The London Guantánamo Campaign was started up in March 2006 and is part of the National Guantánamo Coalition, a coalition of anti-Guantánamo and pro-human rights groups in Birmingham (Birmingham Guantánamo Campaign), Manchester (Manchester Guantánamo and Belmarsh Campaign) and Brighton (Save Omar Campaign). The aim of the campaign is to work towards the release of the eight British residents currently held in Guantánamo Bay in the short-term and the release of all prisoners and the closure of the detention facility in Guantánamo Bay and all secret jails in the war on terror in the long-term. We also support the families of the British residents in their campaigns. The national coalition also works with lawyers representing the British residents both in the UK and US, supporting the legal work that they do. Members of the National Guantánamo Coalition hold local events as well as joint national events.
We are rapidly approaching the fifth anniversary (11 January 2007) of the opening of the military camp in Guantánamo Bay, USA, in its current incarnation of a torture and detention without trial facility in the war on terror. Over the last five years, Guantánamo Bay had become a potent symbol of state-sponsored terror in the name of fighting terrorism and thus underlies and has a direct link to attempts to curb civil and human rights and endorse torture anywhere in the world, the UK included. Today, Guantánamo Bay, with its wire cages and orange jumpsuits, is the symbol of illegitimacy used by leaders (military and political) all over the world to legitimise their use of torture and flagrant disregard for international law and conventions and the rule of law. Guantánamo Bay is also the visible face of torture and repression in the war on the terror; there are countless other unknown detention and torture facilities throughout the world, including in Europe (EU territories) where individuals often caught up in the war on terror for the most spurious reasons end up or are transferred to if they are victims of “extraordinary rendition”.
In spite of often half-hearted verbal condemnation of illegal practices in the war on terror such as torture flights, rendition and torture, most countries are directly involved in these practices and use them as a basis to repress opposition and silence any dissent. Examples of the UK’s direct involvement in the war on terror include the “outsourcing” of torture, as in the case of Binyam Mohammed whose torture in Morocco British intelligence agents were aware of, visits by MI5 agents to the Tipton Three in Guantánamo and the use of British airports to refuel torture flights, originally denied by the government. Detention at Guantánamo Bay has had a trickle-down effect on policy in the UK and questions currently being debated in parliament such as whether “terror” detainees can be held without charge in British jails for up to 90 days would most likely not be possible were over 450 men not being held without charge for almost five years in Guantánamo Bay. The restrictions on their freedom also affect our freedom and the arbitrary, secretive nature of SIAC trials no doubt have a touch of the CSRTs (Combat Status Review Tribunal) “allowed” to Guantánamo detainees in them. ASBOs are part of the knock-on effect and the arbitrary detention of asylum seekers in British detention facilities smack of the same. The fact that ASBOs, the arbitrary detention of terror suspects and asylum seekers and other measures to curtail the freedoms and liberties of the British and non-British residents of these isles echo the largely global silence over what is happening in Guantánamo Bay.
Further afield, Guantánamo Bay has given the international community the perfect excuse not to question or demand an inquiry into last year’s massacre in Andizhan, Uzbekistan. The hundreds, if not thousands of people, who have since been rounded up and detained arbitrarily, tortured and killed, remain as invisible and out of sight and mind as the 450 prisoners in Guantánamo Bay.
One of the most sinister aspects of the detention of prisoners in Guantánamo Bay has been the campaign to dehumanise them – through inhuman and degrading forms of torture, by denying them access to their families, legal and medical services and the outside world, sensory deprivation and trying to convince them through all of this that they are terrorists. This campaign is double-sided and while they are allowed little access to information about the outside world, the outside world, including their families, have little access to them. They are dehumanised in the eyes of the world as well. The fact that many of these prisoners do not speak English plays a role in this. New categories of humanity are created in which some “are more equal than others”. Indeed, many of the Guantánamo prisoners currently held there are there because no one (their country of origin in most cases) wants them. In the case of three of the British residents, Bisher El-Rawi, Jamil El-Banna and Omar Deghayes, all who entered the UK as refugees, the High Court upheld the government’s argument that they could not help them as they are not British citizens and having been out of UK territories for more than two years, the government has no duty towards them. That these men all have British families is quite irrelevant.
