Re: <nettime> Call for support: why?

["Konrad Becker" <konrad@t0.or.at>]

I have seen the future - its media lab torture!
Stay safe, K

***

http://www.reprieve.org.uk/Press_stop_torture_music.htm

Zero dB ? against music torture

On the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
musicians are uniting against the use of music to torture by joining
www.ZerodB.org The Zero dB project (zero decibels = silence) was launched
today by legal charity Reprieve which represents over 30 prisoners in
Guantanamo Bay. Many of Reprieve?s clients - and hundreds more held in US
secret prisons across the world - have been subjected to deafening music
played for hours, days and often months on end in order to ?break? them.

Zero dB aims to stop torture music by encouraging widespread condemnation of
the practice and by calling on governments and the UN to uphold and enforce
the Convention Against Torture and other relevant treaties.

Zero dB is backed by the Musicians Union which is calling on British
musicians to voice their outrage against the use of music to torture.

The UN and the European Court of Human Rights have banned the use of loud
music in interrogations, but it is still being widely used. Prisoners
describe the experience as harder to bear even than physical torture.

Reprieve?s client Binyam Mohamed from North London - still held in
Guantanamo Bay - suffered 18 months of torture in a Moroccan secret prison.
During this time his penis was routinely slashed with razor blades, yet he
describes the sensation of feeling his sanity slip during psychological
torture as even more horrific. He spoke to Reprieve Director Clive Stafford
Smith, his lawyer, in Guant?namo Bay:

?They hung me up. I was allowed a few hours of sleep on the second day, then
hung up again, this time for two days. My legs had swollen. My wrists and
hands had gone numb.... There was loud music, [Eminem?s] ?Slim Shady? and
Dr. Dre for 20 days.... The CIA worked on people, including me, day and
night.... Plenty lost their minds. I could hear people knocking their heads
against the walls and the doors, screaming their heads off.?

There is a long and growing list of supporters who are outraged by the use
of music to torture: James Lavelle of UNKLE, Matthew Herbert, Tom Morello of
Rage Against The Machine, Massive Attack, The Magic Numbers, Elbow and Bill
Bailey have so far pledged their support of the initiative and made
statements against the use of music to torture.

Musicians and the wider public are making their own silent protests against
music torture which are being shown on zerodb.org. A series of silent
protests and actions are planned through 2009.

Visit www.zerodb.org to record your silent protest now.

Music that has been used to torture includes:


 
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