Delegates include mother of current prisoner, former Guantanamo detainee,
and high-level US peace activists
On January 9-13, a first-ever international delegation of former prisoners,
families of current prisoners, US lawyers and human rights activists will
travel to Guantanamo, Cuba to hold a conference on prison abuses and march
to the Cuban-side security gate of the US Naval Base to call for the closure
of the illegal prison. The protest in Cuba is part of the January 11
International Day to Shut Down Guantanamo, the day that marks the 5-year
anniversary of the first prisoners being sent to Guantanamo.
"I am traveling all the way from Dubai because by heart is overflowing with
grief over the abuse and ongoing detention of my son," says Zohra Zewawi,
whose son has been tortured and blinded in one eye during his detention, and
has never been charged or tried. Her son was imprisoned in September 2002
and is still a prisoner in Guantanamo. Asif Iqbal, a former detainee who
was freed on no charges after years of abuse, is coming to show his support
for the basic rights of detainees.
"All prisoners deserve humane treatment and fair trials, which is not
happening in Guatanamo," says retired US Army Colonel and delegate Ann
Wright. "US federal courts, not military commissions, should hear the cases
against those charged with terrorist acts and the infamous prison in
Guantanamo should be immediately shut down."
The group, organizing by US groups CODEPINK: Women for Peace and Global
Exchange, will hold a press conference in Havana on January 9, a conference
in Guantanamo on January 10 on prison conditions and international law, and
then on January 11 will march from the center of Guantanamo to the security
gate of the US Naval Base where the prison is located to hold an interfaith
service and call for the closing of the prison. The group will then travel
to Havana to debrief the press on January 13. A smaller group will then
travel to the US to lobby Congress to shut the prison, restore Habeas
Corpus, repeal the Military Commissions Act, and give all detainees fair
trials or release them.
In both Guantanamo and Havana, the award-winning film Road to Guantanamo
will be screened, with a post-showing dialogue with e film co-producer Mat
Whitecross and former prisoner Asif Iqbal, whose horrific story of detention
is portrayed in the docu-drama.
The 12-person delegation also includes renowned US "peace mom" Cindy Sheehan
whose son was killed in the war in Iraq; Adele Welty whose firefighter son
was killed on 9/11; US human rights/peace leader Medea Benjamin of Global
Exchange and CODEPINK; retired US Colonel and diplomat Ann Wright who
resigned over the invasion of Iraq; and legal director of the US Center for
Constitutional Rights Bill Goodman who has taken the cases of Guantanamo
detainees to the US Supreme Court.
On January 11, the International Day to Shut Down Guantanamo, protests will
be held all over the world, including England, Australia and Holland. In the
US major protests will take place in Washington DC and New York City, plus
dozens of cities throughout the country, including outside the US Southern
Command in Miami.
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