Response from the FCO to LGC letter of 11 January 2011

On 11 January this year, as part of our actions to mark the ninth anniversary of Guantánamo Bay, the London Guantánamo Campaign (LGC) delivered a letter to the Prime Minister at Downing Street calling on the British government to take action over the closure of Guantánamo and to step up measures to see the illegal prison closed. The letter was signed by 75 individuals and representatives of organisations, including MEPs Baroness Sarah Ludford (Lib Dem) and Jean Lambert (Green) and MPs Caroline Lucas (Green) and John McDonnell (Labour). A short version of the letter was published in the Guardian newspaper on the same day. A further 200 signatures were collected on the same letter and posted to Downing Street later in the day during the LGC’s anniversary vigil.

We have now received a response to our letter from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) which is woefully inadequate in view of the ongoing detention without trial or charge of over 170 men for over nine years. The letter simply reiterates the same cut-and-paste points this government and its predecessor have churned out in correspondence over the past several years without addressing the concerns raised by campaigners. Contrary to what Ms Wilson claims, unlike many of its European counterparts, the UK has failed to accept any prisoners with no ties to this country and has failed, after more than 9 years, to secure the release of Shaker Aamer, who has a British family and the legal right to remain in the UK. All other European states have managed to repatriate their nationals and residents. It is unfortunate that this government does not wish to follow the good example set by other European states and accept other prisoners.

At the same time, the Obama administration has now confirmed its plans to move ahead with sham trials through military commissions and the indefinite detention of over 40 prisoners. This comes as no surprise with Obama’s record of broken promises over Guantánamo Bay. However such news is no comfort for the prisoners whose present and future remain hostage to the whims of an extra-legal system of arbitrary detention and abuse. Like Obama’s oral assurances at the time, the British government must go beyond its statements and substantiate its commitment to the closure of Guantánamo Bay through actions, such as those demanded in our letter. The LGC will respond to the FCO and invites those who signed the original letter to respond as well.

Gone Beyond Words: Nine Years of Guantánamo Bay

Report by Aisha Maniar, London Guantánamo Campaign

Tuesday 11 January 2011 marked nine years since the opening of the illegal US-run detention and torture camp at Guantánamo Bay. Creeping up on almost a decade of life in its current incarnation, Guantánamo Bay continues to house 173 prisoners and the US government has recently passed legislation to block the transfer and civilian trial of prisoners on the US mainland. Over 90 prisoners of Yemeni origin are prevented from returning home and the US administration is currently planning to introduce measures to perpetuate the illegal regime with the “indefinite detention” of prisoners who cannot be tried or released as they allegedly pose a security risk.

One British resident whose return to the UK was sought by the Brown government in 2007 remains there. Shaker Aamer, a Saudi national with a British family in south London, and a son he has never met, has been held without charge or trial for over nine years. Four other men whose release was sought at the same time have all long since returned to the UK. The Foreign Secretary William Hague and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg recently raised his case with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The day kicked off with the delivery of an open letter to Downing Street with PeaceStrike. The letter, a shorter version of which was published in the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/11/guantanamo-closure-obama-deadline was signed by 75 individuals and representatives of organisations, including MPs Caroline Lucas and John McDonnell, MEPs Baroness Sarah Ludford and Jean Lambert, Kate Hudson (CND), Bruce Kent (Pax Christi) and others and called on David Cameron to intervene personally in Shaker Aamer’s case and to take measures to help the US close Guantánamo Bay.
The full letter and list of signatories can be read at: http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com/2011/01/open-letter-to-prime-minister-david.html
Signatures were also collected on the letter at the Beyond Words: Silent Witness to Injustice vigil in Trafalgar Square later that afternoon. Around 200 further signatures were collected from activists, tourists and the public to be sent to the Prime Minister.

Around 70 people then turned the area outside the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square orange for a bright and visual silent protest demanding the closure of Guantánamo Bay at lunchtime (1pm). On a cold and grey afternoon, the National Gallery got a new temporary art installation outside for an hour as protesters coming from as far away as Bradford, Brighton, Worthing and Bedford called on the British and American governments to take immediate action to close Guantánamo Bay. A simple humane and legal plea which has fallen on the deaf ears of the international community for the past nine years was instead made visually, with activists handing out leaflets, collecting signatures on letters, cards and petitions and taking part in a very good-humoured protest to mark yet another very sombre anniversary.

