Reuters: US activists plan Guantanamo jail protest in Cuba

US activists plan Guantanamo jail protest in Cuba
04 Jan 2007 18:40:08 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Anthony Boadle

HAVANA, Jan 4 (Reuters) - A group of U.S. and other peace activists including
Cindy Sheehan plan to march to the gates of the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo,
Cuba on Jan. 11 to protest against abuses at the prison camp for terrorism
suspects, organizers said on Thursday.

The protest in Cuba is part of planned international protests against the prison
camp next week, five years after it opened with the first detainees flown in from
the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan that followed the Sept. 11 attacks.

The group of 15 marchers will include former detainee Asif Iqbal, a British
citizen who was released after two years with no charges, and relatives of current
prisoner Omar Deghayes, a British resident. Sheehan, whose son was killed in the
Iraq war, has become a well-known peace activist in the United States.

Cuba's Communist government -- which has long condemned the prison camp run
by its political enemy the United States -- has said the protesters can march to
the Cuban security fence surrounding the U.S. base, said Matt Daloisio, spokesman
for Witness Against Torture.

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