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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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October 18th, 2006 - Regret and
Resentment at Guantanamo |
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Regret and Resentment at
Guantanamo By Omar Razek BBC News October 18th, 2006 Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - As
President Bush signs a new law allowing Guantanamo detainees to be tried in
military tribunals using evidence obtained through coercion, the BBC's Omar
Razek reflects on a recent visit to the notorious prison complex. I could hear the midday call
to prayer coming from different camps. I could also see the
sweating face of a young man on a small carriage, his hands and legs shackled,
driven by two military guards under the burning sun. He was Abdel-Razzaq, a Saudi
detainee caught in Afghanistan after the fall of Taleban and he was going
before an Administrative Review Board (ARB). In these annual hearings,
military officers review the status of each detainee, deciding if they are
still an "enemy combatant" or not. Abdel-Razzaq was one of more
than 450 people - most with Arab and Muslim names - held by the US
authorities in five (soon to be six) camps in the notorious Guantanamo detention
complex. Before his ARB, he expressed
his regret for being in Afghanistan. "I was 17-years-old and
full of enthusiasm for jihad, but now after five years in Guantanamo I have
changed. I need to go back to my country, lead a simple life care for my old
parents and have a wife and kids." He says two of his brothers
were killed in jihad, one in Chechnya and one in Afghanistan. He was arrested
with a third brother fleeing Afghanistan after the war, and transferred later
to Guantanamo. The ARB members greeted him
with respect and asked him to convince others to co-operate and attend their
annual reviews. Abdel-Razzaq complained that
some of the evidence presented to the board - especially evidence kept from
detainees - is false or was taken under pressure or psychological torture. The ARB's chief promised to
investigate this. But the main plea
Abdel-Razzaq made to the board through his interpreter was a solemn one:
"What I want really know is simple: Will you release me or not?" The ARB don't have an answer
for that question. They merely raise their recommendation to the deputy secretary
of defence, who decides about release or transfer. The board has reviewed 91
cases so far this year. None of the prisoners was released, 33 were
transferred and 58 are still in detention. Thorny situation After three days in
Guantanamo, I got the impression that no-one is happy here - neither
prisoners nor guards. The authorities are always
trying hard to convince visiting media, human rights groups and
parliamentarians, that Guantanamo is a model prison. They provide big meals,
special food for Ramadan, respect for prayer times, copies of Quran and a
library for detainees. But in the six-foot by
six-foot cells, I saw chronically overweight detainees. Their only physical
activity is walking the six square metres of the recreation area for 30
minutes, twice a week. The most compliant detainees
have access to the recreation area for several hours. ‘I was volunteered’ On entering Camp Five, the
most sophisticated prison in Guantanamo, we heard a detainee hysterically
shouting at his guard. The commander of Camp Five,
who does not give out his name, said: "They do this usually to attract
attention when they sense visitors coming." We weren't told the
detainee's identity, but those in Camp Five are the "the most valuable
detainees", according to the commander. Military guard K, 19, is
from Texas. I asked him whether he volunteered to serve here. "No, I was
volunteered," he said. He says that for guards like
him there was no choice, but he doesn't want to renew his service here since
he was "not trained as military police". K also complained of threats
and assaults on him by detainees. "They call me nigger,
slave, they touch their necks and say 'We will kill you in Iraq'," he
said. "I know why they do it,
to provoke me, so that I will make a mistake. But I will just do my job,
finish it, go and work out, or go fishing or read my Bible". Personality disorders The female psychologist in
the detainees' hospital gave reporters her observations. An American journalist asked
her: "Do you know why they hate America?" Another inquired: "How
do they treat you as a female, can they talk to you?" "They like talking to
me," the doctor said. "They are co-operative I can say." Yet she painted a very
gloomy picture for her patients. "About eight to 10%
have been diagnosed with depression, another 15% have anxiety disorder, about
20% have psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. "About half of them
have a personality disorder. Sometimes this is a sort of problem in
adjustment and coping," she said. Despite the continuing
protests from human rights groups and the appeals to try the detainees or
release them, everything I saw in Guantanamo suggests that this military
detention complex will stay open as long as America's "war on
terror" continues. "We picked them from
the front lines we have the right to detain those who threaten our security
or the security of our allies," said Brigadier General Edward Leacock,
the prison complex's deputy commander. External link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6057262.stm |