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Wednesday 8 May 2013 - 12:03

Online activist group Anonymous calls for huge anti-Gitmo protest effort

Story Code : 261908
Online activist group Anonymous calls for huge anti-Gitmo protest effort
“We stand in solidarity with the Guantanamo hunger strikers. We will shut down Guantanamo,” said an online statement posted by the activist group on Tuesday.
 
Describing the American military detention and torture facility as a “concentration camp” and “and ongoing war crime,” Anonymous further called on its supporters to join three days of massive protests from May 17 through 19 against the prison camp.
 
According to official figures by prison authorities, out of the 166 captives held at the US military base in Guantanamo, Cuba, over 100 have joined the hunger strike with at least 21 being forced-fed to prevent their demise, a move that rights groups have condemned as torture.
 
This is while inmate lawyers have put the number of hunger strikers at 130 or more. They further say that dozens of the detainees remain in captivity years after being cleared for release.
 
Anonymous did not elaborate on how it would go about prompting the shutdown of the notorious prison camp but vowed that “twitterstorms, email bombs and fax bombs” would be part of its anti-Guantanamo campaign this month.
 
It further posted phone numbers for the White House, US Southern Command and the Pentagon on its website, calling on supporters to “phonebomb” US authorities with calls against Guantanamo’s prison camp.
 
    “Guantanamo Bay must be closed at once, and the prisoners should be either returned to their home countries or given a fair trial in a federal court. Guantanamo Bay is an ongoing war crime. Anonymous will no longer tolerate this atrocity,” their statement added.
 
 
The group also censured the Obama administration’s failure to deliver on his promise to close down the detention facility and further lashed out at military administrators of the camp for force-feeding some hunger strikers, a move that was dismissed by the UN as torture and in violation of international law.
 
The hunger strike by Guantanamo inmates initially began in early February over charges of mistreatment by prison guards, including the mishandling of copies of the Quran in possession of the detainees.
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