Thursday, May 22, 2014

MEDIA RELEASE: London Guantánamo Campaign to mark 23 May Global Day of Action to Close Guantánamo with demonstration in Trafalgar Square, 12-2pm



On Friday 23 May, the London Guantánamo Campaign [1] will hold a “Not Another Day in Guantánamo!” demonstration outside the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square at 12-2pm. Activists in London will wear orange jumpsuits, black hoods, holding up placards calling for the closure of Guantánamo Bay and the safe release of the remaining 154 prisoners.

This is part of a Global Day of Action to Close Guantánamo, with protests planned in over 40 cities worldwide, across three continents [2]. The day of action marks the anniversary of President Obama’s last major pledge [3], on 23 May 2013, to close Guantánamo, which has yielded little progress.

Aisha Maniar, a spokesperson for the London Guantánamo Campaign, says, "In over five years as US president, Barack Obama has failed to deliver a change we can believe in on Guantánamo Bay. Twelve years of indefinite detention almost wholly without charge or trial for 154 prisoners has made the world an infinitely more insecure, dangerous, and lawless place. Closing Guantánamo has long been a question of when as opposed to how.

"A prisoner hunger strike ongoing more than 15 months later, in addition to his failure to transfer any Yemeni prisoners - who make up the largest nationality and the majority of those cleared for release, following the lifting of a moratorium - signal that Obama’s words remain purely rhetorical. There is little intention to close Guantánamo Bay and the legal black hole it has created.”

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     

Further details of the London demonstration are available at: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/demonstration-not-another-day-in.html

2. For a full list & contact information, visit: http://www.witnesstorture.org/events/


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