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"What is more important is the inhumanity that my government is perpetrating at Guantanamo," said Sheehan. (Reuters) |
HAVANA — Drawing attention to nearly 420 terror suspects held incommunicado, American pacifists and human rights activists led by anti-war icon Cindy Sheehan defied a US ban and traveled to Cuba to rally for the closure of the notorious American Guantanamo detention built in the communist country, The Guardian reported on Sunday, January 7.
"Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not afraid of anything," Sheehan told reporters late Saturday, January 6, when asked about the possibility of being fined for visiting Cuba, which remains under an American trade embargo.
"What is more important is the inhumanity that my government is perpetrating at Guantanamo," she added emphatically.
"If I worried about reprisals I wouldn't be doing anything. ... I think it is time for people to step up and try to stop this."
Americans who travel to Cuba without special licenses from the US government can be punished with fines of thousands of dollars.
Sheehan, 49, dedicated her life to anti-war activities after losing her 24-year-old son Casey in Iraq in April 2004.
She drew international attention after camping outside US President George Bush's Texas ranch to protest the Iraq war, and has been arrested numerous times.
The "peace mom" is among 12 human rights and anti-war activists who plan to arrive Thursday, January 11, at the man gate of Guantanamo, branded the "gulag of our times" by Amnesty International.
The group includes former detainee Asif Iqbal, a British citizen who was released after two years with no charges, and the mother of current prisoner Omar Deghayes, a British resident.
They also include Ann Wright, a retired US colonel and diplomat who resigned over the invasion of Iraq.
"We're here as American citizens to say that this prison needs to be shut down," said Wright. "There needs to be justice but not ... military courts."
Bush signed a law in 2006 creating a military tribunals system to try Guantanamo detainees.
Defense lawyers insist the military tribunals deny their clients fundamental legal rights in violation of the US Constitution and international law.
International Protest
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| Former Guantanamo detainee Ben Chellali of France stands among Amnesty activists. |
The march is part of international protests against the notorious detention center five years after it opened with the first detainees flown in from Afghanistan, which the US invaded after 9/11 attacks.
Amnesty International staged a protest in Paris Saturday on the banks of the river Seine, demanding the closure of Guantanamo.
About 400 activists gathered at a replica of the Statue of Liberty in Paris to mark the fifth anniversary of the opening of the detention center.
Wearing orange suits and white masks, the protesters stood in the shape of the figure 420, the number of men being held at Guantanamo.
They included Mourad Ben Chellali, a French citizen who was captured and detained in Guantanamo for 30 months.
Chellali was transferred from US custody to French custody in July 2004.
He was released from jail eighteen months later.
Washington has faced steady criticism over Guantanamo from rights groups and foreign governments, especially after revelations of detainees abuse.
In a new embarrassment to the Bush administration, an FBI probe indicated that some Guantanamo detainees were "baptized" and wrapped in Israeli flags, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, January 3.
FBI agents also reported repeated mistreatment of the Noble Qur'an by Guantanamo jailers.
Amnesty insists Guantanamo has become a "symbol of abuse and represents a system of detention that is betraying the best US values and undermines international standards."
The international rights watchdog once likened it to gulag prisons, the Soviet detention centers notorious for torturing political prisoners and suspects.
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