited the audience to murder gays and
lesbians:
"mi nuh go tek back mi chat... mi kill sodomite and batty man dem
bring aids and disease pon people... shot a kill dem, mi nuh go tek
back mi chat"
[I wont take back my words…I kill sodomites and queers, they bring
AIDS and disease upon people…shoot and kill them, I won’t take back my
words.]
See:  http://www.chicagoreggae.com/sizzla.htm


A report by Amnesty International, dated 17 May 2004, about a reggae
concert in Jamaica earlier this year, documented Sizzla and other
reggae stars abusing and threatening to kill gay men.
"Throughout the night, Capleton, Sizzla and others sang almost
exclusively about gay men. Using the derogatory terms for gay men -
"chi chi men" or ‘battybwoys’ - they urged the audience to ‘kill dem,
battybwoys haffi dead, gun shots pon dem. Who want to see dem dead,
put up his hand’
[kill them, queers have got to die, gun shots in their head, whoever
wants to see them dead, put up your hand]
See:  http://www2.amnesty.se/hbt.nsf/actjamaica?OpenPage


In an interview by Richard Burnett in the Canadian entertainment
magazine ‘Hour’ on 19 August 2004, Sizzla said:
"…burn sodomite, burn battyman. Burn all things that are wrong. Burn
it... We must get rid of Sodom and Gomorrah right now…”
See:  http://hour.ca/music/music.aspx?iIDArticle=3876


Sizzla UK Tour - Now cancelled

Murder-music singer Sizzla UK concert tour: 3 – 8 November 2004.

3 Nov – Empire – Milton Keynes
4 Nov - Town & Country Club - Bradford
5 Nov - Aston Villa Leisure - Birmingham
6 Nov – Stratford Rex - London
8 Nov - Carling Academy – Bristol

The contact details for the venues are:

EMPIRE
Empire:  nicky@empire-mk.co.uk
Manger: Nicky Harris
Telephone: 01908 394 074

TOWN & COUNTRY CLUB
Email:  paul@bradfordrio.com
Manager: Paul Mastrantuono
Telephone: 01274 224488

ASTON VILLA LEISURE
Email:  bshutt2512@aol.com
Manager: Sue Ryall
Telephone: 0121 246 6040

STRATFORD REX:
Email:  bobby_popat@btconnect.com
Events Manager: Sheldon Atkinson
Telephone: 0208 555 9966

CARLING ACADEMY
Telephone: Tel: 0117 927 9227
General Manager: Helen Spillane:
Email:  helen@bristol-academy.co.uk
Deputy Manager: Louise Stamp:
Email:  louise@bristol-academy.co.uk

ENDS