being held without charges at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They remain captives despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the Bush administration must either begin legal proceedings against them orlet them go. The ruling has sparked debate on both sides of the issue and, to date, the Federal Government has failed to comply with the Supreme Court decision, handed down in June. In an effort to draw attention to the ruling and to what they say is the wrongful imprisonment of their loved ones, the families of 12 Kuwaitis have embarked on a worldwide campaign. Wearing yellow ribbons, the families marched in Kuwait City and then in London, appealing, in their words, “directly to the American people to demand that the Bush administration comply with the June 2004 rulings of the Supreme Court.” Membershipin the group, called the Kuwait Family Committee, has reached nearly 100 people. All members have fathers, sons and brothers who have been imprisoned for more than three years in Guantanamo Bay. The group says their loved ones have been denied legal and human rights guaranteed by U.S. law and the Geneva Convention. Most of the family members being detained worked as teachers, accountants and airline engineers. Some were students and some were volunteers. For instance, Khalid Al-Odah Kuwaiti families march in London for Guantanamoprisoners. said his son Fawzi had gone to Pakistan to teach reading and writing. Al-Odah says that like so many of the detainees at Guantanamo, his son was fulfilling a religious obligation to perform charitable works when he was captured by local bounty hunters and turned over to U.S. forces indiscriminately. Since then, Al-Odah and his family have received only a handful of censored letters from their son that were delayed by six months. “To have your son captured and kept from you like this breaks your heart,” Fawzi’s mother, Souad, said. “But to know that he wants to come back to you and cannot, that’s pain that won't go away. The sooner Fawzi gets to see a judge in the U.S., the sooner we may see him,too.” “We have suffered such great pain, but we will not despair,” said Khalid. “Our goal is simple and reasonable. We wantfair trials for our loved ones.” For more information, visit www.kuwaitifreedom.org.
