Witness Against Torture March on Guantanamo * Announcement of "Witness Against Torture" and call to action * Press Release of "Witness Against Torture" * Letter to Friends and Activists from the 25 * Press Release of War Resisters League
========== Today, December 6th, 25 people from the United States began a march from Santiago, Cuba to Guantanamo Bay. Their goal is to "defend human dignity" by visiting people who have been held in the prison complex at the U.S. naval base. They should be arriving at the gates of the base on Saturday, December 10th, International Human Rights Day. Below is information we have received from the organizers of this effort. If your group is already planning activities on Saturday we hope you will incorporate the issues raised by this march. We encourage you to take the actions the organizers of the march are calling for. Leslie Cagan National Coordinator United for Peace and Justice ------------------------------------------------------ http://www.witnesstorture.org In this email: 1. Announcement of "Witness Against Torture" and call to action 2. Press Release 3. Letter to Friends and Activists 1. Announcement of "Witness Against Torture" and call to action: U.S. Christians March on Guantanamo to visit Prisoners on Hunger Strike Take Action to Stop the Torture, Abuse & Illegal Detentions Please forward this information to your friends, families, organizations and other contacts. Twenty-five U.S. Christians in the nonviolent tradition of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker are setting out from Santiago, Cuba today (Dec. 6) on a solemn 50-mile march to Guantanamo Bay. They seek to "defend human dignity" by visiting with the hundreds of detainees who have been held for more than three years under horrific conditions by the U.S. government. The group plans to arrive outside the gates of the U.S. naval base and prison complex on Guantanamo Bay on December 10, International Human Rights Day. Participants in the group include a Jesuit Priest, Steve Kelly, a Catholic Nun, Sr. Anne Montgomery, Frida Berrigan, daughter of the late antiwar activist Phil Berrigan, and representatives of a number of Catholic Worker Communities. They are requesting entry into the compound to visit and interview the detainees as a "work of mercy" in keeping with their faith. If refused, as United Nations inspectors were just two weeks ago, they will hold a fast in solidarity and a vigil to pray for the immediate abolition of torture by all nations. Take Action! * Sign-on to a letter to President George W. Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and Guantanamo Naval Base Commanding Officer Mark M. Leary, requesting that the marchers be allowed to visit those incarcerated in the Guantanamo Bay prison: http://www.witnesstorture.org/signletter * Organize a solidarity vigil to End Torture and Illegal Detentions on International Human Rights Day, this Saturday, December 10. Register your vigil online at http://www.witnesstorture.org/events. Call your local media outlets to let them know. * Donate to this effort at http://www.witnesstorture.org/donate * To stay informed, download fact sheets and flyers, and read the marchers online blogs, visit http://www.witnesstorture.org ************************************************ 2. Press Release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 6, 2005 CONTACT: Witness Against Torture Mike McGuire 347-683-4928 [EMAIL PROTECTED] U.S. Christians March on Guantanamo to visit Prisoners on Hunger Strike "Witness Against Torture" Implores U.S. Military to Allow Access So They Can Perform Work of Mercy: Bringing Comfort to Prisoners Santiago, Cuba - Twenty-five Christians in the nonviolent tradition of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker arrived in Cuba last evening and plan to set out from Santiago today on a solemn fifty-mile march to the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They seek to "defend human dignity" by visiting with the hundreds of detainees who have been held for more than three years under horrific conditions by the U.S. government. "As a Christian, I feel compelled to reach out across national boundaries to perform one of the most basic acts of faith - as described in the gospel of Matthew 25, I was in prison and you visited me," explained Catholic Worker Matthew Daloisio. "We want our fellow Americans to see the shameful acts of torture and abuse taking place in this and other illegal prisons hidden across the globe. We pray that others will join us in urging our government to allow us to perform this act of Christian faith." Participants in the group include a Jesuit Priest, Steve Kelly, a Catholic Nun, Sr. Anne Montgomery, Frida Berrigan, daughter of the late antiwar activist Phil Berrigan, and representatives of a number of Catholic Worker Communities. The marchers plan to arrive outside the gates of the U.S. naval base and prison complex on Guantanamo Bay on December 10, International Human Rights Day. They are requesting entry into the compound to visit and interview the detainees as a "work of mercy" in keeping with their faith. If refused, as United Nations inspectors were just two weeks ago, they will hold a fast in solidarity and a vigil to pray for the immediate abolition of torture by all nations. A press conference at the St. Marks Church-on-the- Bowery will be held on December 7 to call on the U.S. Government to allow Witness Against Torture to visit the Guantanamo prisoners. Speakers will include Michael Ratner, head of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and CCRs Gitanjali Gutierrez, the lead attorney for Guantanamo Bay detainees. CCR brought the landmark detainee right-to-trial case in which the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Government had to allow federal hearings to determine the legal status of detainees. Ratner will explain how the Bush Administration has refused to comply with this ruling. Speakers will also include relatives of a Guantanamo Bay detainee now on hunger strike. Sister Diana Ortiz, a U.S. nun who was a victim of rape and torture in Guatemala, will be joined by anti-torture activist Jennifer Harberry, to speak of what it feels like to be a victim of torture. A sign-on letter at http://www.witnesstorture.org will allow Americans to join their