Press Release: “What are You Doing About it?”: Day of Action to Mark the Seventh Anniversary of the Opening of Guantánamo Bay

The London Guantánamo Campaign will hold a day of action on Sunday 11 January 2009 to mark the seventh anniversary of the opening of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp on 11 January 2002.

The day of action will consist of:

A DEMONSTRATION:
A demonstration outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, from 3-5pm, to call on the US administration to close down Guantánamo Bay
Speakers include: Moazzam Begg (former detainee), Andy Worthington (journalist), Jean Lambert (Green MEP), Bruce Kent (Pax Christi), Imam Shakeel Begg (Lewisham Mosque), Baroness Sarah Ludford (Lib Dem MEP), Jeremy Corbyn (Labour MP), Walter Wolfgang (CND), Martin Linton (Labour MP with a constituent in Guantánamo Bay) and others.

PRECEDED BY LOCAL ACTIONS:
Local stalls held from 12-2pm in Camden Town, Kilburn, Speaker’s Corner and Whitechapel, to raise awareness about what is happening at Guantánamo Bay. Groups of individuals, some wearing orange jumpsuits and black hoods, will hand out leaflets and speak to passers by. Signatures will be collected on a petition to be handed in to the US Embassy on 20 January, the date of Barack Obama’s inauguration.


DEMANDS

The London Guantánamo Campaign is calling on the US administration to shut down Guantánamo Bay and other illegal US-run jails around the world immediately; to cease the regime of torture and arbitrary detention under the pretext of the “war on terror”; to repatriate detainees to countries where their safety and liberty will be guaranteed; and to hold to account those who have had a role to play, at all levels, in this shameful episode in human history.

The London Guantánamo Campaign welcomes Barack Obama’s pledge to shut down Guantánamo Bay during his presidency. We intend holding him to this pledge, and will be demanding an end to torture, an end to the impunity of torturers and those who authorise torture, the upholding of the rule of law, and respect for international law.

We also call on the British Government and other European governments to assist the US in closing down Guantánamo Bay, in the first instance by accepting released men who have links to their country and who would be unable to return safely to their own country. Britain must urge the return of Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian resident from west London, and Ahmed Belbacha, an Algerian asylum seeker from Bournemouth.

Aisha Maniar, from the London Guantánamo Campaign, coordinating this action, said: “For seven years, the world, including the British government, has sat back and turned a blind eye to torture and arbitrary detention at Guantánamo Bay. The election of Barack Obama provides the US with a golden opportunity to close down this and other illegal camps run by the US administration and to close this dark chapter in modern history. It is up to the US’s allies, like Britain, to help it in this process by accepting innocent detainees who do not have other countries to go to. We call on the world to take action now”.


NOTE TO EDITORS
The London Guantánamo Campaign campaigns for justice for all prisoners at Guantánamo bay, for the closure of this and other secret prisons, and for an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition.

There are currently around 200 detainees being held at Guantánamo Bay, most of whom have been cleared for release, but are effectively refugees, as they have no safe country to return to. Charges are currently pending against approximately a dozen detainees. However, as the detainees do not have the right to choose their own counsel, to defend themselves or see the evidence against them, among other violations of due process rights, they are denied the right to a fair trial and representation.



Contact:
london.gtmo[at]googlemail.com
www.guantanamo.org.uk