Human Rights, Pages 45-46

Justice for Guantanamo Prisoners

MEMBERS OF Witness Against Torture (WAT) held a Jan. 11 rally in front of the White House to protest the lack of progress toward justice for Guantanamo detainees since President Barack Obama took office. Speakers announced a 12-Day “Fast for Justice” in Washington, DC, ending on Jan. 22—the Obama administration’s self-declared, and now-voided, deadline for closing Guantanamo.

Protesters, many of them wearing orange jumpsuits and black hoods, demanded that Obama keep his campaign promises to close Guantanamo prison and to end torture. After a street theater performance, demonstrators held a large “Close Guantanamo” banner as a backdrop for speakers. The human rights activists also said they oppose “any plans for holding prisoners without charge or trial in the U.S. and denounced the White House’s expansion of [the Bush-Cheney administration style] detentions in Afghanistan.”

Following the rally, protesters, clad in the orange jumpsuits, walked in a solemn procession to the National Press Club to participate in a public briefing organized in conjunction with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). CCR executive director Vince Warren and Pardiss Kebriaie, staff attorney with CCR’s Guantánamo Global Justice Initiative, spoke to reporters.

Formerly detained men and detainee families also addressed Americans via a combination of video, audio, and written letters. Two men who spent years in Guantanamo called in to speak: Algerian Lakhdar Boumediene from his home in France, and Libyan Omar Deghayes from the United Kingdom. The opportunity to connect directly with the former detainees and describe the vigils and “Fast for Justice” was powerful and totally appropriate as protesters marked eight years of Guantanamo imprisonments.

The day ended with a grassroots discussion of about 80 people at Georgetown Law School. Some 150 people are participating in a weekly vigil that extended the “100 Days Campaign to Shut Down Guantanamo” vigil from last spring. Currently more than 150 people are participating in the fast.

For more information visit <www.witnesstorture.org>.

—William Hughes