NEWS:
British Residents:
Names can still be added to the petition calling for Shaker Aamer’s
release to Prime Minister David Cameron: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/33133
This petition can be signed until 20 April 2013; 100,000 signatures on the
petition will lead to a debate on this issue in Parliament.
Guantánamo Bay:
The main news that has come out of Guantánamo Bay this month, but which
continues to be ignored by the mainstream media, is a hunger strike involving
almost all the prisoners. On 6 February, prisoners in Camp 6 with the exception of the weak and elderly,
which houses the vast majority of prisoners, went on hunger strike in protest
at arbitrary cell searches and confiscation of personal items and mishandling
of the Qur’an by interpreters, which they said constituted desecration. This is
coupled, according to their lawyers, with increasing despair and desperation
for most of the men who are cleared for release but remain there perpetually
without charge or trial in their twelfth year. The fear is that death is the
only reasonable way out. The hunger strike was brought to the public attention
in early March when lawyers for some of the prisoners who had visited Guantánamo
Bay wrote to the commander there seeking the demands of the hunger strikers be
acquiesced: http://ccrjustice.org/files/2013_03_04_Ltr_JTF_Smith_Welsh.pdf
The official response has been denial.
All the lawyers representing prisoners then wrote to the Defense Secretary on
14 March. Neither letter has been responded to. Instead of admitting to the hunger strike, the US Defense
Department admitted that it had fired rubber bullets, a potentially lethal riot
control method, at prisoners, hitting one, on 2 January: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2290036/Navy-confirms-rubber-bullets-fired-Guantanamo-Bay-amid-allegations-widespread-inmate-protests-liken-conditions-darkest-days-Bush.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
The lawyers corroborate the increasingly worse conditions reported by their
clients. 
Initially putting the number of hunger strikers at 6, who have been
force fed for over a year, the US military has since retracted and the official
number has now gone up to 31 with over 8 being force fed to keep
them alive and at least four having collapsed due to exhaustion and
dehydration. Lawyers put the number of hunger strikers at closer to 130.
At a hearing of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on
14 March, a senior lawyer for the US government denied that there was even any “indefinite
detention” of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay: http://www.iede.co.uk/news/2013_1275/us-claims-no-indefinite-detention-guant%C3%A1namo
A senior US military official General John Kelly has put the hunger
strike down to “frustration” by the prisoners and has instead asked the Pentagon
for $195 million to upgrade facilities at the prison, to improve facilities for
soldiers serving there and the camp that houses high-value prisoners, such as
Khalid Sheikh Mohamed: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2297620/Four-years-Obama-promised-close-Guantanamo-Bay-military-prison-195-million-dollars-renovations-new-construction.html
There has been NO discussion throughout on how to close the camp and
release the prisoners, or attempts to address their demands. Plans have also
been announced to restrict the access lawyers have to their clients and
civilian flights to Guantánamo Bay, meaning that lawyers, journalists and
others monitoring trials, etc. will only be able to travel there with the
military.
Into its fiftieth day, it is only now that this hunger strike is
starting to reach the mainstream media, which has consistently failed to report
it, including those that consider themselves more liberal. The Red Cross, the
only independent organisation which has access to the prisoners, has also
failed to monitor the situation. Having last visited the prison in mid-February,
it has now brought forward a visit to the prison scheduled for next month due
to the severity of the hunger strike: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21958255
The Red Cross is supposed to provide independent monitoring of the health and weight
of prisoners involved in such cases and to track possible abuses.
The countries the prisoners come from, including the UK with respect to
Shaker Aamer, have not responded to the hunger strike either.
Solidarity actions have been held in the UK and US.
Russia Today has been
following developments closely and has produced the following up-to-date
timeline of actions and events: http://rt.com/news/guantanamo-bay-hunger-strike-399/
The LGC spoke to Russia Today on 17 March, the same day as a protest
organised by the LGC took place in London.
Other media on this news:
Release from Guantánamo Bay, however, can result in further imprisonment
and abuse elsewhere, often in the home country.
