Cuba/USA/UK: Say no to torture
01 August 2006
Thursday 11 January 2007, exactly five years after the arrival of the first hooded, shackled and manacled prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been declared an international day of action to demand that the US prison be shut down. The former US joint chief of staff, General Richard Myers, has justified the abduction and torture carried out at Guantanamo by describing the abductees imprisoned at the military base as "the sort of people who would chew through a hydraulics cable to bring down a C-17 [transport plane]". His hyperbolic description, even if it were accurate, is entirely irrelevent to the legal rights to which the men are entitled under international law and the Geneva conventions. To date not one single prisoner has been brought to trial although around 70 of the prisoners are expected to eventually face trial before a US military court.
Among the 450 or so prisoners currently detained in the gulag are eight British residents who have been left unaided by the UK government because they are residents and not British citizens. The eight UK residents are: Jamil el-Banna, Binyam Mohammed, Shaker Aamer, Bisher al-Rawi, Omar Deghayes, Ahmed Errachidi, Ahmed Belbacha and Abdelour Sameur. The Independent newspaper recently (9.1.07) published the text of a letter to prime minister, Tony Blair, from the 9-year old British-born son of one of the UK residents, Anas Jamil el-Banna, aged 9. Written approximately one year ago, it read:
Dear Mr Blair,
Firstly, how are you?
I sent a letter two years ago. Why didn't you reply?!? I was waiting for a long time but you did not reply. Please can you give me an answer to my question?
Why is my dad in prison?
Why is he far away in that place called Guantanamo Bay?
I miss my dad so much. I have not seen my dad for three years. I know my dad has not done anything because he is a good man. I hear everybody speak about my dad in a nce way.
Your children spend Christmas with you but me and my brothers and sisters have spent Eid alone without our dad for 3 years. What do you think about that?
I hope you will answer me this time.
Thank you,
Anas Jamil el-Banna
Unfortunately Mr Blair was, once again, too busy to reply to Anas' letter, although on this occasion he did receive a note from the Foreign Office. It stated that because Jamil el-Banna was not a British citizen, although his wife and children are, nothing could be done. Jamil el-Banna, who has been imprisoned without trial at Guantanamo since March 2003, suffers from severe diabetes, but has not received medication nor have his dietry requirements been met.
For more information on the London Guantanamo campaign contact: guantanamoaction@amnesty.org.uk and London_Gitmo:yahoo.com
Witness Against Torture website: http://witnesstorture.org/
Amnesty events website:
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/events_details.asp?EventsID=296
Independent 9.1.07