December, 14 2010, 09:16am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Frida Berrigan, 347-683-4928, frida.berrigan@gmail.com
Jeremy Varon, 732-979-3119, jvaron@aol.com
Anti-Torture Activists Demonstrate and Fast for Justice, January 11-22, 2011
The prison at Guantanamo will enter its 10th
year of operation on Tuesday, January 11. Witness Against Torture is working to
make sure this second decade never begins.
Event: Rally and "prisoner procession" to the Department
of Justice, followed by non-violent direct action.
Date and Time: Tues, Jan. 11, beginning at 11 am
Location: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington,
D.C.
WASHINGTON
The prison at Guantanamo will enter its 10th
year of operation on Tuesday, January 11. Witness Against Torture is working to
make sure this second decade never begins.
Event: Rally and "prisoner procession" to the Department
of Justice, followed by non-violent direct action.
Date and Time: Tues, Jan. 11, beginning at 11 am
Location: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington,
D.C.
Starting at 11am that morning at the White House, Witness
Against Torture launches a Daily Vigil and Fast for Justice that will continue
for 11 days and include demonstrations throughout Washington. The days of
action will begin on January 11th with a rally of a coalition of
human rights and grassroots groups, including the Center for
Constitutional Rights and Torture
Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition, followed by a "prisoner
procession" to the Department of Justice, where members of Witness Against
Torture will engage in nonviolent direct action.
Witness Against Torture is organizing this series of
protests to demand that Guantanamo be closed immediately and that those who
designed and carried out torture policies be held to account. The Daily Vigil
and Fast for Justice and nonviolent direct action underscore the determination
of anti-torture activists not to accept President Obama's refusal to honor the
commitment he made his first day in office to close the detention camp at
Guantanamo. The group is also focusing attention on Bagram and other U.S.-administered
prisons in Afghanistan, where the administration has intensified military
operations.
Witness Against Torture is organizing activists from across
the U.S. and extending an invitation to other antiwar and human rights groups
to endorse and participate in the Daily Vigil and Fast for Justice, beginning
with the actions on the 11th.
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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