LONDON - January 6 - This Saturday, 7 January, the weekend before the tenth anniversary of the opening of the illegal US military prison camp at Guantánamo Bay on 11 January 2002, a public rally is to be held at Trafalgar Square (North Terrace, outside the National Gallery), organised by the London Guantánamo Campaign (LGC), Save Shaker Aamer Campaign (SSAC), Stop the War Coalition (StWC) and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) [1].

Speakers will include Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP (Lib Dem), Louise Christian (solicitor), Lindsey German (StWC), Kate Hudson (CND) and Victoria Brittain (journalist) [2].

Aisha Maniar, from the LGC, said:

“Ten years of Guantánamo Bay are ten years of wasted opportunities to close down this notorious symbol of lawlessness and injustice in our time.

“President Obama has completed his U-turn on earlier pledges to close Guantánamo and end the discredited military commissions with his recent signing into law of the National Defense Authorization Act, perpetuating the regime of arbitrary detention without charge or trial.

“The United States and its allies must share responsibility for the closure of Guantánamo Bay: the UK government must step up its efforts to secure the return of British resident Shaker Aamer [3] and also offer a safe home to former British resident Ahmed Belbacha [4]. Other European Union states must also step up their efforts to help close Guantánamo Bay and take concrete action to put an end to this “shame”[5].

“We will nonetheless keep up the pressure on governments to take firm action and to seek justice for the prisoners held at Guantánamo.”