GUANTANAMO CELL REPLICA WILL VISIT PORTLAND  JUNE 5 - JUNE 7

LOCAL EVENTS WILL HIGHLIGHT CALL TO CLOSE THE PRISON

For immediate release May 29

Contact Shenna Bellows or Brianna Twofoot 774-5444

A full-sized replica of a Guantanamo Bay prison cell will be in Monument Square from Thursday June 5 through Saturday June 7 as part of a national campaign calling for the closure of the U.S. Government detention facility in Cuba.

Amnesty International is bringing the cell replica as part of a U.S. tour which will highlight the issue of torture and the detention practices at the facility. Visitors will be encouraged to tour the cell to get a first-hand experience of the conditions there. The kick off event, beginning on June 5 at 11:30 a.m. will feature speakers from a coalition of civil liberties and peace organizations, including the Maine Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, Peace Action Maine and Veterans for Peace.

“The chance for people to see first hand what the detainees are experiencing  should spur our efforts to close this facility, where there continue to be such terrible human rights violations,” said Shenna Bellows, Executive Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union.

The issues surrounding Guantanamo will be explored at a keynote panel discussion that evening, June 5, at 6:30 p.m. at Rines Auditorium at the Portland Public Library.  Featured speakers include Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty International, and Jameel Jaffer, the Director of the National Security Project for the American Civil Liberties Union who has served as a monitor at the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay.  Jaffer was a leader in the ACLU’s successful efforts to uncover the nature and extent of human rights abuses at Guantanamo through the Freedom of Information Act.  Jaffer supervises the ACLU’s litigation on issues of torture, surveillance, and censorship and secrecy. Also speaking will be Pardiss Kabrieai from the Center for Constitutional Rights, a staff attorney who visited Guantanamo.  

For many years, civil liberties groups and many public officials have raised concern about the conditions in which people are held indefinitely at the facility without charges or access to lawyers

Last year, Sen. Thomas Harkins sponsored a bill to close Guantanamo, S.1469, which has been referred to the Committee on Armed Services. Maine Sen. Susan Collins sits on that committee.

Other events include:

Guantanamo, including readings from Guantanamo, the Detainees Speak, and other poems, led by Rev. Mykel Johnson, Sunday June 1, 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. at Allen Avenue Universalist Church, 524 Allen Avenue, Portland.

Poems from Guantanamo, the detainees speak readings of poems and other writings by Guantanamo prisoners, performed by members of Mad Horse Theatre Company, Portland Friday June 6 at noon. Monument Square. Portland

Film Showing. Ghosts of Abu Ghraib. Friday June 6 at 7 p.m. with discussion following at Williston West Church, UCC, in the Fellowship Hall, 32 Thomas St., Portland.

For a full listing of events, please visit the MCLU website at MCLU.org.

Note to Editors: Reporters may wish to spend an extended period of time in the cell replica, which can be arranged by contacting Brianna Twofoot at the MCLU, 774-5444.