Bronze statues representing Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden standing on chairs, have been on display on Place des Nations Unies in Geneva since Monday. The sculpture are to remain in place in front of the United Nations until Friday. “This is a monument celebrating how brave 3 people were, who refused the globalization of surveillance policies and rejected lies, in favour of telling the truth,” explained Italian artist Davide Dormino, responsible for the work of art weighing over a ton.
A fourth chair was left empty on purpose, to allow for everyone to express themselves side by side with the WikiLeaks co-founder, holed up in the Ecuador embassy in London, with the American computer scientist now living in Russia, and with the soldier sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking state secrets. Several tourists have already stood on the chair to have their picture taken on the monument.
The Swiss support committee, grouping the “Anything to say?” association, the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), the International Centre for Peace and Human Rights (CIPADH), and Pilar Ackermann (project coordinator), Fabio Lo Verso, Charly Pache and Marco Benagli, is campaigning to obtain political asylum for Edward Snowden in Switzerland.
The monument was previously displayed in Berlin in May, and in Dresden in June, and will be in Paris at the end of September.
(Source: Belga)