Omar Khadr: who
returned to Canada in September last year is now being represented once more by
intrepid lawyer Dennis Edney. Having only resumed representation of Omar Khadr
a few weeks ago, Mr Edney has already been on television and has spoken to the
print media in Canada to oppose the official and closed narrative concerning
Omar Khadr being a “convicted terrorist”. Mr Edney will soon appeal Omar Khadr’s
conviction at Guantánamo. Funds are needed to ensure that Dennis Edney can do
this work – take on court cases and visit Omar Khadr at the Milhaven Institution. The international Free Omar Khadr campaign has set up a facility for
individuals to donate to these costs via Paypal: http://freeomarakhadr.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/omar-khadrs-lawyer-dennis-edney-tireless-advocate-who-has-made-many-personal-sacrifices-to-defend-him-please-donate-dennis-edney-is-a-tireless-advocate-who-has-made-many-personal-sacrifices-to-defe/
Rasul Kudaev: a 35-year
old Russian national who was returned to Russia from Guantánamo Bay in 2004.
Arrested while travelling through Afghanistan en route to Pakistan by the
Taleban who accused him of being a Russian spy, he was held at Guantánamo Bay
for two years after the US accused him of fighting for the Taleban and when
returned to Russia, he was arrested following militant attacks on military
installations in his regional capital and accused of involvement in an armed
group and spying for the US and UK. After almost 8 years of pre-trial
detention, and having suffered much physical abuse there, as well as health
complications from poor medical care and injuries from his time in Afghanistan
and at Guantánamo Bay, Rasul Kudaev’s case finally came to trial this week. He
should have been given an opportunity to provide his own defence on Monday 25
or Tuesday 26 March but he has instead been banned from the court and denied
all rights to a fair trial in Russia’s longest-running court case, involving a
staggering 59 defendants. To read more about Rasul Kudaev’s harrowing story and
this case in which judgment is finally expected later this year, please read:
Extraordinary rendition:
Following the controversial handover of Bagram prison in Afghanistan to
the Afghan authorities last year which was blighted by questions over detention
without trial and the fate of over 50 foreign prisoners who have been held
without charge or trial for over a decade and are largely victims of extraordinary
rendition, the US and Afghanistan signed a new memorandum of understanding
which took force to officially hand over Bagram to Afghan control on 25 March.
The Afghan authorities had already released a large number of Afghans held
there without charge last year. Of the over 3000 prisoners held there when the
prison was transferred last year, more than half have been released.
Afghanistan has also negotiated the handover of Afghan Taleban prisoners; however,
the US will maintain control over the 50 non-Afghan nationals who were held at
Bagram. With the exclusion of these prisoners, prisoners under British control
remain the only prisoners in Afghanistan held by a foreign country. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21922047
Abu Zubaydah, who was held at a secret prison in Poland from December
2002 to September 2003, before being rendered elsewhere and then taken to Guantánamo Bay has filed a case
against Poland at the European Court of Human Rights for its delay in
investigating his claims of torture and extraordinary rendition. The claim has
been brought due to Poland’s slow progress in its own investigation, which has
taken over two years so far and has stalled considerably in recent months. http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/27/3309535/waterboarded-zubaydah-sues-poland.html
LGC Activities:
The March LGC “Shut
Down Guantánamo!” demonstration was attended by 3 people. The next
demonstration will be on Thursday 4 April at 12-1pm outside the US Embassy,
Grosvenor Square, W1A and then 1.15-2.15pm outside Speaker’s Corner, Marble
Arch (Hyde Park): http://www.facebook.com/events/225963950882304/
This demonstration will be in solidarity with the Guantánamo hunger strikers.
On 17 March, Aisha
Maniar from the LGC spoke to Russia Today about the hunger strike,
stating that “awareness about the hunger strike, […]
has more or less – at least in Britain – been ignored by the mainstream media.”
On the same day, the LGC held a
demonstration outside the US Embassy in London in solidarity with the hunger
strikers. On a cold and wet day, around 30 people joined to show their
solidarity. Speakers from the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign, the Stop The War
Coalition, Muna Othman, a Yemeni journalist, and spoken word artist Ibrahim
Sincere spoke at the event.
Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhcFo5vPJ2A
Muna Othman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQtp_IrFvRo
David Harrold (LGC)
Activists from the
LGC also helped out and spoke at a conference organised by Birkbeck College and
SOAS Stop The War Societies on 20 March. During the day, activists helped to
collect signatures on the e-petition for Shaker Aamer and raised awareness
about the plight of the prisoners with video showings and speeches. In the
evening, the LGC contributed to a panel discussion on “Guantanamo and the
Secret War on Terror”: http://www.santinopani.com/
Please watch out
for details of more hunger strike solidarity actions and get in touch with us
to get involved!
Pictures of LGC actions copyrighted. May be reused and reproduced free of charge WITH permission.
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