From the top of Trafalgar Square, the future certainly looks very orange and unless governments act now to close Guantánamo Bay, the situation looks set to be perpetuated well beyond its first decade. Saturday 22 January will mark one year since President Obama’s broken promise to close the detention camp, yet no remorse is shown by governments around the world for their complicity in crimes against humanity, all norms of law and the broken lives and continued suffering of hundreds of families, including one in south London.

More pictures at: https://indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/01/471955.html

Some messages of support:
Baroness Sarah Ludford, Liberal Democrat MEP for London [via e-mail]:
“Sarah Ludford stressed that as vice-chair of the European Parliament’s US delegation she will continue to press Washington for the complete closure of Guantanamo, to lobby in London and Brussels for European cooperation in resettlement of men who cannot return to their home countries for fear of torture and in particular to press for her constituent Shaker Aamer to come home to London.”

Dr Shahrar Ali, Green Party, London:
“We’re here in solidarity with those hundreds of people still incarcerated in a pre-Magna Carta medieval state of justice which is no justice at all”.

Val Brown, activist, Bedford:
“I’m here today not only to close Guantánamo but to make everybody aware of the people that are still in there, especially Omar [Khadr] and Shaker [Aamer]. I just think it’s so disgusting that a country can do this to people”.

Noa Kleinman, Amnesty International UK North America Coordinator, Bradford:
“It felt very necessary to come down today although it’s really very depressing that this is the ninth year of Guantánamo and we’re very close to nine years for Shaker Aamer at Guantánamo so I guess we just have to keep on campaigning. We can’t stop”.

Abdul Jaleel Bain, Justice for Aafia Coalition, London:
“I’m here today for the Justice for Aafia Coalition and also to support the campaign for the freeing of Shaker Aamer, and more widely for the closing of Guantánamo Bay prison which is still open despite the fact that President Obama promised to close it one year ago and he hasn’t done that. It’s been a pleasure to come here on what is actually quite a bad day as Guantánamo is still open, there are still people there. The biggest group is a group of Yemenis. There is also Shaker Aamer who is actually from this city. I’m here to show that I’m a Londoner, a British person, a Muslim and representing my organisation. I support the movement to close Guantánamo Bay and I will continue to come here for as long as it takes until that day comes”.

Joy Hurcombe, Brighton Against Guantánamo, Worthing:
“I’m here today to take part in the vigil to shut Guantánamo. People from all of London watched our demonstration and saw and heard that Guantánamo is still not shut. We want Obama to shut Guantánamo now. There are people there who have been there for nearly as long as it’s been open, for nearly nine years and they are being denied all their human rights. They have no access to family, to friends, lawyers, to the outside world and it’s Obama’s disgrace and shame that he has broken his promises. They are there with broken lives and we are here to show the world that Guantánamo must be shut”.

Maria Gallestegui, PeaceStrike, London:
“I’m here to support the London Guantánamo Campaign. It’s a great honour to be here and to share this occasion and basically to send the message out, not just in this country but throughout the world. Talking to tourists, there’s so many people who just do not realise that Guantánamo still exists, it’s still operational and that this so-called war on terror is still being promoted by governments throughout the world and the media throughout the world, so it’s giving the false impression that we need to be terrified in our beds every night for fear of consequences that quite honestly are not realistic and we should be befriending each other and tearing down the walls of hatred and extending the hand of friendship to build a whole new understanding of each other, not built on hatred and fear”.

Open Letter to Prime Minister David Cameron on Ninth Anniversary of Guantánamo Bay

The London Guantánamo Campaign will today deliver an open letter to Downing Street urging Prime Minister David Cameron to take action to help close Guantánamo Bay on its ninth anniversary. The letter has been signed by 75 individuals in a personal capacity and on behalf of organisations. Signatories include MPs Caroline Lucas and John McDonnell, MEPs Baroness Sarah Ludford and Jean Lambert, London Assembly Member Darren Johnson, journalists Andy Worthington and Victoria Brittain, former prisoner Bisher Al Rawi and many others.
A shorter version of the letter is published today in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/11/guantanamo-closure-obama-deadline

