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The Washington Region Religious Campaign Against Torture (WRRCAT)

WRRCAT is a branch of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, a collection of religious organizations to which most of the national churches and other national religious organizations have signed on (including the National Federation of Evangelicals), as well as thousands of individuals (including Pres. Jimmy Carter and Elie Wiesel). The Washington area group has been meeting for over a year now, sponsored a number of vigils, and the Vestry of The Church of the Redeemer voted unanimously to join in support of its religious stance against the inhumane treatment of prisoners by the United States.  Redeemer has or has had among us two torture survivors, Françoise Mukamana, and current parishioner, John Bosco Haki-Zimana, and we include TASSC (Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition) in our outreach.

WRRCAT held a major conference last June, which a number of Redeemer parishioners attended, to inform us all about the reality of torture and the other terrible practices concerning U.S. prisoners and to work on things which could be done to bring the United States back to its former moral and legal position of support for the Geneva Convention (which we signed) and for the humane treatment of all prisoners, which we believe to be essential to our nation’s soul.

In an effort to make WRRCAT more accessible to others, we decided to meet at different churches, and last Wednesday evening, the 18th of April, WRRCAT met at Redeemer for the first time. It was a busy meeting since there are many things going on to which we are addressing ourselves and about which I would like to tell you.

• On April 26th there will be a hearing by the Senate Armed Services Committee on the Military Commissions Act (MCA), which we believe to be a deeply immoral and very un-American piece of legislation. The MCA is designed to legalize certain kinds of torture and rendition and the long-term, unjust holding of prisoners without due process. It has greatly diminished Habeas Corpus, one of the fundamental advances in human rights most believed in by Americans. So those who can in WRRCAT and other organizations will be attending the hearing and carrying small signs (which is allowed) calling for “zero tolerance for torture.” What the MCA has done is to make torture legal, but as Ray McGovern reminded us at the last conference: “Torture isn’t wrong because it’s illegal; it was illegal because it is wrong.”
• The next event, on May 5th, is also an all-day conference for which WRRCAT is just one of the sponsors. This is intended to continue and deepen our learning about the United States’ ongoing inhumane practices as regards some of its prisoners and about what should be our faith-based stance towards this and how persons of faith can best galvanize ourselves to work for a return to the ideals and morals of our founding fathers. There is a poster about this conference in our parish hall and some pamphlets about WRRCAT as well.
• Lastly we discussed the most significant events which will be happening in June, which has been designated internationally as Torture Awareness Month (there are over 100 nations which practice some form of abuse of prisoners). The United Nations has declared June 26th to be the International Day to Remember the Victims of Torture. And there will be anti-torture vigils on the 23rd and the 26th of June. These events will have major national and international sponsorship and are not only the purview of U.S. religious concerns, but of the concerns of all those against torture everywhere.

If you have questions or want more information, please feel free to contact parishioner Chrissy de Fontenay, or visit the following websites: www.nrcat.org / www.wrrcat.org / http://uusj.org/

Chrissy de Fontenay