Three suicides at
U.S. prison in Guantanamo brings repercussions
LONDON, June 12 (PL).— The suicides of three
prisoners held on the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo
— in Cuban territory illegally occupied by the
United States — have been described by some as acts
of desperation and by others as tragedies that were
waiting to happen.
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Prisoners’
lawyers believe the deaths
are the result of a tragedy waiting
to happen due to the brutal, isolated
conditions in the prison.
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For his part, Manfred Nowak, the UN Rapporteur on
Torture, called on the European Union to demand
during next week’s summit with President George W.
Bush that the United States shut down the prison.
Since 2002, the U.S. government has been keeping
more than 500 men there after capturing them in
Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries, calling
them enemy combatants but denying them the rights
established by the Geneva Convention for prisoners
of war.
It is precisely the legal limbo the prisoners are
in — without any protection, charges, right to a
trial, visits from relatives, and very infrequent
ones from their lawyers — that is leading to
desperation among the hundreds of men condemned to
an endless hell.
The Pentagon admitted that 25 prisoners have
attempted on 41 occasions to kill themselves.
However, those attempts were qualified by the U.S.
Defense Department as attention-seeking maneuvers,
aimed at manipulating public attention.
That was the opinion expressed by Navy Rear
Admiral Harry Harris, the prison commander, when he
announced the death last Saturday of the two Saudis
and a Yemeni, ignoring their desperation and calling
it "asymmetrical warfare."
The three were found hung with nooses made of
clothing and sheets in the prison’s Camp 1, and the
news spread quickly as being the first known
suicides in the prison.
William Goodman, legal director of the Center for
Constitutional Rights in New York, said the
detainees were acting out of desperation, because
they are not able to prove their innocence and are
trapped in a system with no justice and no hope.
The United States did not escape criticism, even
from its allies. Germany asked for an investigation
on the suicides and reiterated the opinion of German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said the prison should
be closed.
Speaking to the BBC, Harriet Harman, British
minister of constitutional affairs, likewise
advocated the center’s closure or its transfer to
the United States.
"If it is perfectly legal and there is nothing
going wrong there, why isn’t it in the United States?"
Harman asked.
For his part, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh
Rasmusse stated that events at the U.S. Navy prison
camp are in violation of the law and are undermining
the so-called war on terrorism.
