March marks decade of detention
7:30am Saturday 11th February 2012 in Where I Live
A march is to be held in Battersea this weekend to mark the 10th anniversary of Shaker Aamer’s detention in Guantanamo Bay.
On Saturday (February 11), Mr Aamer’s supporters will march through Clapham and Battersea to raise awareness for the father-of-four who was captured by US forces in November 2001.
He has been held in Guantanamo Bay since February 14, 2002, where he has allegedly suffered terrible abuse resulting in a “catastrophic” decline in his health, according to Reprieve – a non-profit organisation which enforces the human rights of prisoners.
Suspected of being a cohort of Osama Bin Laden, Mr Aamer has never been charged with a crime by the United States government and has never received a trial.
Soon after Reprieve took up his case Mr Aamer, from Wandsworth, was granted clearance in 2007 but has never been released and has been held in isolation for more than two years.
After visiting Mr Aamer, and witnessing his squalid living conditions, in Guantanamo Bay, Clive Stafford Smith, director of Reprieve, penned a letter to the foreign secretary William Hague.
He wrote: “I do not think it is stretching matters to say he is gradually dying in Guantánamo Bay.
“I should note that on February 14 he will have been in Guantanamo Bay for 10 years; the anniversary coincides with the 10th birthday of his youngest child, who he has never met.”
March organisers will meet outside Northcote Road Baptist Church at noon.