call. ******************************************************* 3. Letter to Friends and Activists: Dear Friends and Fellow Activists, On December 5th, a group of us from the United States embarked on an 11-day journey to the Guantánamo Bay detention facility. We arrived in Santiago, Cuba to begin a five-day, 77+ mile walk to the Guantánamo base, where we hope to enter the detention facility to monitor the conditions and meet with both guards and prisoners. We plan to stay until at least December 15th to maintain a vigil outside the gates of the base, having a presence over International Human Rights Day on December 10. It is our hope to be able to interview detainees about torture claims and hunger strikes at the base. We also seek to initiate a credible, objective and fair assessment of the situation of the detainees at the detention facility. We have lawyers and doctors on call to join us, should we be allowed in.. It was revealed in mid-November that the U.S. has detained more than 83,000 people in its four-year "war on terror" of which 14,500 remain in jail. Some 108 are known to have died in U.S. custody, prompting 26 homicide investigations. Guantánamo is the closest-to-home location of some of these detentions and alleged abuses. We believe that an ocean, or border, or travel restriction should not stop us from standing us for what is right. While we are in Cuba, we have a press team working here in the U.S. to encourage media coverage of our walk and witness in order to keep the plight of the detainees at the forefront of the publics mind. To track our journey, see photos, access press releases, statements, and trip updates, please see http://www.witnesstorture.org This site will be updated regularly to keep you abreast of our journey. There will be a sign-on letter on the website calling on the US government to stop violating the prisoners rights and to let us into the base. In June, President Bush countered questions about torture at Guantánamo and the United States' commitment to human rights by inviting members of the European Union to inspect the U.S. base at Guantánamo. He said, "you're welcome to go down there yourselves... and take a look at the conditions." We are hoping you will join in pressuring the Bush administration to let us answer its invitation by signing the letter and publicly supporting our request to be let into the base. Feel free to forward this on to others as well. In Peace, Jackie Allen Matthew W. Daloisio Hartford Catholic Worker New York Catholic Worker Sr. Anne Montgomery, RSCJ Gary Ashbeck Kairos Community, NY Jonah House, MD Amanda W. Daloisio Grace Ritter New York Catholic Worker Ithaca, NY Frida Berrigan Thomas J. Feagley War Resisters League, NY Malden, MA Patricia Santoro Anna Brown Jersey City, NJ Kairos Community, NJ Clare Grady William Streit Ithaca Catholic Worker Little Flower Catholic Worker, VA Dana M. Brown Teresa Grady Ithaca, NY Ithaca Catholic Worker Sheila Stumph Daniel Burns Raleigh Catholic Worker, NC Ithaca Catholic Worker Rev. Steve Kelly, SJ Carmen Trotta Oakland, CA New York Catholic Worker Mark Colville Dina Khorasanee New Haven Catholic Worker Canada Tanya Theriault Susan Crane New York Catholic Worker Jonah House, MD Art Laffin Matthew Vogel Dorothy Day Catholic New York Catholic Worker Worker Washington, DC Scott Langley Raleigh Catholic Worker, NC ========== AMERICANS TO VISIT GUANTÁNAMO PRISONERS War Resisters League FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 6, 2005 Contact: Simon Harak: 212-228-0450; [EMAIL PROTECTED] AMERICANS TO VISIT GUANTÁNAMO PRISONERS 25 U.S.Citizens walk 80 miles across Cuba in an effort to visit prisoners at U.S. Naval Base Calling their action Witness to Torture: A March to Visit the Prisoners in Guantánamo, the marchers began morning in Santiago de Cuba and will walk the 80 miles to the gates of the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay to arrive on December 10th, International Human Rights Day. They include War Resisters League (WRL) activists and members of Catholic Worker communities throughout the country. Frida Berrigan, the 31-year-old veteran member of the WRL board and activist network, is one of those marching. Berrigan, a resident of Brooklyn, New York, says that she is participating in this march and witness because "torture is terrorism. What the U.S. government is doing in our name and with our money is a crime against humanity, it makes us fundamentally less secure, and is counter to all that is good and right. It is just that simple." By participating in the walk, Berrigan is following in a long WRL marching tradition. Ralph DiGia, a longtime WRL staff member who will celebrate his 91st birthday while the group is out of the country, was part of the 1964 "Walk to Peace from Quebec to Guantánamo." He recalls, "Members of our group were beaten and arrested in Georgia for being an interracial group, and we were barred from leaving the country in Miami. I wish Frida better luck than we had." Simon Harak, WRLs Anti-Militarism Coordinator, notes that "In 2002, WRL gave its Peace Award to Christian Peace Makers Team, and now four members of that nonviolent group have been kidnapped in Iraq. Instead of responding with fear and retreat in the face of such horrors, nonviolent activists must continue to be creative and courageous. We are glad that Frida and others are marching in the spirit of nonviolence to send a strong and clear message that victims of war are not forgotten, and encourage others to support their efforts." Founded in 1923, the War Resisters League believes war to be a crime against humanity and advocates Gandhian nonviolence as the method for creating a democratic society free of war, racism, sexism, and human exploitation. www.warresisters.org Witness Against Torture seeks to "defend human dignity" by visiting with the hundreds of detainees who have been held for more than three years under horrific conditions by the American government. To learn more, visit www.witnesstorture.org ========== _______________________________________________________ portside (the left side in nautical parlance) is a news, discussion and debate service of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. It aims to provide varied material of interest to people on the left. 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