Remembering Guantanamo - Five years of infamy

"If dogs were treated like this in my country, there would be an uprising," - American peace activist, Cindy Sheehan.

My own personal reaction to Guantanamo has been one of anger. It is not an emotion I feel comfortable with, but in the case of Guantanamo it was all I felt. As a novelist, the only course of action available to me was to write about it and thankfully the resulting novel - The Cobbler's Apprentice - has been read by thousands of people. Therefore, it was with great relief that I watched the demonstrators from around the world, some wearing Guantanamo-style orange jumpsuits, staging protests at the five years of shame. The protests from Melbourne to Washington yesterday, demanded closure of the U.S. military prison in Cuba where terrorism suspects have been held for years without trial.


Many marched to the security fence around the U.S. military enclave in eastern Cuba chanting "Guantanamo prison, place of shame, no more torture in our name."

The first detainees were flown shackled, blindfolded and wearing orange suits to the heavily guarded Guantanamo camp five years ago, soon after the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan was launched in response to the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

More than 770 captives have been held at Guantanamo since its opening, of whom only 10 have been charged with crimes. About 395 prisoners remain there, suspected of al Qaeda and Taliban links.

Speaking at U.N. headquarters on the fifth anniversary of the camp's opening, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged that it be closed.

U.S. President George W. Bush has acknowledged the camp is hurting the U.S. image. But he has made no moves to close it and last year signed legislation barring foreign captives from challenging their detention through the U.S courts.

"If George Bush was a reasonable man he would understand ... that he is creating more terrorism against the U.S.," said Briton Moazzam Begg, who was released in 2005 after two years in Guantanamo. "Most of those hostages in Iraq were executed wearing orange boiler-suits because of peoples' feelings about Guantanamo," he told Reuters.

Five years of American infamy.

In Washington, about people gathered in front of the U.S. Supreme Court to call for Guantanamo's closure.

"Guantanamo must be closed. It's an embarrassment for this country," said Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which organized the rally along with Amnesty International USA.

"Guantanamo Bay prison has become a symbol around the world for human rights abuses and for wrong-headed policies enacted in the name of the war on terror," said Larry Cox of Amnesty International USA. "It has brought shame to our nation."

Protesters carried signs stating, "the America I believe in would shut down Guantanamo," "stop the torture," and "justice delayed is justice denied."

The International Committee of the Red Cross, in a leaked memo quoted by the New York Times in 2004, accused the U.S. military of using tactics "tantamount to torture" on inmates. U.N. human rights investigators have said the simultaneous suicides of three inmates last June was predictable.

Australia's Shame.

In Australia, protesters gathered outside government buildings to demand that Australia's only Guantanamo detainee, David Hicks, be brought home immediately. Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard has been isolated around the world and condemned in Australia as the only head of state not to try and get his citizens home.

"Bring David home, close Guantanamo now," they chanted. Hicks, 31, was arrested in Afghanistan in late 2001 and accused of fighting for al Qaeda.

Charges against Hicks of conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy were dropped when the U.S. Supreme Court last June rejected the military tribunal system set up by Bush to try foreign terrorism suspects.

"They've been bullying David for five years," his father Terry Hicks told TEN Network television. David Hicks's father says he is worried his son will commit suicide if he is not released from Guantanamo Bay soon.

Today marks the fifth anniversary of David Hicks's detention in the United States military camp on suspicion of being a terrorist - the tragic situation exacerbated by the fact that he has not acted in contravention of any Australian law.

Morocco acts.

In stark contrast to the failure of the Australian leader to act, Morocco has spared no effort in demanding the liberation of four Moroccan detainees in Guantanamo. According to Foreign minister Mohamed Benaissa, once they were apprised of the presence of 18 Moroccans in Guantanamo, the Moroccan authorities made the necessary contacts with the US administration officials in order to identify these Moroccans and determine their arrest circumstances.

The US administration then handed over nine Moroccan detainees (five in August 2004, three in February 2006 and one in October 2006), Benaissa said, underlining that these people were handed to Moroccan justice, which sued them for the charges of constituting criminal gangs, forgery, illegal immigration and belonging to an international terrorist organization.

The minister also recalled that the US authorities transferred five Moroccans, holding double nationality, to their residence countries in Belgium, Great Britain, France and Spain.

According to the Pentagon report, issued on may 16, 2006, there were 759 detainees in Guantanamo prison, including 18 Moroccans, who are accused of belonging to Al-Qaeda and or the Taliban.


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