Protests on Guantanamo base anniversary

GUANTANAMO – Peace activists screened a film for Guantanamo city residents about a former prisoner at the US military base in nearby Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on the eve of yesterday’s protest to demand the prison be closed five years after terror suspects first arrived.

“It will be our big day,” Medea Benjamin, who organised the protest through the California groups Global Exchange and Codepink. American “peace mom” Cindy Sheehan; the former prisoner portrayed in the film British Muslim Asif Iqbal; and the mother of a man still held at the remote US military prison will also be among a dozen protesters.Benjamin said the late morning event on the Cuban side of the American base would include a kilometre-long march to the main gate, and the reading of the names of the nearly 400 men held inside.”We should be able to shut down the US prison,” Benjamin said before the screening of the movie “The Road to Guantanamo,” prompting a standing ovation by several hundred Cubans at the event.”Let’s dream about closing down the base completely.”Residents of Guantanamo largely resent the presence of the US base, which their government considers a violation of the communist-run nation’s sovereignty.The US military still holds about 395 men on suspicion of links to al Qaeda or the Taliban, including about 85 who have been cleared to be released or transferred to other countries.The military says it wants to charge 60 to 80 detainees and bring them to trial.The protest outside the base will coincide with others in cities around the world to demand the United States close the prison on the fifth anniversary of the arrival of the first prisoners.Zohra Zewawi, the mother of detainee British citizen Omar Dehayes travelled from the United Arab Emirates to join the protest.She was accompanied by another son, Taher Deghayes.Zewawi says her son had been tortured and blinded in one eye since he was imprisoned in September 2002.He still has not been charged or tried.Sheehan, of Vacaville, California, became an anti-war activist after her 24-year-old son Casey was killed in Iraq.She drew international attention and was dubbed the “peace mom” after she camped outside of US President George W.Bush’s Texas ranch.Nampa-APAmerican “peace mom” Cindy Sheehan; the former prisoner portrayed in the film British Muslim Asif Iqbal; and the mother of a man still held at the remote US military prison will also be among a dozen protesters.Benjamin said the late morning event on the Cuban side of the American base would include a kilometre-long march to the main gate, and the reading of the names of the nearly 400 men held inside.”We should be able to shut down the US prison,” Benjamin said before the screening of the movie “The Road to Guantanamo,” prompting a standing ovation by several hundred Cubans at the event.”Let’s dream about closing down the base completely.”Residents of Guantanamo largely resent the presence of the US base, which their government considers a violation of the communist-run nation’s sovereignty.The US military still holds about 395 men on suspicion of links to al Qaeda or the Taliban, including about 85 who have been cleared to be released or transferred to other countries.The military says it wants to charge 60 to 80 detainees and bring them to trial.The protest outside the base will coincide with others in cities around the world to demand the United States close the prison on the fifth anniversary of the arrival of the first prisoners.Zohra Zewawi, the mother of detainee British citizen Omar Dehayes travelled from the United Arab Emirates to join the protest.She was accompanied by another son, Taher Deghayes.Zewawi says her son had been tortured and blinded in one eye since he was imprisoned in September 2002.He still has not been charged or tried.Sheehan, of Vacaville, California, became an anti-war activist after her 24-year-old son Casey was killed in Iraq.She drew international attention and was dubbed the “peace mom” after she camped outside of US President George W.Bush’s Texas ranch.Nampa-AP

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