For immediate release: Friday 9 January 2015
Activists will gather outside the
US Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London, to mark the 13th anniversary
of the opening of Guantánamo Bay prison camp.
The London Guantánamo Campaign [1]
will host the demonstration, which will include:
·
a street theatre performance on Barack Obama’s many broken promises to close
the Guantánamo Bay prison camp over the years (at 2:30pm)
·
speakers, including Louise Christian, solicitor for former prisoners [2]
Aisha Maniar, organiser from
the London Guantánamo Campaign, says, "Torture and the arbitrary, lawless regime at
Guantánamo Bay have become defining features of our century. Barack Obama’s question posed
rhetorically in 2013, “Is this who we are?” [3] received an emphatic,
affirmative answer in the redacted US Senate report into CIA torture published
at the end of 2014.
"The report also revealed the
complicity of numerous US allies, including the United Kingdom. The British government must now take
serious measures to investigate and prosecute all allegations of wrongdoing and
torture complicity by UK agencies. It must also seize the opportunity presented
by the recent drive to release Guantánamo prisoners held for 13 years without
charge or trial, and cleared for release. It must use the
opportunity to demand the release of the last
British resident held in Guantánamo Bay, Shaker Aamer.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The London Guantánamo Campaign
was set up in 2006 and campaigns for justice for all prisoners at Guantánamo
Bay, for the closure of this and other secret prisons, and an end to the
practice of extraordinary rendition. http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com
2. More details on the London
Guantánamo Campaign website: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/is-this-who-we-are-action-to-mark-13.html
3. Among remarks made by Barack Obama on the
Guantánamo hunger strike on 23 May 2013 http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/23/remarks-president-national-defense-university
No comments:
Post a Comment