A PLEA TO BARACK OBAMA FROM THE CHILDREN OF SHAKER AAMER
Dear Barack Obama,
I hope you are in good health.
I am writing to ask you for my father’s release. As you might know, my father has been away for eight years. He was taken away since I was four years old. It has been most of my life.
My brother Faris has never seen his father and misses him a lot. Sometimes he thinks other people are his father. Once a man came to do our garden; Faris had a lot of fun and laughs with him. When he left, Faris asked my Mum, ‘Is that my Dad?’ He has never felt what it is like to be with a father or go out with him. Faris has had no experience at all of what it’s
like to have a father just like every child does.
My mother is very patient but sometimes when she misses him too much she gets depressed. My mother is also a psychiatric patient. Whenever she gets depressed we have to go to my grandparents house where my
grandparents look after her. When she is ill, she is in bed, day and
night, and cannot do much. I really hate it when she gets depressed.
At school, when it is time to go home, most of the children have their fathers pick them up which makes me miss him even more. I never really got to do things with my father.
Also there is no reason for my father to be in prison. There have never been any charges made against him and he is innocent.
My father has suffered for eight years in prison for no reason. I hope there can be a change now. He has got so many illnesses such as asthma and many physical problems. He is the only British resident there.
I take that you understand this as a father and as a husband. Nobody would like to be separated from their fathers or mothers. It is nowhere near fun to be without a father. We have missed him so much. I hope this letter can
make a difference and that my father is released immediately.
Thank you,
From Johina Aamer, Daughter of Shaker Aamer
Dear Mr President,
I am Faris Aamer and my Dad is Shaker Aamer.
Tomorrow is my eighth birthday.
I want my Dad back.
I want to see how it feels to hug my Dad.
I want to go shopping.
I want him to buy me toys.
I want to go out.
When I went (to) Saudi Arabia I was looking for my Dad.
I feel upset to see that my Dad cannot pick me up after school like others.
I want to meet Barack Obama and ask him to release my Dad because I feel sorry for him.
Faris Aamer
Background information
Shaker Aamer is a 42 year old Saudi national. He lived in the UK for many years in the 1990s, marrying a British woman. They have four children. As an aid worker in 2001, he was captured by the Americans in Pakistan,
tortured there and in Afghanistan before being sent with the first
group of prisoners to Guantánamo Bay in February 2002. He has been
held there ever since.
His return to the United Kingdom was sought by the British government in August 2007, along with four other men, all of whom have since returned to the UK, the last being Binyam Mohamed in February 2009. The British
government has stated that it does not believe him to pose a threat
or have committed any crime; yet it appears half-hearted in its efforts to release him.
In January 2010, following a High Court battle, the Foreign Office released documents that proved that MI5 agents were present when Mr. Aamer was tortured in Pakistan in 2001. Also in January, a report in the American
magazine Harpers alleged that the US is reluctant to release Mr.
Aamer as he was a witness to and a victim of abuse that led to the
deaths of three prisoners at Guantánamo Bay in 2006. He was at one
point continually held in isolation for over three years and subjected to sensory deprivation, unaware of whether it was day or night.
Mr. Aamer is an eloquent champion for the human rights of his fellow prisoners and organised hunger strikes to win them ordinary decent treatment. He has been force-fed on many occasions and suffered other abusive treatment as punishment for being outspoken. In over eight years, Mr. Aamer has never been charged or tried or accused of any wrongdoing.
On saturday 6th February The Save Shaker Aamer Campaign held a protest at Downing Street in London, the official residence of British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown last which was supported and attended by many organisations and individuals including London Guantanamo Campaign,
Cageprisoners, Brighton Against Guantanamo, Kingston Peace Council,
Sth London Communist Party of Britain, and others. Speaking at the
event were Jean Lambert MEP, Sarah Ludford MEP, Chris Nineham STWC,
Martin Linton MP, Yvonne Ridley, John Clossick WSTWC, Joy Hurcombe
Brighton Against Guantanamo.
Protesters dressed in orange jumpsuits, many wearing black hoods, lined the roadside, the great number of passers by took photos and stopped at the campaign stalls clearly appreciating and expressing their support with the protest. Campaign banners visible to Downing Street and passing
traffic, fluttered in the breeze.
Yvonne Ridley, a patron of Cageprisoners said: “It speaks volumes that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was happy to be pictured shaking the hands of ex-Guantanamo detainees in Saudi Arabia during a visit in 2007 and yet he still refuses to meet any of the ex-Guantanamo detainees in
this country to discuss the case of Shaker Aamer, the last known
British resident…..Gordon Brown has the power and influence to call
on the Americans to return Shaker back to his family if he really
wanted to. If he’s listening I would urge him to pick up the phone
now and make that call, one phone call to Barack Obama, that’s all it
would take. Bring Shaker home now to the wife who needs him, the
children who miss him and the son whose never ever seen his father.”