January, 09 2009, 08:05am EDT
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 Call on Obama to Close Guantanamo & Torture Immediately
On Sunday, January 11 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
On Sunday, January 11 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 in Washington, DC, leading human rights
organizations, including Amnesty International, American Civil Liberties
Union, 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, War Resisters League, 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.
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