Guantanamo stain on reputation of US and West must end

12.01.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 11th Jan 2008

Sarah with Brent MP Sarah Teather protesting outside the US embassy.

London Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford will marking the sixth anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp by joining protests in London, including the handing in of a letter to Gordon Brown urging him to press George Bush for closure and secure the release of British residents still incarcerated there.

Sarah Ludford has been a leader in efforts in the European Parliament since 2001 to stop 'war on terror' human rights abuses. She has been the Parliament's 'rapporteur' on Guantanamo and was instrumental in setting up its committee on extraordinary rendition which a year ago concluded that EU countries including Britain has colluded in torture flights. She is active in trying to get safe countries for all those detainees who though set for release cannot be sent back to their home countries for fear of torture or maltreatment, and is currently lobbying the Canadian government over the plight of its citizen Omar Khadr who was locked up in Guantanamo as a teenager.

Sarah says:

"The campaign to close this illegal prison has lost none of its momentum. If people are suspected of crimes then they must be dealt with through proper due process and fair trials, not Bush's kangaroo courts. It is scandalous that men given legal residence in the UK such as Binyam Mohammed Al Habashi and Ahmed Bel Bacha are being left to rot there; they are a British responsibility."

"I am also disappointed that a country like Canada, which is a leader in human rights and at the recent Commonwealth summit endorsed that organisation's ringing call for respect for the rule of law, has been so neglectful of the abuse of the rights of one of its own citizens, which indeed recalls the disgraceful case of Maher Arar."

"It would be inconceivable for a new US President in 2009 to inherit this stain on America's reputation for freedom and human rights. The UK, the EU collectively and the Commonwealth owe it to us as their citizens to deliver on promises to uphold fundamental rights, but they also owe to the world a duty to help get the US out of the black hole it created."