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NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Frida Berrigan, 347-683-4928, frida.berrigan@gmail.com
Gary Ashbeck, 410-913-2342, cruz69j@hotmail.com

Anti-Torture Activists to Fast and Rally Sunday to Call on Obama to Close Guantanamo

The seven-year anniversary of the
opening of the prison at Guantanamo -- more than 200 human rights
advocates will join 60 people who are beginning a nine-day fast to
encourage President-Elect Barack Obama to keep his promise to shut
down Guantanamo and end torture in his first days of office.

WASHINGTON

The seven-year anniversary of the
opening of the prison at Guantanamo -- more than 200 human rights
advocates will join 60 people who are beginning a nine-day fast to
encourage President-Elect Barack Obama to keep his promise to shut
down Guantanamo and end torture in his first days of office.

At DuPont Circle Park at 12:45 pm, human rights organizations,
including Amnesty International, The Center for Constitutional Rights,
and September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, will call for
an end to the Bush policies, justice for the detainees, and
accountability for possible U.S. crimes. 150 demonstrators wearing
orange jumpsuits and hoods will have a prisoner procession to
dramatize the plight of the detainees still at Guantanamo.

"I am fasting," says Malachy Kilbride of the Washington Peace Center,
"to symbolically join the prisoners, who are starved for justice."
"Obama's statements," explains Matthew Daloisio of Witness Against
Torture, "bring hope that Guantanamo will close. But parts of the
military and the Congress are already working to prevent Obama's
plans."

"We need justice, not more politics of fear," adds Valerie
Lucznikowska of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows.
"This is the promise Obama represents, and we will hold his
administration to it."

The fast will be broken on January 20, when anti-torture activists
will join the inauguration-day crowd. The event is part of Witness
Against Torture's 100 Days Campaign to Close Guantanamo and End
Torture. Participants include The National Religious Campaign Against
Torture, the Torture Abolition Survivors Support Coalition, and the
American Friends Service Committee.

Event: Fast and Rally Calling on Obama to Close Guantanamo and End Torture

Date and Time: Sunday, January 11; 12:45 pm

Location: DuPont Circle Park, Washington, D.C., NW

Witness Against Torture is a grassroots movement that came into being in December 2005 when 24 activists walked to Guantanamo to visit the prisoners and condemn torture policies. Since then, it has engaged in public education, community outreach, and non-violent direct action. For the first 100 days of the Obama administration, the group held a daily vigil at the White House, encouraging the new President to uphold his commitments to shut down Guantanamo.