Groups Demand That Guantanamo Be Shut Down

Hundreds of human rights organizations and thousands of individuals have come together and called for an International Day of Action to Shut Down Guantanamo. This Thursday, January 11, 2007 thousands will act together to demand an end to torture and indefinite, illegal and immoral detention of men and boys at Guantanamo. In concerted actions from Australia and Amsterdam to Amherst and Arizona, and in more than 100 other cities around the world, we will demand an end to torture and illegal imprisonment.

In Washington, DC we will process from the Supreme Court to the U.S. Federal Court. Hundreds of us will solemnly march in orange jumpsuits, hooded, chained and bearing the names of the men still illegally held at Guantánamo Bay. One of us for every prisoner still held, five years to date after the first men were transferred to a place whose very name now evokes a deep sense of shame for the citizens of a country once heralded as the most democratic in the world.

At the Supreme Court, Guantánamo Lawyers and activists will address the press starting at 10:30am. Some will then proceed to Federal Court, taking on the names and identities of the men in Guantánamo and submitting Habeas petitions on their behalf. Outside the Federal Court on Constitution Avenue, others will read testimonies and names of prisoners, perform street theater and hand out information.

With these actions throughout the world, people of conscience and justice call on the United States government to:

• Repeal the Military Commissions Act and restore Habeas Corpus.
• Charge and try or release all detainees.
• Withhold funds for the proposed $125 million construction of new military courts at Guantánamo.
• Clearly and unequivocally forbid torture and all other forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, by the military, the CIA, prison guards, civilian contractors, or anyone else.
• Pay reparations to current and former detainees and their families for violations of their human rights.
• Shut down Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram and all other U.S. prisons overseas, including secret CIA detention facilities.

For more information on the International Day of Action, visit
http://www.witnesstorture.org

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