Release of British citizens welcome but long, long overdue (AI)

[struggle4progress]

Kate Allen, UK Director of Amnesty International said:

“Having campaigned long and hard over Guantánamo, we are delighted that the misery of these four men and the anguish of their families at last appears to be coming to an end. In the absence of proper charges and trials, the release of Britons held at Guantánamo Bay is long, long overdue.

“If anyone previously held at Guantanamo has anything to answer for in the UK, then they should of course be properly charged and duly tried in court."

Amnesty International remains concerned about the plight of the remaining detainees at Guantánamo Bay. Yesterday marked the third anniversary of the first detentions by the US authorities at Guantánamo, which Amnesty International has described as an “icon of lawlessness”. <snip>

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news/press/15861.shtml

[Phoebe_in_Sydney]

1. What is more than 3 years of a life worth?

There's an Australian man being released as well. Can you imagine what his family has been through?

When her phone rang last night and the Government official at the other end told Maha Habib that her husband would be coming home, the mother of four had to tell him to hold on.

"I needed to sit down," she said. Then she asked him to repeat what he had just told her.

"I said, 'Are you sure? Can I tell the kids', and he said, 'Yeah, go ahead and tell them'."

Her two daughters, aged four and 11, were "very happy" when she told them that their father, Mamdouh, would be released from Guantanamo Bay and flown home to Sydney. But Mrs Habib had to leave mobile messages for her two sons, aged 17 and 19."I told them that if they want to hear good news then come home now," she said.

Last last year Mr Habib broke down in tears in his cell when he heard his four-year-old daughter, Hajer, talk for the first time.

During a 30-minute phone call the Sydney man spoke by phone to his wife and four children - the first call he has been allowed to make to them since he was taken into US custody as a suspected terrorist in October 2001.

Mrs Habib said last night that she did not know when her husband would be coming home, and her husband had not yet been informed of his release....

more:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Are-you-sure-Can-I-tell-the-kids/2005/01/11/1105423493220.html