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AN END TO HYPOCRISY ON THE ISSUE OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Signatures backing the
demand rise to 4,566
THE
document An end to hypocrisy on the issue of
human rights has now been signed by 4,566 public
figures and organizations from 79 countries, the
Network of Networks in Defense of Humanity announced
on March 14.
The
petition began with the signatures of 400
intellectuals and artists, among them Nobel Prize
winners José Saramago, Portugal; Harold Pinter,
United Kingdom; Nadine Gordimer, South Africa;
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Argentina; Rigoberta Menchu,
Guatemala; Wole Soyinka, Nigeria; Dario Fo, Italy;
and Mairead Corrigan Maguire, N. Ireland,
subsequently joined by Zhores Alfiorov, Russia.
Others
began to add their names as soon as the document
went into circulation at a rate that has steadily
continued, as can be observed on the website via
which allows those interested in halting the
violations and humiliation to which prisoners
incarcerated in the illegal jails set up by the
United States to sign:
www.derechos-humanos.com /
www.derechos-humanos.info / www.droits-humains.info
/
www.hhrr.info and email:
derechoshumanos@derechos-humanos.com
The
most recent signatories range from the National
Indigenous Federation of Ecuador (CONAIE), the
Association of Women Farmers of Portugal, the
Amazonian Federation of Nationalities; the Lombardy
Regional Federation, the Citizens Action Reflection
Collective (Chile) to the Panama Social-Cáritas
Pastoral.
The
acts of torture committed by U.S. soldiers on Iraqi
prisoners are also being condemned in other forums.
For example, from Panama, correspondent Fausto
Triana reported on March 23 that Florentín Meléndez,
second vice president of the Inter-American Human
Rights Commission (CIDH) and the special raconteur
for torture and maltreatment in prisons, qualified
the U.S. prison on the Guantánamo Naval Base as a
black hole and affirmed that the world clamor to
close that penitentiary is a legitimate one.
The
Pentagon is holding around 490 terrorism suspects in
Guantánamo, whom it considers illegal combatants,
thus not affording them the condition of prisoners
of war. The inmates arrived on the Guantánamo Base
in early 2002 from Afghanistan.
The
United Nations recommended the immediate closure of
the Guantánamo prison in February given the many
exposés of the practice of torture and force
feeding, ignored by Washington.
Meanwhile, in Quito, figures from the indigenous,
national and minority movements have signed the
document, including Blanca Chancosa, CONAIE leader
and in Peru, Oswaldo Huamanchunes, Roberto Huamini,
Carlos Huancas, Yoel Huarcaya and Juan Huaringa,
among other Quechua social fighters, have added
their names.
In
Argentina, along with names such as Fernando Pino
Solanas, Luisa Valenzuela, Sylvia Iparraguire and
Noel Jitrik, more than 500 people have rallied to
the demand, while 537 are reported from Spain,
including Alfonso Sastre, Joaquín and Almudena
Grandes.
From
Brazil, the list adds 146 figures: the eminent
architect of Brasilia Oscar Niemeyer, Walter Salles,
Leticia Spiller, Emir Sader and singer Beth Carvalho;
and the poet Aja from Barbados.
In a
recent editorial The New York Times affirmed
that of the hundreds of people arrested for alleged
links with terrorist activities, many of them would
appear to have done absolutely nothing, and do not
even have the hope of a fair trial to look forward
to, because Guantánamo was created outside of the
law.
Under
the title: An end to the hypocrisy on the issue
of human rights, the document has been
reproduced by international media such as The
Guardian newspaper (UK), L’Unita
(Italy), Página 12 (Argentina) and
Colatino, the main Salvadoran daily, among
others.
When
the petition was launched, many U.S. intellectuals
and artists immediately added their names, including
Harry and Julie Belafonte, Danny Glover, Alice
Walker, Howard Zinn, William Blum, Ramsey Clark,
James Petras, James Cockcroft, Lucius Walker and
Mark Rosenzweig.
This
summer U.S. Americans can see The Road to
Guantánamo, by British director Michael
Winterbottom, in which he exposes the tragedy
experienced by three former British prisoners in
that arbitrary jail.
The
film narrates the story of Britons Rhuhal Ahmed,
Asif Iqbal and Shafiq Rasul, who were unjustly
arrested in Kandahar, Afghanistan after a brief stay
in Pakistan, where they had traveled for Asif’s
wedding.
Via a teleconference organized in London for the
Constitutional Rights Centre, the three related
their experiences. “It was a very hard time for us,
being detained in Guantánamo is like being in a zoo.
You are in a cage for 24 hours of the day and the
guards are watching 24 hours out of 24,” Shafiq
Rasul explained.
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