Former Guantánamo detainee, Moazzam Begg, has encouraged York students to join the wave of radical student activism that is sweeping the country.
Prior to a speech at the university tomorrow, Begg has described student protests as “something that needs to continue,” in an exclusive interview with Vision.
Recently 16 universities have held protests over Gaza with similar action planned for York. Hunger strikes have hit campus and political societies will this weekend be holding a protest walk from Selby to York.
Moazzam Begg’s comments come shortly after Barack Obama ordered the closure of Guantánamo Bay, where Begg was incarcerated and tortured for nearly two years. He praised Obama, saying “not only do I welcome it, I say it’s high time… the people being held in Guantánamo should be released back to their families and be able to live out the remaining years of their lives without cages and shackles and torture.”
But despite this, he has warned students not be optimistic “until we see people being held to account for what they did.” He said that “young people have begun to, around this country, recognise what has been done.”
Begg’s encouragement of student protest has been backed by YUSU’s Policy and Campaigns Officer Tom Langrish who told Vision that YUSU was “willing to hear lots of ideas of how we can get students active.”
A return to student radicalism hit a peak last week when an NUS conference had to be evacuated after students took over the stage holding Palestinian flags, demonstrating over Gaza.
Begg warned students not to become apathetic to human rights and humanitarian issues, saying “Students can’t let their goals in life, which may be of other direction, turn away from the reality of what they need to do.”
Moazzam Begg maintains that protests and demonstrations must continue amongst students as he believes human rights issues are far from solved. “There are other prisons around the world that are run by the United States of America, that indeed even in the United Kingdom we have people held arbitrarily, without charge, without trial here. And the notion that people can be held this way needs to be challenged by all normal thinking people.”
York’s Law Society will be hosting a talk by Begg tomorrow where he will speak on human rights issues and his experiences in Guantánamo Bay, with Al Jazeera journalist Sami El Haj who was also detained in the detention centre, and Christopher Arendt, a former guard in Guantánamo.