Appeal from Canada: Detainees on hunger strike for 76 days (1)
01 February 2007
From: Roch Tassé: International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group Coordinator
At the request of the solidarity committee with the "security certificate" detainees in Canada, I am forwarding to you the following call for action in the hope that you can assist in bringing international attention to the situation of the detainees who have been on a hunger strike for 76 days now.
SPECIFICALLY, you are being asked to please send or deliver letters in a delegation to Canadian embassies or consulates near you; organise a picket outside a Canadian embassy or consulate; or seek press coverage of the situation in your local media.
If possible, please also circulate the call below to your own contacts.
Thank you.
HUNGERSTRIKES AT CANADA'S "GUANTANAMO NORTH" UPDATE AND NEW CALL
Thanks to all of you who responded to this urgent appeal (below) about the hungerstrikes at Canada's "Guantanamo North" prison.
The Canadian government is continuing its closed door policy & misinformation campaign (see our six-point response to our public Safety Minister's lies at
www.homesnotbombs.ca/daylies.htm). In the absence of response from the government, the men have expressed their intention to continue the hungerstrike. Today is day 76 of the hungerstrike for Mohammad Mahjoub, day 65 for Hassan Almrei and Mahmoud Jaballah. The prison is refusing to provide or permit daily medical monitoring - normally
recommended after 10 days of hungerstrike - thus the situation could become critical at any moment.
We are therefore RENEWING OUR APPEAL to allies and friends internationally to PLEASE DO ALL YOU can to put pressure on Canada's appalling and racist treatment of Jaballah, Mahjoub and Almrei. This is not only about the lives
and dignity of these men and their families; in Canada, the struggle of these migrants for dignity and justice has become a symbol of the struggle against Canada's support for a racist system of global apartheid in the name of "the war against terrorism" and "national security".
SPECIFICALLY, please send or deliver letters in a delegation to Canadian embassies or consulates near you; organise a picket outside a Canadian embassy or consulate; or seek press coverage of the situation in your local media.
FOR MORE INFORMATION or to INFORM US OF AN ACTION:
tasc@web.ca or 416 651 5800, abolissons@gmail.com or 514 222 0205.
BACKGROUND & UPDATES:
Reality check (pdf)
www.homesnotbombs.ca/gitmonorthstrike.htm.
Also:
www.peoplescommission.ath.cx,
www.adilinfo.org,
htttp://zerra.net/freemohamed/news.php
The three detainees - Mahmoud Jaballah, detained since August 2001, Hassan Almrei, detained since October 2001, and Mahmoud Jaballah, detained since June 2000 - have been held under Canada's draconian "security certificate" process (see background below), on vague allegations that they may have something to do with that increasingly meaningless but all-powerful
label "terrorism". They have never ceased to insist on their innocence and demand a fair and open trial, which is no more than the legal right of every person in Canada.
All three are currently on hungerstrike, demanding minor improvements to their conditions of detention, amounting to being treated with some degree of dignity. Their demands include access to an independent ombudsman to receive complaints (something which exists at other prisons in Canada). The Canadian government's response has been consistent with the way
the detainees and their families have been treated from the very beginning of their ordeal: stony silence, callous denial, misinformation and outright lies. The spirit is captured by the Minis