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Announcement :: Civil Liberties & Human Rights |
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NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION-FIVE YEARS TOO LONG-BRING DAVID HOME NOW! |
Current rating: 0 |
by Marlene
(No verified email address) |
03 Dec 2006
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- Close Guantanamo prison camp - Stop the war on civil liberties |
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*Sydney: SATURDAY DECEMBER 9
12 NOON @ SYDNEY TOWN HALL
*Adelaide: SATURDAY DECEMBER 9
11am VICTORIA SQUARE
*Melbourne: SATURDAY DECEMBER 9
2pm FEDERATION SQUARE
*Perth: SATURDAY DECEMBER 9
12 NOON PICA (Vigil starting Friday 8 Dec. from 1pm till noon on Dec. 9 @ WESLEY UNITING CHURCH)
*Brisbane: SATURDAY DECEMBER 9
2pm QUEEN'S PARK (Cnr George & Elizabeth Sts.)
* Canberra: Sunday 10 Dec. - contact Amnesty
wear orange, bring drums...
December 9 marks the fifth year of imprisonment for David Hicks with no chance of his release in sight. He remains in legal limbo. David, like more than 700 men and minors who have gone through the US naval base prison camp of Guantánamo, has endured physical and psychological torture.
Britain, Bahrain, Denmark, France, Jordan, Pakistan, Russia, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden and even Afghanistan have successfully negotiated the release of their citizens from the hell hole of Guantánamo.
Just a phone call from the Australian Prime Minister John Howard, or Attorney General Philip Ruddock, could mean the immediate release, repatriation and end of torture for David.
Human rights and civil liberties groups and organisations have come together to organise a National Day of Action calling for the repatriation of David Hicks and the closure of Guantánamo. Events taking place in: Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Canberra & Sydney.
Endorsed by: Terry Hicks, Fair Go for David, Justice Action, Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network (AMCRAN), Canterbury-Bankstown Peace Group, CFMEU, Australian Lawyers Alliance, Civil Rights Defence Melbourne, Islamic Friendship Assoc., Just Peace WA, Pennant Hills Peace Group, Western Sydney Peace Group, Research Initiative in International Activism (RIIA); Communist Party of Aust.; Socialist Alliance; Socialist Alternative; NSW Greens; Senator Kerry Nettle; Daryl Melham, Labor MP; Dr Tim Anderson, Civil Liberties Campaigner; Brian Brunt, PNG Human Rights Lawyer, …
Organised by: Justice for Hicks & Habib & Stop the War Coalition
For more information & to add your endorsement & support
contact Marlene on 0401 758 871 or Anna on 0401 900 690
Or access http://www.fairgofordavid.org http://www.stopwarcoalition.org
Bring Hicks home
The Age - Ian Munro and Penny Debelle
December 3, 2006
He lives in a cell of featureless walls, 24-hour lighting and a single window of frosted glass that in daylight glows like a fluorescent globe.
For five years, David Hicks has occupied spaces like this, caught between a US Government that has been unable to prosecute him and an Australian Government that refuses to try to free him. This sentence without trial, in conditions so secret that he cannot be photographed, could drag on for another two years unless the Federal Government asks the United States to send him home.
Hicks' military lawyer, Major Michael Mori, says Australia is tolerating a terrible situation. While Hicks has been in legal limbo, John Walker Lindh — the so-called American Taliban who trained at the same camp as Hicks — has been charged, pleaded guilty and sentenced. But Lindh broke American law; Hicks has not broken Australian law.
"America would not tolerate this for one of its citizens," says Mori. "Nor would it tolerate any politicians sacrificing some American citizen to the whim of a foreign country, regardless of whether they are our ally or not. It just doesn't happen."
Lindh and Hicks trained at the al-Qaeda-run camp, al Farooq, before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Training included weapons familiarisation, maps and topography, battlefield operations and explosives. Hicks allegedly also trained for two months at a Lashkar-e- Toiba camp in Pakistan.
Another convert to Islam to attend al Farooq, and to observe bin Laden, was Jack Thomas. He has fared much better than Hicks. While Hicks was captured by the Northern Alliance and handed over to American forces in Afghanistan in November 2001, Thomas avoided capture in al-Qaeda safe houses in Pakistan. When finally detained in January 2003, Thomas was held by Pakistani security for five months and released. After returning to Australia, Thomas was charged, remanded, tried, convicted of two charges and acquitted of two other terrorismrelated offences.
He has since appealed successfully against his convictions. Thomas' case was subject to months of pre-trial argument. All told, he spent 14 months in custody, but is presently free and subject to a control order that also is being challenged in the High Court. Whatever else might be said of Thomas' experiences, he has had the benefit of a robust and transparent legal system.
After Hicks' capture, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer dismissed concerns that the Government had abandoned one of its citizens, saying those who got involved with groups like al-Qaeda were "bound to get into trouble". More recently, the Government has urged the US to try him swiftly.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/in-depth/bring-hicks-home/2006/12/02/11647 |
This work is in the public domain |
