Ex-Detainees Launch Gitmo Inmates' Rights Group

[sabra]

Source: AP

Former Guantanamo detainees launch group to help released, current inmates
The Associated Press

GENEVA

Former Guantanamo Bay detainees have launched an organization to help released inmates return to normal life and to lobby for the release or trial of those still held at the U.S. military prison, one of the founders said Wednesday.

The Guantanamo Justice Center aims to help over 500 men who have been released from the prison get medical and psychological treatment and find jobs, said Sami al-Haj.

Al-Haj, a Sudanese national who spent more than six years at Guantanamo, said only one in 20 former inmates has a job, and many have received no psychological or medical assistance.

"If you lock someone up in a normal prison for six months they need help," he told The Associated Press. "These people have been in jail for more than six years in an institution that's much worse than a normal jail."

Many have received no explanation or apology, despite having never been charged with a crime, al-Haj said.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=8201805

[IndianaGreen]

1. New campaign group launched for victims of Guantanamo

New campaign group launched for victims of Guantanamo

Thursday 30 July 2009
by Paddy McGuffin

Former Guantanamo Bay detainees Moazzam Begg and Binyam Mohamed were present at the launch of new campaign group the Guantanamo Justice Centre (GJC) in London.

The GJC has been established due to the urgent financial, medical and psychological support needed by former detainees on release from Guantanamo and the Bagram air base, often having been held for many years without charge.

For many of these men, falsely labelled terrorists and horrifically tortured, their long-overdue release is not the end of their ordeal.

Mr Begg explained: "The GJC's aim is to provide welfare and support to help people reintegrate into society.

"It is also about holding those responsible to account and fighting the stigma attached to having being labelled a terrorist suspect in the world's most notorious prison.

"We were labelled the worst of the worst, the most dangerous men in the world. People say the world's most powerful democracy couldn't have got it wrong. You're not innocent - you just weren't found guilty."

Also present at the event was Mr Mohamed, speaking for the first time since his release from Guantanamo.

Mr Mohamed said that he had not initially intended to speak but, having spoken to a fellow detainee, Mohammed al-Gharani from Chad, he decided to speak out.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/britain/new_campaign_group_launched_for_victims_of_guantanamo

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R