In the case of terror suspects, in the UK and abroad, and refugees, the fact that they are dehumanised makes it harder for the average person to identify with them and makes it easier for them to be criminalised. The media has a significant role to play in this perception and the court of popular opinion makes any real evidence of the true facts irrelevant. That such people are detained arbitrarily without being granted their day in court or any other platform to present their version of events means that not only is the “truth” completely one-sided but that we will never know the truth of events simply because, in most cases, the opportunity for it to be brought to light has passed. In the case of the prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, in spite of the myth of the majority of prisoners having been “enemy combatants” having long been exploded (foreigners were sold by the Pakistani military to the US for a bounty of USD5000), many still question what people like Moazzam Begg and the Tipton Three were doing in Afghanistan in the first place.
The issue of dehumanisation and criminalisation cuts into the deeper vein of identity and what Britishness (or at least being English) means. How does one define a good British citizen? Someone who hold a British passport? Someone who tows the government line? The Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 makes a distinction between British nationals and residents and offers an arbitrary definition of terrorism. Of course, the point here is not only to confuse foreigners and penalise them but to serve as a warning to all Britons, that should you fail to comply with the rules or dare to challenge them, you could meet a similar fate.
In the face of the strong campaign by the government and the media to dehumanise these individuals, the obvious plan of attack is to campaign to humanise them. All the organisations in the National Guantánamo Coalition actively do this. It is imperative that people know what the prisoners’ names are, what they look like and their story and that they do not get lost in the mire of being foreign, having an unpronounceable name and a story of no interest. The media can play a part in this. In NW London, where Jamil El-Banna lives, the local newspaper, The Willesden and Brent Times have started their own Justice for Dad campaign. The campaign has gained considerable support in the local area and has made local people aware of his plight. The newspaper has also worked alongside the family in their campaign and made residents in this part of London aware of their ordeal as well, particularly as Jamil has a three year old daughter he has never met as she was born after he was kidnapped and detained. The plight of others such as family members is often ignored, however raising the profile of the individual involved raises the profile of their family too, who are often suffering unspoken hardships. The support shown to them by campaigners often means a lot to the families who are isolated and ignored by those whose responsibility it is to represent them and help them.
There are absolutely lots of way of campaigning and raising the profile of these prisoners, from holding meetings and stalls to written and audiovisual materials and an Omar Deghayes festival recently held at Sussex University. The solidarity shown by other groups has also been incredibly important in campaigning for the Guantánamo prisoners. In the case of individuals whose rights are being extrajudicially abused, the law may not provide the best solution for them as it has already been circumvented. However, popular pressure and a call for their release can make all the difference; it worked for the British nationals who were held in Guantánamo for up to three years and the government has already started to shift its position.
In 2006, the situation for the remaining Guantánamo prisoners has become all the more critical. In January, Jamal Kiyemba, a Ugandan national who has lived in the UK since his teens and whose family live here, was returned to Uganda as the Americans did not consider him a threat. This did not prevent the Ugandan authorities from detaining him without charge for a further three months and he now has to rebuild his life without his family’s support and on a meagre income. This option is not open to prisoners like Omar Deghayes, whose family fled to the UK as refugees after the Libyan regime killed his father, and which has already promised to kill him if he returns to the country. In June, three prisoners (two Saudis and a Yemeni) were found dead in their cells; the American military claims they committed suicide as an act “of asymmetrical warfare”. No inquiry has been started into their deaths. The US has now sent two groups of prisoners to Albania; one of these groups constituted of five Uighurs, ethnic Chinese Muslims, who have no community and no support in Albania. Furthermore the Chinese government is now demanding their extradition; the Uighurs are a persecuted minority in China. The situation is worsening by the day and the prisoners’ lawyers are particularly concerned about their mental health. How much longer can we allow this detention without trial and dehumanisation of human beings to continue?
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London Campaign 
