Picket at the White House demands: Close Guantanamo!

Protestors support prisoners on hunger strike

May 21, 2013

Protesters converged on the White House May 18 for a spirited picket to support the hunger strikers in the Guantanamo Bay prison and demand the immediate closure of this center of torture and indefinite detention. Demonstrators came from many cities, including New Haven, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore to join the demonstration organized by the ANSWER Coalition, MASFreedom, CODEPINK and several other groups.

May 18 marked the 101^st day of the heroic hunger strike that at least 103 of the 166 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are now participating in. They have been subjected to the cruelest treatment by their captors, who regularly strap down and force feed the inmates in a brutal attempt to break the strike. Eugene Puryear of the ANSWER Coalition emphasized this point to the crowd, saying “Guantanamo prison is recognized all over the world as a torture center. It must be closed. Force feeding the hunger strikers is one more form of torture that the prisoners have endured”.

The protest was joined by Diane Wilson of CODEPINK, who has been on a water-only hunger strike in solidarity with the prisoners at Guantanamo since May 1. She was joined by John Pope, then on the 6^th day of a hunger strike.

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