Campaigners Demand Guantanamo Closure on Tenth Anniversary of Prison

To coincide with the tenth anniversary of the opening of the illegal detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, activists from the London Guantanamo Campaign [1] will deliver a petition [2] to the US Embassy in London demanding that President Obama fulfil his earlier promises to close Guantanamo Bay and release former British residents, Shaker Aamer [3] and Ahmed Belbacha [4] to the UK. The petition has been signed by around 400 people and will be delivered to the embassy in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, this afternoon.

Aisha Maniar, from the London Guantanamo Campaign, said: "President Obama has chosen to mark the tenth anniversary of Guantanamo, which he once considered a "misguided experiment" [5] by perpetuating the lawless regime of detention there, without charge or trial, through provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act 2012 [6]. Once considered part of the disastrous legacy of his predecessor, George Bush, President Obama has made this "experiment" state policy. Similarly, President Clinton before him made extraordinary rendition state policy in the 1990s.

"As the United States gears up for presidential elections later this year, it is hard to forget the dashed hopes of the world in the aftermath of Barack Obama's complete backtracking on his pledge to close Guantanamo Bay by 2010 and end military tribunals. Instead, hardly any prisoners have been released, a minor has been tried for war crimes and the closure of Guantanamo and other similar facilities is ever more distant.

"Through their collusion, other states, including the United Kingdom, have some responsibility to bear in aiding its closure. In the case of the British government, it must do more to secure the immediate release of Shaker Aamer and Ahmed Belbacha, formerly resident in the UK."