About 150 people rallied in Sydney on March 6 to call for an end to the persecution of WikiLeaks. The protest was organised by the Support WikiLeaks Coalition.
The rally also called for the release from jail of US private Bradley Manning. For nine months, Manning has been held in isolation in US military prisons for allegedly leaking more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.
On March 2, the US army laid new charges against Manning, including the capital offence of “aiding the enemy”. If convicted, Manning could face the death penalty.
Rally chairperson Kiraz Janicke said the rally marked 100 days since the beginning of “Cablegate” — when WikiLeaks began to publish the leaked US cables.
She said: “Over the past 100 days WikiLeaks has had a profound impact on global politics.
“It has exposed the raw inner workings of the US empire, the corruption, abuses and dirty deals. It has exposed the propping up of dictators in the Middle East, and the brutal reality of the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Janicke said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was right to fear the Swedish government would send him to the US if he were extradited to Sweden for questioning about sexual assault allegations.
“Swedish officials have said that if Assange is extradited to Sweden they may defer their investigations and hand him over to the US. We say the Swedish government must guarantee that it won’t hand Assange over to the US.
“If he is extradited to the US, Assange says he fears Guantanamo Bay-style incarceration. We call on the Australian government to end complicity with the US. Julia Gillard must come out clearly and oppose any attempt by the US to extradite Assange.”
Brett Assange, Julian’s stepfather, told the rally: “Brad Manning is a courageous man … Extra-judicial measures are keeping [him] in a six by 10 cell, 23 hours out of 24, every day of the week, indefinitely. That’s torture. There’s no doubt about it …
“They will be asking him questions about WikiLeaks … and all he has to do is answer the questions they ask him about Julian that they seek so that they can crucify him and extradite him to the US.”
The rally also heard from Alan Kennedy from the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, Greens candidate for Balmain in the NSW elections Jamie Parker, Amy Thomas from the Support WikiLeaks Coalition and Simon Frew from the Pirate Party.
The next meeting of the Support WikiLeaks Coalition is on March 23. For more details phone Kiraz 0448 818 287, Amy 0430 554 263 or Patrick 0422 028 113.