Witness Against Torture repeats Guantanamo closure call
-18/05/06
Witness Against Tortu
Witness Against Torture repeats Guantanamo closure call
-18/05/06
Witness Against Torture (WAT), a faith-based campaign to shut down the controversial Guant·namo Bay detention camp in Cuba, has responded to President George Bush’s statements on German television last week about the US prison.
Bush acknowledged the prison was a “sensitive issue,” and said, “I would like to close the camp and put the prisoners on trial.” He went on to say that, “Our top court must still rule on whether they should go before a civil or military court. They will get their day in court. One can’t say that of the people that they killed. They didn’t give these people the opportunity for a fair trial.”
However, following pressure from the British attorney general and human rights campaigners across the world, the US administration has reiterated that it has no immediate plans to close the camp and end detention without trial, representation or accountability.
In December 2005, a group of twenty-four friends, following the non-violent tradition of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker and calling themselves “Witness Against Torture,” walked to Guant·namo to visit the prisoners.
When they returned, they launched the Campaign to Shut Down Guant·namo, which consists of public education and community outreach, networking and resource sharing, and acts of non-violent civil disobedience to draw attention to the plight of prisoners in the camp, and victims of the war on terrorism everywhere.
WAT supporter Frida Berrigan, from Brooklyn, New York, declared: “How can President Bush say the prisoners will get their day in court and assert they are killers in the same breath? Analysis of the Pentagon’s own declassified documents find that only 8% of those imprisoned in Guant·namo can be characterized as al Qaeda fighters. When you look closely at the documents and listen to the testimonies of the prisoners’ abuse and torture, the fact that President Bush is now trying to ascend the moral and legal high ground is a sad joke.”
Susan Crane, who lives at the Jonah House Community in Baltimore, Maryland, explains: “The prisoners at Guant·namo don’t need statements. They need action. In December, after long months of prayer and discernment, we were moved to act on behalf of the prisoners at Guant·namo because we believe that our dignity and humanity are bound up undeniably with the dignity and humanity of all other people… especially the prisoners. The administration created Guant·namo to hide both the prisoners and their inhuman and illegal treatment, and we call on Bush to act to end the injustice.”
Matthew Daloisio, a member of the New York Catholic Worker in Manhattan, responds: “Bush’s statement is just another pretty smokescreen meant to manipulate the public and evade culpability for his own policy. All along, Bush has asserted that Guant·namo falls under the exclusive authority of the executive. It was under his authority that the detention centre was created and that these prisoners are held. Now he asserts that he is just a passive actor awaiting word from the Supreme Court. In fact, if he were to withdraw his controversial demand for military trials, there would be no case! We call for real action, not manipulative statements.”
More information at: http://www.witnesstorture.org
Witness Against Torture repeats Guantanamo closure call
-18/05/06
Witness Against Torture (WAT), a faith-based campaign to shut down the controversial Guant·namo Bay detention camp in Cuba, has responded to President George Bush’s statements on German television last week about the US prison.
Bush acknowledged the prison was a “sensitive issue,” and said, “I would like to close the camp and put the prisoners on trial.” He went on to say that, “Our top court must still rule on whether they should go before a civil or military court. They will get their day in court. One can’t say that of the people that they killed. They didn’t give these people the opportunity for a fair trial.”
However, following pressure from the British attorney general and human rights campaigners across the world, the US administration has reiterated that it has no immediate plans to close the camp and end detention without trial, representation or accountability.
In December 2005, a group of twenty-four friends, following the non-violent tradition of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker and calling themselves “Witness Against Torture,” walked to Guant·namo to visit the prisoners.
When they returned, they launched the Campaign to Shut Down Guant·namo, which consists of public education and community outreach, networking and resource sharing, and acts of non-violent civil disobedience to draw attention to the plight of prisoners in the camp, and victims of the war on terrorism everywhere.
WAT supporter Frida Berrigan, from Brooklyn, New York, declared: “How can President Bush say the prisoners will get their day in court and assert they are killers in the same breath? Analysis of the Pentagon’s own declassified documents find that only 8% of those imprisoned in Guant·namo can be characterized as al Qaeda fighters. When you look closely at the documents and listen to the testimonies of the prisoners’ abuse and torture, the fact that President Bush is now trying to ascend the moral and legal high ground is a sad joke.”
Susan Crane, who lives at the Jonah House Community in Baltimore, Maryland, explains: “The prisoners at Guant·namo don’t need statements. They need action. In December, after long months of prayer and discernment, we were moved to act on behalf of the prisoners at Guant·namo because we believe that our dignity and humanity are bound up undeniably with the dignity and humanity of all other people… especially the prisoners. The administration created Guant·namo to hide both the prisoners and their inhuman and illegal treatment, and we call on Bush to act to end the injustice.”
Matthew Daloisio, a member of the New York Catholic Worker in Manhattan, responds: “Bush’s statement is just another pretty smokescreen meant to manipulate the public and evade culpability for his own policy. All along, Bush has asserted that Guant·namo falls under the exclusive authority of the executive. It was under his authority that the detention centre was created and that these prisoners are held. Now he asserts that he is just a passive actor awaiting word from the Supreme Court. In fact, if he were to withdraw his controversial demand for military trials, there would be no case! We call for real action, not manipulative statements.”
More information at: http://www.witnesstorture.org