グアンタナモ関係

２０１２年０３月０１日に私宛にE-mailで
国際人権団体アムネスティーＵＳＡからメールが届きました。

この件で先ほど、オバマ大統領宛にメールを送りました。
その前に、アムネスティーUSAのサイトに行って、
アムネスティーUSA連名でサインをしてきました。


アムネスティーＵＳＡからのメールの内容は下記のとおりです。


As of this month, Shaker Aamer has been held in Guantanamo without charge or trial for 10 years.
In the span of that decade, presidents have come and gone,
wars were started and ended, children have been born.
Those children include Shaker's own youngest child,
who he has never met.

Shaker was cleared for release by the Bush administration in 2007.
The UK government -- an ally of the US -- wants Shaker, a UK resident,
released back to his wife and children in London.

Why on earth is this man still confined to the rights-free zone known as Guantanamo Bay?

Call on the US government to either charge and fairly try Shaker Aamer, or release him to the UK.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron will visit President Obama in a couple of weeks -- and we need to make sure Shaker Aamer's case comes up in the talks.
With the two key decision makers in the same room,
this is one of the best opportunities we've had in a decade to make a real difference for this long-forgotten prisoner.

Amnesty staff are already working behind the scenes in Washington to influence the agenda of the state visit,
but we need the voices of Amnesty members to amplify our outrage against Shaker's unending and unjust detention.
Shaker won't be forgotten any longer if people like you remind President Obama and other key US officials that we know he's there,
waiting for justice.

Shaker may not be able to wait much longer.
He has already been severely ill-treated, and was reportedly badly beaten and subjected to death threats in front of an MI5 officer and intelligence officials in 2002.
After Shaker organized the first hunger strike at Guantanamo -- which prompted US officials to promise changes in camp conditions -- those promises were broken.
Instead, Shaker was placed in solitary confinement in a windowless cell as punishment. That cell has been his home since 2005.

Human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, who visited Shaker at Guantanamo in November 2011,
told the UK Foreign Secretary William Hague: "I do not think it is stretching matters to say that [Shaker Aamer] is gradually dying in Guantanamo Bay."

Indefinite detention without charge or trial. It's not the America that we believe in,
but it's the status quo of Guantanamo. And sadly,
Congress recently voted to continue the status quo by passing this year's National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

While today the Senate Judiciary Committee is meeting to discuss the NDAA and its implications for human rights,
people like Shaker Aamer are still suffering at Guantanamo.
With the US playing fast and loose with the law, who is to say that Shaker Aamer's story of indefinite detention couldn't be yours or mine?

In the last decade, Guantanamo has ruined many lives, while failing to bring about justice for the September 11 attacks.
Let's put an end to all that Guantanamo has come to stand for,
beginning with the life of one man.
Demand that the US government either charge and fairly try Shaker Aamer, or release him back to the UK, where his wife and children await him.

Sincerely,
Amnesty International USA


先ほど、オバマ大統領に送った、メールの内容は下記のとおりです。


Dear President Mr.Barack Obama

The UK wants Shaker Aamer returned

I am writing to urge you to either charge and fairly try Guantanamo detainee Shaker Aamer in US federal court,
or release him to the UK--as the UK government has requested.

On February 14, 2012, Shaker Aamer,
a former UK resident,
will have been held without charge at the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for 10 years?despite
the UK government’s repeated requests that he be returned to his wife and four children in London.

Indefinite detention is a human rights violation,
it must end. All Guantanamo and Bagram detainees
must either be charged and tried in courts that meet international standards for fairness,
such as a US federal court,
or be released to countries where their human rights will be respected.