wfn.org | NCC, Guantanamo Families Call for Due Process for Detainees

["Carol Fouke" <cfouke@ncccusa.org>]

For Immediate Release	    

NCC, Guantanamo Families Call for Due Process for Guantanamo Detainees
Respect for God-Given Human Dignity Undergirds Faith Community's Commitment,
NCC General Secretary Bob Edgar Says

March 8, 2004, WASHINGTON, D.C. - Respect for every person's God-given human
dignity demands that the detainees held by the United States government at
Guantanamo Bay be accorded their right to due process under U.S. and
international law, the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar, General Secretary of the
National Council of Churches USA (NCC), said today.

That is why the NCC, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the American Civil
Liberties Union, the Fellowship of Reconciliation and Peaceful Tomorrows
(9/11 families) have joined with families of Guantanamo detainees to demand
that these prisoners either be charged and afforded an opportunity to defend
themselves or released for lack of evidence, as each individual case
warrants, he said.

March 8-10, the groups are co-hosting a delegation from the London-based
Guantanamo Human Rights Commission in a push for due process rights for the
Guantanamo detainees.  European families of Guantanamo detainees are being
accompanied by actors Vanessa and Corin Redgrave, the commission's
co-founders, along with other prominent members of the arts, religious and
political communities.

Their schedule began with a morning news conference called by the National
Council of Churches and held in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, which
currently has before it a case filed on January 14, 2004, by the CCR
asserting the Guantanamo detainees' right to due process.  This assertion is
supported in an amicus brief signed by the NCC and ACLU, among others.	

Later today (March 8), Guantanamo detainees' families and others sent letters
to the First Family by fax and then made a symbolic procession to Lafayette
Park, across from the White House.  An evening interfaith service of prayer
and reflection at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church will focus on the issue
of due process. Guest artists are to include Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and
Mary) and his daughter Bethany Yarrow, as well as the InKlein Quartet.

Dr. Edgar said the National Council of Churches  -- a collaborative
organization of 36 Christian denominations that in turn comprise 50 million
adherents in 140,000 congregations nationwide -- makes no claims about the
guilt or innocence of the Guantanamo detainees.  

Rather, he said, "we are here because the principle of due process under the
law also is being held prisoner on Guantanamo. We are determined to protect
and defend this fundamental right. Without it, no one can be assured of fair
treatment under the law. Without it, any one could be arbitrarily stripped of
the human dignity that God confers on all people."

The National Council of Churches hopes to hold the U.S. government to the
principles of the U.S. Constitution and to the provisions of international
law, Dr. Edgar said. "We are shocked that leaders of our nation would abandon
one of the core principles that has made our democracy a beacon of freedom in
the world," he said.

NCC also is concerned for the humanitarian treatment of prisoners everywhere,
including the Guantanamo detainees. In light of that concern, in December of
2003 the National Council of Churches requested permission of Colin Powell,
Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft to take an interfaith delegation to
Guantanamo to monitor the physical, mental and spiritual condition of the
detainees. 

"We were denied," Dr. Edgar reported, "but today we are renewing our request,
in a letter to President George W. Bush."

Continued Dr. Edgar, a United Methodist clergyperson, "The National Council
of Churches has said that the denial of rights that inhere in the worth of
human beings before God are not only a crime against humanity. They are a sin
against God. All faiths share this basic teaching.... All persons are
connected in the family of God. My rights, your rights and the rights of the
detainees are inseparable."

The full text of Dr. Edgar's statement follows. 

* * * *

Statement On Due Process and the Guantanamo Prisoners
Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar
General Secretary, National Council of Churches USA
March 8, 2004

Today the U.S. government is holding hundreds of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay
who have not been charged with crimes and who have been denied access to U.S.
courts. Almost completely isolated, they are probably unaware that their case
has brought us here to stand in front of the Supreme Court. We have not been
able to learn much about them either. We certainly don't know who among them
may be innocent, who may be guilty. 

But we are not here to make any claims about their guilt or innocence. We are
here because the principle of due process under the law also is being held
prisoner on Guantanamo. We are determined to protect and defend this
fundamental right. Without it, no one can be assured of fair treatment under
the law. Without it, any one could be arbitrarily stripped of the human
dignity that God confers on all people. 

For nearly two years, Guantanamo detainees have been denied due process. We
stand now with family members of the detainees, representatives of the
Guantanamo Human Rights Commission, and others asking that the prisoners be
charged and afforded an opportunity to defend themselves, or released for
lack of evidence, as each individual case warrants. 

To that end, the National Council of Churches, on January 14, joined many
other religious, legal and human rights organizations in filing an amicus
brief in this case. Today, with these and other organizations we continue to
challenge the startling and dangerous assertion that the United States'
government can sidestep judicial review while holding people outside our
nation's sovereign territory.  The attempt to create a land beyond the law,
where people are without rights, is troubling in the extreme. We may have a
no-fly zone over Washington, but we should not have a no-legal zone anywhere.

The National Council of Churches hopes to hold our government to the
principles of the U.S. Constitution and to the provisions of international
law. We are shocked that leaders of our nation would abandon one of the core
principles that has made our democracy a beacon of freedom in the world. 

We also are concerned for the humanitarian treatment of prisoners everywhere,
including the Guantanamo detainees. In light of that concern, in December of
2003 the National Council of Churches requested permission of Colin Powell,
Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft to take an interfaith delegation to
Guantanamo to monitor the physical, mental and spiritual condition of the
detainees. We were denied, but today we are renewing our request, in a letter
to President George W. Bush.

The National Council of Churches has said that the denial of rights that
inhere in the worth of human beings before God are not only a crime against
humanity. They are a sin against God. All faiths share this basic teaching, a
fact that is reflected in the broad interfaith nature of a series of events
that will be held in Washington and New York City over the next few days and
that are aimed at securing the right of due process for prisoners on
Guantanamo. All persons are connected in the family of God. My rights, your
rights and the rights of the detainees are inseparable. 

-end-

Story Source: National Council of Churches USA, 475 Riverside Dr, New York,
NY 10115-0050; Web site www.ncccusa.org

NCC Media Contacts: Leslie Tune: 202-544-2350 x11 or 202-297-2191 (mobile);
Colleen O'Connor, 202-277-0125.

ACLU Media Contacts: Emily Whitfield, 917-686-4542 or call, 212-519-7829.

CCR Media Contact: Jen Nessel, 212-614-6449.

Note: Regarding interviews with the families, contact Victoria Sabin,
714-328-7056 (evening of March 7-March 9) or Emily Whitfield, 917-686-4542;
with the Redgraves or Peter Yarrow, contact Colleen O'Connor: 202-277-0125.

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