The letter and full list of signatories (in alphabetical order) is below:

Dear Prime Minister,
Guantánamo Bay has now been open for nine years. During that time, your predecessors were successful in securing the return to the UK of all British nationals held there, and all but two of the former British residents. Nevertheless, they were knowingly complicit in the ordeal of the men and their families. Almost a year after the expiry of President Obama’s own deadline to close Guantánamo, the facility still holds some 174 prisoners.
We welcome recent efforts by Foreign Secretary William Hague and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to raise the case of Shaker Aamer, the last legal British resident in Guantánamo Bay, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. These measures must translate into his immediate and unconditional release and return to his family in the UK. Shaker has never been charged or tried for any crime, and no reasons have been given by the US for his continued detention, despite him being cleared for release in 2007. Shaker is, like you, a father, but his four children have had to grow up without their father for the past nine years, and his youngest son has never even met his father. We urge you to intervene personally in his case.
Guantánamo Bay will not close without concerted efforts by the international community, and Britain must play its part and follow the lead of other European countries that have accepted innocent prisoners on humanitarian grounds. One such man with links to the UK is Ahmed Belbacha, also cleared for release since 2007, who resided in Britain for two years. He cannot return to his native Algeria for fear of his life and liberty, so he continues to languish in Guantánamo. We would ask you to urgently request his return to the UK, and to offer to take other cleared prisoners awaiting release in order to make possible the early closure of Guantánamo.
A series of military tribunals at Guantánamo Bay over the past year, including that of a child soldier, Omar Khadr, show clear contempt for justice and the rule of law by our US allies. In 2011, four years away from the celebration of 800 years of the Magna Carta and the rule of law in England, influential in US and international law, the United Kingdom must show greater leadership in ensuring that basic legal and humanitarian principles are upheld.
We, the undersigned,

Len Aldis, secretary of Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society, Mark Barrett, Campaign for Real Democracy, Councillor Jonathan Bloch Lib Dem Councillor, Haringey Council, Victoria Brittain, Adrienne Burrows, Peace and Justice in East London, Chris Cole, Figtree, Liz Davies, Chair, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, Hilary Evans, Kingston Peace Council/CND, Maria Gallastegui, Peacestrike, Lindsey German, convenor of Stop the War Coalition, Richard Haley, Chair, Scotland Against Criminalising Communities, Noel Hamel, Chair, Kingston Peace Council, Maryam Hassan, Justice for Aafia Coalition, Desiree Howells, Peace and Justice in East London, Kate Hudson, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Joy Hurcombe, Brighton Against Guantánamo, Cllr Darren Johnson, Green Party member of London Assembly, Bruce Kent, vice-president of Pax Christi, Jean Lambert, Green MEP, Les Levidow, Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC), Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, Sarah Ludford, Liberal Democrat MEP, Aisha Maniar, London Guantánamo Campaign, John McDonnell, Labour MP for Harlington and Hayes, Millius Palayiwa, Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation, England, Asim Qureshi, executive director of Cageprisoners, Milan Rai, co-editor of Peace News, Estella Schmid, Campaign Against Criminalising Communities, Ray Silk, Save Shaker Aamer Campaign, Walter Wolfgang, Labour CND, Rosemary Addington, Khadijah Al-Hilali, Dr Shahrar Ali, Green Party, Bisher Al-Rawi, Karima Azzouni, Abduljaleel Bain, Steve Barnes, Shaun Brown, Maude Casey, Manish Dhokia, Paschal Egan, David Ferrard, Aman Fida, Michael Fisher, Martin Francis, Anne Gray, C.C.H. Gwyntopher, David Harrold, Mary Holmes, Gillian Hurle, Miranda James, Ewa Jasiewicz, Zelda Jeffers, N.M. Kleinman, Ann Kobayashi, Sarah Lasenby, Christine MacLeod, Jim McCluskey, Simon Moore, Corinna Mullin, Anita Olivacce, Roshan Pedder, Mike Phipps, Malcolm Pittock, Ian Pocock, David Polden, M.A. Qavi, Emma Sangster, Daniel Viesnik, Sam Walton, Frances Webber, Adrian White, Adrian Windisch, Richard Wolff, Andy Worthington