From the DAILY
STAR:
Protestors condemn abuses at
Abu Ghraib
Activist collapses near US Embassy in
Awkar while acting out mistreatment scene
By Nada Raad
Daily Star staff
Friday, May 14, 2004
AWKAR: A young human rights activist collapsed near the US Embassy in Lebanon on Thursday while performing a dramatization of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison.
Her performance was one of several held during a peaceful sit-in organized by Lebanese and Palestinian nongovernmental organizations and attended by over 30 protesters.
As a part of her dramatization, the activist placed a black bag on her head, mimicking the pictures showing Iraqi prisoners being abused. Shortly after that, she collapsed in front of reporters and photojournalists.
Although participants in the sit-in thought that the activist's fall was a part of her performance, they quickly realized after a short time that she had unintentionally collapsed.
Nearby, Red Cross workers quickly responded and treated her on the scene.
As is customary for protests directed at the US Embassy, the activists were stopped about 500 meters away by over 100 Internal Security Forces (ISF) personnel, Civil Defense personnel and soldiers, armed with water cannons, who blocked the road.
Some activists held slogans reading: "Bush's denunciations and Rumsfeld's apologies are not enough," referring to the apology of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Friday before the US Senate committee investigating prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.
Other participants in the sit-in held pictures of Iraqi prisoners being abused by their American prison guards.
Mohammed Safa, the secretary-general of the Follow-up Committee for the Support of Lebanese Detainees in Israeli Prisons, read a memo to the assembled crowd signed by over 30 non-governmental organizations strongly denouncing US abuse of prisoners. Safa then handed the memo to a member of the ISF, who was asked to give it to the US Embassy.
The memo said that all efforts made by Bush following the release of the pictures amount to nothing but "attempts to calm international anger."
"The incidents of Abu Ghraib prison reveal the fake claims of the United States when it promised to bring democracy and protect human rights before launching its war on Iraq last year."
Safa said that participants in the sit-in should call on the US government to sign the Rome Convention, which established the International Criminal Court.
The US has refused to sign the agreement, claiming that it violates US sovereignty.
Safa also denounced the beheading of American tradesman Nick Berg, who had been missing in Iraq since mid-April.
"We condemn the killing of Berg as strongly as we condemn the US abuse of Iraqi prisoners," Safa said.
Some US and Canadian members of the Palestinians Human Right Organization also participated in the sit-in, holding signs that read: "Bush-Blair $ War Criminals ... Bush is a criminal of war."
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