Trafalgar Square, London, 26 June 2011

Full reports and photos from the rally by London Guantánamo Campaign and rikki on indymedia.

The rally was called to mark the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, also coinciding with the last day of Refugee Week and falling one day after Armed Forces Day, both highly relevant as many refugees have fled from torture while the armed forces, along with the police and other state agents, all play a role in the practice of torture around the world. In spite of the absolute prohibition of torture under the United Nations Convention Against Torture which was signed in 1987, torture continues to spread and to be used by and with the collusion of almost all governments everywhere.

Here are extracts from the reports covering Naomi Colvin’s speech to the rally:

Naomi Colvin spoke on behalf of the UK Friends of Bradley Manning, a support group campaigning for justice for the Welsh-American soldier accused of leaking confidential military documents to WikiLeaks. His conditions in detention in military jails over the past year have been compared to conditions at Guantánamo Bay, yet the campaign both within and outside the US has led to him being held in better conditions. Some of the documents he is alleged to have leaked relate to torture by American troops in the “war on terror” (LGC).

naomi colvin spoke on behalf of the bradley manning campaign, outlining the terrible conditions he has been held in, and the current campaign to get justice for a man who should never have been in iraq in the first place. (rikki)

London Catholic Worker and friends were also present with a banner calling for Bradley Manning and Julian Assange to be freed. Hundreds of flyers for the public meeting on 9th July and calling for support at Julian Assange’s High Court extradition appeal on 12-13 July were distributed.