Detainee Suicides Were by Hanging
Posted on Sun Jun 11, 2006 at 04:48:37 AM EST
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The three Guantanamo detainees who committed suicide did so by hanging themselves with bedsheets in their cells. The AP reports:
Three Guantanamo Bay detainees hanged themselves with nooses made of sheets and clothes, the commander of the detention center said yesterday. ....Two men from Saudi Arabia and one from Yemen were found dead shortly after midnight yesterday in separate cells, said the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, which has jurisdiction over the prison. Attempts were made to revive them, but they failed.
"They hung themselves with fabricated nooses made out of clothes and bed sheets," Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris told reporters from the U.S. base in southeastern Cuba.
All three left suicide notes. From now on, detainees will have sheets issued to them when they go to bed at night, and they will be removed in the morning. How does this prevent them from hanging themselves after lights-out? This is a band-aid, like putting a piece of tape over a hole in a flat tire, not a solution.
All three had been on a hunger strike at some point. None had tried to commit suicide previously. All were in a maximum security unit.
Amnesty International said the apparent suicides "are the tragic results of years of arbitrary and indefinite detention" and called the prison "an indictment" of the Bush administration's human rights record.
Barbara Olshansky of the Center for Constitutional Rights said in a telephone interview from New York that those held at Guantanamo "have this incredible level of despair that they will never get justice. And now they're gone. And they died without ever having seen a court."
Olshansky, whose group represents about 300 Guantanamo detainees, wept during the interview. She appealed to the Bush administration "for immediate action to do the right thing. They should be taken to court or released. I don't think this country wants the stain of injustice on it for many years to come."
To date, 759 detainees have been held at Guantanamo. Only 300 have been released or transferred. Last night, lawyers for the detainees called for a suicide probe and immediate trials or release.
Josh Colangelo-Bryan, who represents several Guantanamo inmates, witnessed one of his clients try to commit suicide during a visit on October 15. "This is something that I have feared hearing about since that day in October," he said.
The inmates have been held "without a trial, without fair hearing, without charges, and in the majority of cases without even being accused of committing any hostile act against the US and their allies. "They've been told that while they're held at Guantanamo they have absolutely no rights as human beings.
To date, 25 detainees have attempted suicide a total of 41 times. For a report from a lawyer who was there last week, see my earlier post.
Note to enterprising bloggers: One of the released detainees, Shafiq Rasul, is available by telephone for interviews. Details here. He was held for two years during which he alleges he was tortured, and released to Britain with no charges ever filed against him.
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