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Tutu blasts Bush
03/10/2004 19:58 - (SA)
New York - Moving from the pulpit to the stage, Desmond Tutu is appearing off-Broadway in a drama blasting the Bush administration's handling of Guantanamo Bay detainees.
The retired South African prelate and Nobel laureate appeared Saturday night at a tiny theatre in lower Manhattan, playing a judge in "Guantanamo: Honour Bound To Defend Freedom." The play portrays the plight of British detainees at the US naval base in Cuba.
Tutu's engagement is limited to two performances; the second is on Sunday afternoon.
Standing onstage before a scene resembling holding pens at the detention camp, Tutu said he chose to appear in the play to highlight concerns about the treatment of the prisoners.
"I hope this will help to put this particular issue in the public arena unambiguously so (the American) people can say, 'Is this what we want to support?"' Tutu told reporters before the play began.
Weeks before the US presidential election, Tutu is drawing attention to the treatment of hundreds of suspected terrorists being held by the United States. Last week, a Briton at Guantanamo said he was tortured and held in solitary confinement for almost two years by the American military - a fate also alleged by other detainees.
The Pentagon says its policy is to treat all prisoners humanely.
Tutu compared the Pentagon's treatment of the Guantanamo prisoners to that of blacks under the apartheid regime.
"They are using the same kind of methods used under apartheid. For me, it's deja vu," he said.
Tutu noted that former South African president and fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela was considered a terrorist by the ruling Afrikaners.
"Human rights are of universal validity or they are nothing," he said.
Earlier this year, Tutu signed a petition on behalf of the families of Guantanamo prisoners urging the British government to demand that the United States immediately release four Britons being held.
"We are appalled that revered conventions are being blatantly flouted such as the dictum that someone is presumed innocent until proven guilty and that everyone is entitled to legal defence of his choice," he wrote.
The play was commissioned by London's Tricycle Theatre after five other British detainees were released. The work also is playing in London's West End.
On the Net:
45 Bleecker theatre: www.45bleecker.com
- AP
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South Africa
