On Wednesday night, after a threat was sent to this embassy
and the police descended on this building, you came out in the middle of the
night to watch over it and you brought the world's eyes with you.
Inside this
embassy, after dark, I could hear teams of police swarming up into the building
through its internal fire escape. But I knew there would be witnesses. And that
is because of you.
If the UK did not
throw away the Vienna conventions the other night, it is because the world was
watching. And the world was watching because you were watching.
So, the next time
somebody tells you that it is pointless to defend those rights that we hold
dear, remind them of your vigil in the dark before the Embassy of Ecuador.
Remind them how,
in the morning, the sun came up on a different world and a courageous Latin
America nation took a stand for justice.
And so, to those
brave people. I thank President Correa for the courage he has shown in
considering and in granting me political asylum.
And I also thank
the government, and in particular Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino, who upheld
the Ecuadorian constitution and its notion of universal rights in their
consideration of my asylum. And to the Ecuadorian people for supporting and
defending this constitution.
And I also have a
debt of gratitude to the staff of this embassy, whose families live in London
and who have shown me the hospitality and kindness despite the threats we all
received.
This Friday, there
will be an emergency meeting of the foreign ministers of Latin America in
Washington DC to address this very situation.
And so, I am
grateful to those people and governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,
Columbia, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela,
and to all other Latin American countries who have come out to defend the right
to asylum.
And to the people
of the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden and Australia who have supported
me in strength, even when their governments have not. And to those wiser heads
in government who are still fighting for justice. Your day will come.
To the staff,
supporters and sources of WikiLeaks, whose courage and commitment and loyalty
has seen no equal.
To my family and
to my children who have been denied their father. Forgive me, we will be
reunited soon.
As WikiLeaks
stands under threat, so does the freedom of expression and the health of all
our societies. We must use this moment to articulate the choice that is before
the government of the United States of America.
Will it return to
and reaffirm the values, the revolutionary values it was founded on, or will it
lurch off the precipice dragging us all into a dangerous and oppressive world,
in which journalists fall silent under the fear of prosecution and citizens
must whisper in the dark?
I say it must turn
back. I ask President Obama to do the right thing. The United States must
renounce its witch-hunts against WikiLeaks. The United States must dissolve its
FBI investigation.
The United States
must vow that it will not seek to prosecute our staff or our supporters. The
United States must pledge before the world that it will not pursue journalists
for shining a light on the secret crimes of the powerful.
There must be no
more foolish talk about prosecuting any media organisation; be it WikiLeaks, or
be it the New York Times.
The US
administration's war on whistle-blowers must end.
Thomas Drake,
William Binney and John Kirakou and the other heroic whistle-blowers must --
they must -- be pardoned or compensated for the hardships they have endured as
servants of the public record.
And to the Army
Private who remains in a military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, who was
found by the United Nations to have endured months of torturous detention in
Quantico, Virginia and who has yet -- after two years in prison -- to see a
trial: he must be released.
Bradley Manning
must be released.
And if Bradley
Manning did as he is accused, he is a hero and an example to us all and one of
the world's foremost political prisoners.
Bradley Manning
must be released.
On Wednesday,
Bradley Manning spent his 815th day of detention without trial. The legal
maximum is 120 days.
On Thursday, my
friend Nabeel Rajab, President of the Bahrain Human Rights Centre, was
sentenced to three years in prison for a tweet. On Friday, a Russian band were
sentenced to two years in jail for a political performance.
There is unity in
the oppression. There must be absolute unity and determination in the response.
Thank you.
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