Gerry Conlon talks to Cageprisoners about the plight of Shaker Aamer — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Jerry Conlin you've been asked to help
2. 0:03with Shaka Armor's case why are you so
3. 0:05passionate about this because Shak armed
4. 0:09is thousands of miles away from his wife
5. 0:12and his
6. 0:13children he's in a prison where he's
7. 0:16been brutalized where he's been in
8. 0:19solidary
9. 0:20confinement where the conditions are
10. 0:23unimaginable I have been in those same
11. 0:26conditions I have hoped when I was in
12. 0:29prison that people would come and help
13. 0:32my mother and my sisters to support us
14. 0:36to publicize our PL to demonstrate on
15. 0:40our behalf that this terrible terrible
16. 0:43Injustice should
17. 0:45end and I feel that if I can contribute
18. 0:48in any small way to helping the last ran
19. 0:52British resident in guantan mubai be
20. 0:56repatriated here to England tell his
21. 0:59wife wife and children then it is the
22. 1:02most noble and honorable of causes and I
23. 1:05would urge
24. 1:07everyone who supported Guilford who
25. 1:10supported the magars who supported
26. 1:13Birmingham to come out and show their
27. 1:16support and voice their support and
28. 1:19write to the amp and write letters to
29. 1:22newspapers can damine the abuse that the
30. 1:26man in guantan has suffered your friend
31. 1:30Island Belfast you know why should you
32. 1:33bother with somebody born in Saudi
33. 1:36Arabia who's now in guantan well I the
34. 1:41world's got
35. 1:43smaller we travel is
36. 1:46easier by virtue of the fact that I
37. 1:49spent so long in prison with so many
38. 1:51Arab
39. 1:52prisoners who helped me who I learned a
40. 1:56bit about their culture who stood with
41. 1:59me when the
42. 2:00prison go the prison regime and the
43. 2:03prison population was attacking me I
44. 2:06find these to be wonderful human bands
45. 2:09just struggling just struggling to
46. 2:11survive the same as I was and they help
47. 2:14me every single day they helped my
48. 2:16father and I'd like to think we helped
49. 2:18them in some way and my struggle didn't
50. 2:21end when I got out of prison my struggle
51. 2:24will continue forever trying to expose
52. 2:28and highlight human rights abuses
53. 2:30and sha Ahmed is a case that needs
54. 2:33urgent attention and needs it now and we
55. 2:36need all these people who are involved
56. 2:39in unions who are involved in different
57. 2:42committees whether they're Scottish
58. 2:44committees or arish committees or Welsh
59. 2:46committees when they do this to Shaka
60. 2:49Ahmed they do it to all of us what
61. 2:52happened to Shaka happened to me what
62. 2:54happened to both of us along with mosam
63. 2:56and the rest of the people in Guantanamo
64. 2:58and Bagram can happen to anyone out
65. 3:01there it is our duty of human beings to
66. 3:04help each other and Shaq Ahmed needs our
67. 3:07help and needs it now what words of
68. 3:10encouragement and advice would you give
69. 3:12to his wife and four children including
70. 3:15young fire who's never met his father
71. 3:17before never to give up hope to know
72. 3:21that there is more good people out there
73. 3:23than bad people the unfortunate thing is
74. 3:26the good people have less of a voice
75. 3:27than the bad people but with without the
76. 3:30good people the bad people can't run
77. 3:32anything and if we get out and unite
78. 3:35because there is more of us than them
79. 3:38there's more humanists and more people
80. 3:40with senses of morality than what they
81. 3:42ever had never give up hope because
82. 3:45there are people out there doing what
83. 3:47they can't and will continue until Shaka
84. 3:50is
85. 3:51release to support him and to support
86. 3:54his wife and to support his children and
87. 3:57I think it's important that his wife and
88. 3:59his children sees people from every part
89. 4:03of the world from every religion and
90. 4:05every culture and every country standing
91. 4:08together to fight against this brutal
92. 4:10Injustice and I think that when we stand
93. 4:13together shaka's wife will receive great
94. 4:16fortitude from it and his children will
95. 4:19know he's not
96. 4:20forgotten when I got released in
97. 4:251989 we had everyone in England who was
98. 4:29convinced of the the Birmingham six is
99. 4:31innocent we were never going to change
100. 4:33another one's opinion but we know the
101. 4:35countries respond the influence from
102. 4:38outside that particular country and I
103. 4:39went to America and I was fortunate
104. 4:41enough to meet a guy called Tom lantis
105. 4:44who was a congressman from California
106. 4:45who run this uh the ad hok committee on
107. 4:48human rights abuses and he give the
108. 4:51first human rights case on Brit arish
109. 4:55prisoners in British jails and I firmly
110. 4:58believe that the support that we
111. 5:00gathered in America to help the
112. 5:02Birmingham six help their release so I'm
113. 5:06going hopefully the appeal to the same
114. 5:09people who supported us in the campaign
115. 5:12to help the Birmingham six be released
116. 5:14to convince them that it's time for sha
117. 5:17aled to be released and be reunited with
118. 5:19his
119. 5:28family e