2000 Days of Guantanamo - 4th July 2007

Public Meeting & Launch of Exhibition in London

‘Guantanamo: Portraits of Injustice’

2000 days of illegal imprisonment; 2000 days of captivity; 2000 days of torture; 2000 days of brutality; 2000 days of injustice.

4th July 2007 marks 2000 days of Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility !

On the 4th July, America will be celebrating it’s Declaration of Independence’ which recites ‘that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’. The irony is stark. On this day we remind the world of the continued denial of the most basic human rights by the USA at Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility.
Opened on 11th January 2002, over 800 people have been held captive in Guantanamo, of whom 380 remain. Over 400 captives have been released without ever having been charged or facing a trial. Innocent men and children have been snatched, rendered, held, often in solitary confinement, tortured, humiliated, brutalised and then released without even an apology. Hundreds of men continue to be held in captivity in inhumane and torturous conditions without the fundamental human right of knowing why they are being held and right to a fair trial. No one from Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility has been charged in connection with 11th September Attacks, yet the USA and British governments would have us believe otherwise.
This is the first exhibition on Guantanamo in this country. It will provide a visual backdrop to a significant meeting supported by a number of individuals and organisations calling on the new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown to; defend international human rights; to demand the immediate release and safe return of all the British residents to this country and to end all forms of detention without trial
Join us on:

Wednesday 4th July 2007

6.30pm viewing of exhibition

7.00pm - 9.30pm public meeting

at the House of Commons

St Stevens Gate London SW1A OAA (nearest tube: Westminister)

ALL WELCOME: OPEN TO PUBLIC
Confirmed speakers include:

Moazzam Begg (Cage Prisoners), ex-Guantanamo detainee

Gareth Peirce (Birnberg Peirce), lawyer for Guantanamo detainees

Zachary Katznelson (Reprieve), legal counsel for Guantanamo detainees

Sarah Teather MP (All Party Parliamentary Group on Guantanamo)

Desmond Fernandes (CAMPACC)

Victoria Brittain (Author and playright)
For further information contact the National Coalition of Guantanamo Campaigns on 07721427690 .

"Life in Guantanamo jail is close to life in a grave….that is because the prisoners in Cuba are neither dead nor alive. They are not dead because they have souls . . . [but] they have been deprived of all the rights of living people." (‘The Broken Shackles of Guantanamo’ by Dost & Badar Guantanamo x-detainees)