MEP joins Guantanamo Families demanding repatriation

4.21.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 16th Jun 2004

Sarah Ludford continues to campaign for the fundamental rights of the Guantanamo Detainees. She is pictured here at the Foreign Office with (from left to right) Vanessa Redgrave, Katherine Mubanga, Janette Belmar, Azmat Begg and Dr James MacKeith

Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, one of the European Parliament's spokespeople on Guantanamo Bay and a patron of the Guantanamo Human Rights Commission, joined other campaigners on June 16th in support of relatives delivering the Commission's petition of 4,000 signatures to Foreign Office minister Chris Mullins.

This demands immediate repatriation of the prisoners, who have now been in detention without charge or trial for over 2 and a half years. The families were represented by Azmat Begg, father of Moazzam Begg, Janette Belmar, sister of Richard Belmar, and Katherine Mubanga, sister of Martin Mubanga.

The delegation included the Bishop of Oxford Rt Revd Richard Harries, Chair of the Islamic Human Rights Commission Massoud Shadjareh, Rabbi David Goldberg, prominent human rights campaigning peer Lord Judd, renowned forensic psychologist Dr James MacKeith, author and playwright Gillian Slovo, and Vanessa Redgrave.

The Guantanamo Human Rights Commission petition insists the British government should

• investigate reports of torture during interrogations and demand to see all recordings of violence against its citizens.

• demand the immediate repatriation of the remaining four British citizens (Moazzam Begg, Feroz Abbasi, Richard Belmar and Martin Mubanga) and the two British residents (Jamil Al Banna and Hisham Al Rawi), who all have families living in the UK.

Baroness Ludford said:

"The continuing detentions in Guantanamo Bay are a moral and legal outrage which stain the conscience of the West. We cannot credibly preach freedom and democracy whilst disregarding the rule of law and fundamental rights.

"The hypocrisy synonymous with the 'war on terror' is fanning the flames of hatred and making us more vulnerable rather than safer."

Rt Revd Richard Harries, Bishop of Oxford and patron of the Guantanamo Human Rights Commission, said:

"It is simply unacceptable for prisoners of any nationality to be imprisoned without charge, without access to family visits, and without hope of a hearing, under a regime that treats them little better than animals. We urge the British Government to seek repatriation of the four remaining British citizens and two British residents who continue to be held in detention in Guantanamo Bay.

Vanessa Redgrave, co-founder of the Guantanamo Human Rights Commission, said:

"Our fears are entirely confirmed. The British Government is bound by its ratification on the UN Convention on Torture, 1984, also ratified by the USA, to immediately repatriate all six UK citizens and residents back to Britain. Their families here have always insisted that if they were charged with any crime, they should be tried but here in Britain."

"Intensive interrogation techniques" are the "Newspeak" for torture. Since the International Red Cross has only been allowed restricted access in this situation, I have to say that Guantanamo Bay is not a detention centre, it is a concentration camp."

Note

The Guantanamo Human Rights Commission founded by Corin and Vanessa Redgrave was launched on 20th January 2004 at the House of Commons and campaigns for the rights of the European Guantanamo Bay detainees. It wants the British Government to investigate the following reports of abuse and torture:

• On May 16, former British detainee Tareq Dergoul described in the Observer how beatings which he sustained in Guantanamo from the Emergency Reaction Force were recorded on camera. Lieutenant Colonel Leon Sumpter confirmed that such camera recordings were made and are stored in an archive in Guantanamo. Will the British Government demand to see these archives?

• General James Hill of the US Southern Command confirmed the use of intensive interrogation techniques on two detainees at a press briefing on June 3. According to the Washington Post on 4 June, four intensive interrogation techniques are classified and can only be approved by Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld for use on Guantanamo detainees. Has the British Government approved these techniques and found out if they have been used on British detainees?

• On BBC Radio 4 on 15 June, General Janis Karpinski gave an interview in which she declared she was told by Major General Geoffrey Miller, previously in charge of the detention regime in Guantanamo Bay, to treat the detainees like dogs. She said the Major General told her: "This place (Abu Ghraib) must be Gitmo-ized….they (the detainees) are like dogs, if you allow them to believe they are more than dogs, then you will have lost control."

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