There are two items of note from the Amnesty Blog Project, the first I am a little late in posting so apologies.
Guantanamo Bay
A Judge in Washington has ruled that five Algerian men who have been at the camp for six years are to be released because there is no legal basis for their detention. He has told the US government not to appeal his decision. So good news! This will have huge implications for the continuing detentions without trial as there are 200 more habeus corpus petitions awaiting.
On the other side there are three prisoners who remain and have spent some time in Britain. One of these men is Binyam Mohammed. He is a Ethiopian National who lived in Britain for seven years. He was unlawfully arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and transferred to Guantanamo by the US authorities. He was charged this year with terror related offences but the defendant states that these are based on statements he made after being tortured. The current situation is that Binyam is close to total physical and mental breakdown. His lawyer says that he is suicidal and needs to be moved to a less oppressive part of the complex.
He and two others (Shaker Abdur-Rameen Aamer & Ahmed Belbacha) are part of the annual Greetings Card Campaign. Please send a card of solidarity. Details are to be found here.
DRC
Amnesty International will be taking part in a demonstration outside 10 Downing Street tomorrow (Wednesday 26th) at 11.30am-1pm. They have joined forces with the likes of Oxfam, Christian Aid, Muslim Aid and Global Witness to call on Gordon Brown to take swift action for the sake of civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are calling for more peacekeepers to be deployed within days or weeks, not months.
There is a concern that rapes and killings are still taking place in the region of Kivu in the eastern region of DRC. This of course has had a major impact on women and children in the region.
At midday they will all be holding clocks up in the air beside a specially created large clock to emphasis that time is running out. If you are in London tomorrow and are able to take part, don’t forget to take a clock with you.
For those who can’t make it to the demo there is an action you can take online.
