The Guantanamo Bay prison camp for "war on terror" suspects
faced renewed scrutiny and criticism Sunday after three inmates
hanged themselves.
The triple suicide on Saturday represents a new challenge for US
President George W. Bush's administration, which is under
increasing pressure to close the camp from critics that include the
United Nations, international human rights organizations, European
governments and Britain's top legal advisor.
The deaths, which also came amid a prisoner hunger strike, were
the first successful suicide bids after repeated attempts by
inmates in the camp, located on a US naval base on the southeastern
tip of Cuba.
Rear Admiral Harry Harris, the camp's commander, described the
suicides as an act of warfare.
"They are smart, they are creative, they are committed," he said
of the prisoners. "They have no regard to life, neither ours nor
their own. And I believe this was not an act of desperation, rather
an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us."
The first victim was found early on Saturday by an "alert"
prison guard who had noticed "something out of the ordinary" in the
cell, Harris said in a telephone press conference.
"When it was apparent that the detainee had hung himself, the
guard force and medical teams reacted quickly to attempt to save
the detainee's life," Harris said.
Two other inmates were also found hanging in their cells after
guards checked on other prisoners, he said. They had used clothes
and sheets to hang themselves, he told reporters.
Medical teams tried to save all three a Yemeni and two Saudis
but they were pronounced dead "after all life-saving measures were
exhausted," he said.
There have been 41 suicide attempts by about 25 individual
detainees but in the previous cases, US medical personnel were able
to save them, according to The Washington Post.
Bush expressed "serious concern" after learning about the
suicides, said White House spokesman Tony Snow.
"He also stressed that it was important to treat the bodies
humanely and with cultural sensitivity," Snow told reporters.
The Bush administration notified the United Nations, European
Union and embassies of Middle Eastern countries, as well as the
International Committee of the Red Cross about the suicides, Snow
said.
Bush had said on Friday that he hoped to "empty" Guantanamo by
sending some detainees home and trying the most dangerous in US
courts.
"We're now in the process of working with countries to
repatriate people, but there are some that if put out on the
streets could create grave harm to American citizens and other
citizens of the world," he said.
Lawyers with the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New
York-based advocacy group that represents some 200 inmates and
helps private attorneys representing other inmates, were saddened
but not surprised at hearing about the suicides.
"These deaths reflect the desperation for a basic human need a
need for justice, a need to have someone hear what they have to
say," said the Center's legal director, William Goodman.
Katherine Newell Bierman, a counter-terrorism counsel for Human
Rights Watch, said the suicide attempts would likely continue if
the United States did not move to give the detainees a fair
trial.
"It is only going to get worse," she told The Los Angeles
Times. "They need to close it, and they need to close it
responsibly. You need to prosecute the people who may have
committed crimes, and the rest of them need to be sent home and
need an apology."
(China Daily June 12, 2006)
