Bringing Hicks home
Bringing Hicks home
April 26, 2007
Section: News
A RALLY demanding "?real justice' for David Hicks attracted around 60 people at Crown St Mall on Saturday.
Wollongong Uniting Church donated its front steps as a venue for the rally organised by Students Against War.
The aim of the rally was illustrate to the Federal Government the group's feelings about the treatment of convicted terrorist David Hicks.
"The demands of the rally were to get real justice for David Hicks, close Guantanamo Bay and abolish the Military Commission," said Students Against War spokeswoman Jess Moore.
"We want to force our government to demand real justice for him."
Ms Moore said that while it was a win for groups such as Students Against War that Hicks was brought to trial, it did not mean that justice had been done.
"Hicks was given a choice: to either plead guilty, meaning that he could return to Australia, or plead innocent and remain imprisoned in the nightmare that is Guantanamo," she said.
"Hicks' treatment exposes the extreme hypocrisy of countries such as the United States and Australia, who profess to support freedom and democracy while committing hideous civil and human rights abuses."
Reverend Gordon Bradbury from the Uniting Church was supposed to speak at the rally, but was unable to make it on the day.
Students Against War tracked the Mr Bradbury down because he had been very vocal about the treament of David Hicks.
Also in attendance at the rally was South Coast Labour Council's secretary Arthur Rorris, University of Michigan academic Susan Wright and Lebanese Peace activist Saeb Ali.
Ms Moore said most of the people at the rally were passers-by who stopped to listen.
The Wollongong protest rally coincided with a series of similar events held across all Australian capital cities as part of a national day of protest.
Students against war have planned a number of other activities in the lead-up to David Hicks' release from Guantanomo Bay. Mr Hicks is expected to be returned to an Adelaide jail within a month.
