Bahrain Center for Human Rights
Wednesday, August 4, 2004
Bahrain Center for Human Rights
Wednesday, August 4, 2004
The Statement on Detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay has been compiled by the three young men from Tipton — Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Rhuhel Ahmed. They have put an enormous amount of work into the report, and expect no benefit from it. They have completed it solely to let the world know the truth about what is happening in Guantanamo Bay. Their intention is that Human Rights groups and lawyers may use this information to ensure fairness for the prisoners there. The report has been compiled by the Tipton men, and their attorney, noted British civil rights lawyer Gareth Peirce.
The report details the several weeks that Rasul and Iqbal were held in open cages at Camp X-Ray, allowed out for only a few minutes each week for one shower, and otherwise left to swelter in the Cuban heat. Scorpions and snakes were allowed to roam the cells, and many prisoners were bitten. The US marines who ran the camp were “very brutal.”
The report reflects a sophisticated effort to tailor abuse to the weaknesses of the individual prisoner. For example, the report discusses the sexual humiliation of the prisoners. This began when General Miller, later of Abu Ghraib notoriety, came to Guantanamo. For example, the prisoners would be stripped naked and forced to watch videotapes of other prisoners who, in turn, had been ordered to sodomize each other. The sexual humiliation was reserved for those who would be most impacted by it, those who had been brought up strictly in their Muslim faith.
The religious humiliation was similarly focused. The guards would throw the prisoners’ Korans into the toilet. They would forcibly shave the prisoners. There was a clear policy to try to force people to abandon their religious faith.
The prisoners would be forcibly injected with unknown drugs as part of the interrogation process. They were told they could only get medical care if they cooperated. Many prisoners suffer from medical and mental health problems. Some of the detainees have been held in total isolation for well over a year.
It is hardly surprising that as a result of these abusive and torturous tactics, prisoners routinely confessed to things they had not (and could not have) done. After endless pressure, Asif Iqbal said he was on a videotape with Osama Bin Laden. The interrogator said, “I’ve put detainees here in isolation for 12 months and eventually they’ve broken. You might as well admit it now so that you don’t have to stay in isolation.” He was in the isolation cells for about 6 weeks, and finally, he said, “Okay, it’s me.” It was his pure good fortune that this was disproved by British Intelligence – in truth, along with the other Tipton lads, he was living and working around Birmingham.
“It is a very sad day for the United States, and humanity in general, to learn the details of what has been happening in Guantanamo Bay,” said Clive Stafford Smith, of Justice In Exile, who recently visited Bahrain on behalf of the detainees. “It is torture pure and simple. It is also as pointless as it is cruel. We have known since the Middle Ages that no useful information can come out of coerced confessions.”
For the complete report, please contact Nabeel Rajab (973 39633399), or the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (at 973 729500 or 973 727994 (fax)); for further information, call Clive Stafford Smith (USA 504 338 9867)
Of particular concern to the people and Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain is the following, specific eyewitness report concerning a Bahrain citizen:
Jumah al Dousari from Bahrain, who had lived in America for some time, was already mentally ill. He used to shout all the time. The guards and the medical team knew he was ill. Whenever soldiers would walk past his cell he would shout out and say things to them. Not swearing but silly things. He would impersonate the soldiers. One day he was impersonating a female soldier. She called the officer in charge, the commander that day, whose name was 59 Blanche (the same person who was in charge the day that the dog was brought into Asif’s cell; see below) – a staff sergeant E6, E6 being his rank structure. He came to the block and was speaking to Jumah. Shafiq [Rasul] says “I don’t know what was said but the next thing he called the ERF [Emergency Reaction Force] team. While the ERF team was coming he took the female officer to one side. I heard him say ‘when you go in that cell you’re going to f-ing kick him’. She seemed apprehensive. He kept shouting at her to make her say back to him what he had said. It was very odd. There were usually five people on an ERF team. On this occasion there were eight of them. When Jumah saw them coming he realised something was wrong and was lying on the floor with his head in his hands. If you’re on the floor with your hands on your head, then you would hope that all they would do would be to come in and put the chains on you. That is what they’re supposed to do. The first man is meant to go in with a shield. On this occasion the man with the shield threw the shield away, took his helmet off, when the door was unlocked ran in and did a knee drop onto Jumah’s back just between his shoulder blades with his full weight. He must have been about 240 pounds in weight. His name was Smith. He was a sergeant E5. Once he had done that the others came in and were punching and kicking Jumah. While they were doing that the female officer then came in and was kicking his stomach. Jumah had had an operation and had metal rods in his stomach clamped together in the operation. The officer Smith was the MP Sergeant who was punching him. He grabbed his head with one hand and with the other hand punched him repeatedly in the face. His nose was broken. He pushed his face and he smashed it into the concrete floor. All of this should be on video. There was blood everywhere. When they took him out they hosed the cell down and the water ran red with blood. We all saw it.”