Mark Colville had a conflict. He had graduation parties to attend last Sunday for both his son, from 8th grade at St. Martin DePorres, and his daughter, from Wilbur Cross High School. He also had to go on trial Monday morning in Washington, D.C. for his role in a peace protest. So he did what any loving father would do — he hosted the parties and then drove all night to D.C.
Melinda Tuhus File Photo
Colville (pictured) got good news after that long late-night drive: A judge acquitted Colville and 23 fellow protesters the first day of the trial, and Colville headed back to New Haven.
The activists were arrested in a January civil disobedience action in the Capitol Rotunda.
Colville, who runs the Amistad Catholic Worker House in the Hill with his wife Luz, is no stranger to police lock-ups and courtrooms. He served about a year in prison in the early 1990s as part of a group whose members poured their own blood and beat on nuclear warheads carried on a submarine berthed at Bath Ironworks in Maine, to protest preparation for nuclear war.
And for the past five years, he’s been part of a group called Witness Against Torture, focusing on the treatment of “War on Terror” prisoners at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba. Several members of the group actually went to Cuba in 2005 in an attempt to visit prisoners,one of the duties of Christians as enumerated by Jesus. They were, of course, denied entry to the prison.
Every year on Jan. 12 — the date back in 2002 that the first prisoners arrived at Guantanamo — American activists have demonstrated for an end to torture, for the release of those shown to have no ties to terrorism, and for trials for the rest. So Colville headed to D.C. on that date this year to begin a nine-day fast with more than 40 others at a church near the White House. (“Fasting isn’t hard after the first three or four days,” he opined. “It felt healthy and cleansing.”)
Among the protesters were many other Catholic Workers as well as members of a group of torture survivors and some other religiously-inspired activists. The fast was due to end on Jan. 21 — the date by which President Obama had declared in his inauguration speech last year that he would close Guantanamo.
The closure didn’t happen. And during the fast, Colville said, the group learned that three detainees who all died on June 10, 2006 had not been suicides, as previously reported, but had been tortured to death, based on the reports of a military whistleblower who was at Guantanamo and since corroborated by others. These were the deaths that the camp commander Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. called “not an act of desperation but an act of asymmetrical warfare” against the U.S.
“It was devastating news,” Colville said, even though it further validated his group’s reason for being.
So on Jan. 21, the protesters took the Capitol tour, and stopped in the Rotunda where presidents are laid in state. “We laid down a banner with the names of the three people who had been murdered, and did a service of repentance and said some funeral prayers.”
They were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct that specifically mentioned engaging “in threatening and disruptive behavior.” Attorney Bill Quigley, urged the judge to free the defendants based on the “necessity defense” — that they acted in order to prevent a worse crime (the torture of prisoners). Judges routinely deny these motions, as did D.C. Superior Court Judge Russell Canan.
But then the judge considered a motion to acquit, an unusual move. (It was a bench trial, not a jury trial). He concluded the defendants had been charged improperly by the prosecution.
“To most of us who were present, it did appear that the judge had been moved by, we think, the justice of our cause and had been looking for a way to get through this without convicting us. That’s obviously speculation,” Colville said in an interview Thursday.
“It became a victory of sorts, although as we all said when we walked out of the courtroom, we hope and pray that the detainees that still remain at Guantanamo can get afforded the same kind of treatment — first a hearing in court, and second, the feeling of being set free.”
Asked if he sees any difference between the Bush and Obama administrations regarding detainees’ legal treatment or the policy of indefinite detention, Colville said, “The short answer is no, and that’s really discouraging. There has been dialogue with the Obama administration; we feel there’s been listening going on from the other side, which is a change from the Bush administration. But as far as policy and practice, nothing has changed. It’s bewildering to progressive people who — during those eight years of the Bush administration — were just longing for change, and the strong promise that appeared to be there with Obama’s election. Policy-wise, nothing has changed. Everybody is obviously hoping it will.”