| Year 2008 No. 63, June 25, 2008 | ARCHIVE | HOME | JBBOOKS | SUBSCRIBE |
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Workers' Daily Internet Edition: Article Index :
Catalogue of detention and containment of Mahmoud Abu Rideh
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The hunger strike of stateless Palestinian refugee Mahmoud Abu Rideh is highlighting the inhuman and racist treatment by the British state of those detained under the so-called "anti-terror" legislation. Mahmoud is in a critical condition in a London hospital after being on hunger strike for well over a month. He has been the subject of a control order under the unjust, racist and medieval "anti-terror" legislation. Like scores of other men detained without trial since the 2001 legislation, he has not been charged with any offence, nor have his solicitors been shown any evidence of why he is alleged to be a "security risk". He endured three and a half years in prisons and psychiatric hospitals before being subject to the control order some three years ago.
Mahmoud had come to Britain and claimed asylum after being tortured in Israeli prisons. He was granted indefinite leave to remain in November 1998. His family, including his six children, are British citizens. He has been refusing food in support of his demand to be allowed to leave this country for Syria or for his control order to be removed.
The detention without charge or trial, not just for 42 days but indefinitely, is an outrageous affront to the very conception of a modern society and the rule of law. These so-called "suspects" who the state demands must choose between deportation to torture or indefinite incarceration, continue to be the subject of state repression with no mechanism of redress, or any opportunity to answer any charges before a court of law.
WDIE calls on broad sections of society to reject these medieval and anti-human practices of the state carried out in the name of "security". The guarantee that such barbarities will be ended is for wide sections of the people to fight that the rights of all be upheld. The collective security of society will not be safeguarded and guaranteed in reality in any other way. Grounded in this principle, the fight of all justice-loving people to end detention without charge or trial, and for the human and just treatment of all, including those seeking asylum or fighting against deportation or the violation of their rights, will continue until the fight meets with success. There is no time to lose!
Read the urgent appeal from Cageprisoners.
Sign the petition for Mahmoud Abu Rideh
Read a letter to the Guardian - "Driven beyond despair by control order"
(source: Institute of Race Relations)
Harmit Athwal, www.irr.org.uk June 19, 2008
An astonishing exhibition was launched this week in central London of poetry, pottery, paintings, crafts, pictures, photographs, cartoons – all created by men detained under anti-terror laws in the UK.
Appropriately held at Together, a national charity supporting people with mental health needs, this is an eclectic mixture of works, all created by men arrested, detained and psychologically punished by the war on terror. It aims to highlight "the mental health concerns and the hidden human tragedy taking place, all in the name of security".
The exhibition contains information on those unidentifiable men, who can only be referred by initials such as "G" or "B", and their experiences of the British state's system of indefinite detention without trial. Despite such brutalising experiences the art created (much of it in Long Lartin and Belmarsh maximum secure jails) is singularly beautiful. The thought, imagination and patient work invested in creating such pieces is hard to reconcile with the government's view that these men are some of the most dangerous and callous in the UK today.
The cartoons are thought provoking and funny, the poetry sad but still hopeful. The copy of Guernica is eye-catching, the ship, train and other mementoes for loved ones made painstakingly from matchsticks are touching. But the intricate painted pottery is the most amazing of all. What is surprising is that such delicacy can come from such tortured minds. The men who created these pieces are still held in prisons, psychiatric hospitals or detained at home under virtual house arrest, their liberty restricted by control orders – all suffering the effects of indefinite detention without trial – as are their families'.
In a touching gesture, all those at the opening night of the exhibition were given hand-crafted cards made by the men as thank-yous for attending. On that evening, families and friends of the artists, lawyers, writers, journalists, campaigners, heard speeches from Moazzam Begg, Victoria Brittain, Cerie Bullivant, Gareth Peirce, Terry Waite and poetry read by Manjinder Virk and Yvonne Ridley.
Captivated: The Art of the Interned
Cageprisoners and Together present a unique art exhibition, comprising the works of those men detained without trial in Britain.
Friday 20 June 2008 – Friday 4 July 2008 , 9-5pm
Together, 12 Old Street, London, EC1V 9BE. (Nearest Tube: Barbican)
For more information email: elpeaceandjustice@yahoo.co.uk
For "Interview with a Man Held Indefinitely without Trial under the ‘Anti-Terror’ Laws 2001 and 2005", see: http://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wdie-07/d07-063.htm#held
Available from RCPB(ML), or email: elpeaceandjustice@yahoo.co.uk