Protesters seek freedom for Guantánamo Bay detainees

Demonstrations took place in Dublin and Belfast yesterday as part of a global series of protests to mark the sixth anniversary of the opening of the US-run Guantánamo Bay detention centre in Cuba.

At five separate events in the capital, Amnesty International members, dressed in orange jumpsuits and white facemasks - representing named individuals incarcerated in Guantánamo - collected signatures on a petition calling for the camp's closure.

At a protest outside Dáil Éireann, Karol Balfe, campaigns officer of Amnesty's Irish section, said: "Guantánamo Bay has been open for six years now and it's in total contradiction of the Geneva Conventions . . . a third of the people currently held at Guantánamo have actually been cleared for release, but still remain at the detention site."

As parliamentarians from around the world were asked to sign Amnesty's petition, it emerged that 35 TDs and 33 Stormont Assembly members and Northern MPs from a range of parties had given their name to the initiative. They include representatives from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour, the Green Party, Sinn Féin and the PDs.

In Belfast, dozens of activists took part in a protest, while politicians from the Ulster Unionist Party, Sinn Féin, Alliance and Progressive Unionist parties signed Amnesty's petition.

The events were part of a series of global demonstrations to seek the immediate closure of Guantánamo, with rallies taking place in Washington, London, Madrid, Copenhagen and Istanbul. Amnesty has drafted an action plan consisting of 13 recommendations to end illegal detentions in the "war on terror" without compromising the US government's ability to combat terrorism.

"Guantánamo is an anomaly that must immediately be corrected and the only way to do so is by closing it down," said Irene Khan, the organisation's secretary general.

The plan calls for restoration of habeas corpus, an end to secret detention and for any detainees to be charged and tried in independent and impartial courts if they are not to be released.

"The illegal practices adopted by the US government in its 'war on terror' - exemplified by Guantánamo and the CIA programme of secret detention - have promoted the dangerous notion that fundamental human rights can be set aside in the name of national security," said Ms Khan.

"Arbitrary and secret detentions violate fundamental human rights . . . and threatens rather than promotes security."

A US appeals court ruled yesterday that four former Guántanamo prisoners, all British citizens, have no right to sue top Pentagon officials for torture and violations of their religious rights. The four, who brought the lawsuit, were released from Guantánamo in 2004 after being held for more than two years. - (Additional reporting by Reuters)