After years of campaigning for his freedom, as part of the national campaign, the Socialist Alliance is deeply relieved to hear that Mamdouh Habib has been released from the US concentration camp, Camp X-Ray, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
We express our warmest regards to Habib, his wife Maha and their children, all of whom have been put through hell by the US and Australian governments. The Socialist Alliance commits to helping the Habib family try to rebuild their life, free of any harassment or prosecutions, in whatever way we can.
The Socialist Alliance is outraged by the horrific torture Habib experienced in both Egypt and Guantanamo Bay at the hands of the US government, including electrocution, being stripped and beaten, months-long blindfolding, chemical injections, a dog being put on him when he was naked, and interrogators telling him that all his family had been killed. British eyewitnesses have confirmed all of this. Revelations from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq further demonstrate what cruelty the US state is capable of.
The Socialist Alliance similarly condemns the Australian government for its appalling role in the torture of an Australian citizen.
The Australian government:
1. Backed the illegal and indefinite detention of Habib without charge.
2. Applauded the denial of Habib's basic legal rights (legal counsel, fair trial, the Geneva Conventions etc.)
3. According to recently-released US military court documents, had an Australian official witness the torture of Habib.
4. Has been unrepentant about its despicable brutality. PM John Howard has ruled out compensation or even an apology to the Habib family. The attorney-general, Phillip Ruddock, has even implied — without a shred of evidence — that Habib knew in advance about the September 11 World Trade Center bombing in New York and is threatening to "monitor" and harass Habib when he is returned to Australia. The ALP's Bob Carr has jumped on the wagon, announcing the NSW government will be the "praetorian guard" controlling Habib.
Clearly, the Australian and US governments are on the defensive, trying to vilify a victim of their war on civil rights to avoid too much opposition. The Socialist Alliance pledges to expose the government's lies and oppose the misnamed "war on terror", i.e. the plunder of Iraq and destruction of civil rights here in Australia. The release of Habib will only make us more determined to continue the struggle for the freedom of David Hicks and all the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
The criminals that really needed to be kept under surveillance in the Habib case were members of the federal government. The Socialist Alliance is an intransigent defender of democratic and civil rights, and will do everything in its power to expose Canberra's complicity in crimes against humanity, here and in Iraq.
The Socialist Alliance demands the Australian government:
1. End the slurs on Habib's name and cease all state harassment. Not a shred of evidence has ever existed to charge Habib with anything. Leave him and his family alone. They have suffered enough.
2. Immediately issue an apology and compensation to Habib.
3. Immediately demand the release of the other Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks.
4. Immediately condemn the US torture centre, Camp X-Ray, and demand its closure.
5. Immediately withdraw its troops from occupied Iraq.
Raul Bassi
[Raul Bassi is a national convenor of the Socialist Alliance. The Canterbury Bankstown Peace group is organising a mock trial of David Hicks outside the attorney-general's office, 70 Phillip Street, Sydney, at noon on March 15. The Socialist Alliance will participate in this and others grassroots actions aimed at freeing Hicks and closing down Camp X-Ray all together. Phone 0403 037 376 for more information.]
From Green Left Weekly, February 2, 2005.
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