Guantanamo prison draws protests worldwide
Source: Reuters
By Esteban Israel GUANTANAMO, Cuba, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Demonstrators -- some wearing Guantanamo-style orange jumpsuits -- staged protests from Melbourne to Washington on Thursday demanding closure of the U.S. military prison in Cuba where terrorism suspects have been held for years without trial. A dozen American peace activists, including Cindy Sheehan, marched to the security fence around the U.S. military enclave in eastern Cuba chanting "Guantanamo prison, place of shame, no more torture in our name." "If dogs were treated like this in my country, there would be an uprising," Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, said as the group placed flowers by a barbed wire fence about five miles (7 kms) from the U.S. naval base that houses the prison. The first detainees were flown shackled, blindfolded and wearing orange suits to the heavily guarded Guantanamo camp five years ago, soon after the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan was launched in response to the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. More than 770 captives have been held at Guantanamo since its opening, of whom only 10 have been charged with crimes. About 395 prisoners remain there, suspected of al Qaeda and Taliban links. Speaking at U.N. headquarters on the fifth anniversary of the camp's opening, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged that it be closed. U.S. President George W. Bush has acknowledged the camp is hurting the U.S. image. But he has made no moves to close it and last year signed legislation barring foreign captives from challenging their detention through the U.S courts. British citizen Asif Iqbal, who spent two years in Guantanamo only to be released without charges, returned for the protest against the camp. Iqbal, who said he was interrogated endlessly, tortured with sleep deprivation and coerced into signing a false confession, read out letters from other former detainees. Zohra Zewawi, a Dubai resident, said her son Omar Deghayes, 37, who has been held in the camp since his arrest in Pakistan five years ago, had lost vision in one eye due to abuse by guards. "We won't give up until they are released and Omar gets back to England," she said. In London, about 300 Amnesty International members and volunteers, many dressed in bright orange suits, protested outside the U.S. Embassy. Some acted as American guards, ordering others to kneel, lie face down on the floor and remain silent for an hour and a half. "If George Bush was a reasonable man he would understand ... that he is creating more terrorism against the U.S.," said Briton Moazzam Begg, who was released in 2005 after two years in Guantanamo. "Most of those hostages in Iraq were executed wearing orange boiler-suits because of peoples' feelings about Guantanamo," he told Reuters. SYMBOL OF U.S. ABUSE In Washington, about 100 people gathered in front of the U.S. Supreme Court to call for Guantanamo's closure. "Guantanamo must be closed. It's an embarrassment for this country," said Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which organized the rally along with Amnesty International USA. "Guantanamo Bay prison has become a symbol around the world for human rights abuses and for wrong-headed policies enacted in the name of the war on terror," said Larry Cox of Amnesty International USA. "It has brought shame to our nation." Protesters carried signs stating, "the America I believe in would shut down Guantanamo," "stop the torture," and "justice delayed is justice denied." The International Committee of the Red Cross, in a leaked memo quoted by the New York Times in 2004, accused the U.S. military of using tactics "tantamount to torture" on inmates. U.N. human rights investigators have said the simultaneous suicides of three inmates last June was predictable. In Melbourne, protesters gathered outside government buildings to demand that Australia's only Guantanamo detainee, David Hicks, be brought home immediately. "Bring David home, close Guantanamo now," they chanted. Hicks, 31, was arrested in Afghanistan in late 2001 and accused of fighting for al Qaeda. Charges against Hicks of conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy were dropped when the U.S. Supreme Court last June rejected the military tribunal system set up by Bush to try foreign terrorism suspects. "They've been bullying David for five years," his father Terry Hicks told TEN Network television. (Additional reporting by Paul Tait in Sydney, Tahani Karrar in London and James Vicini in Washington)
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