Hunger Strike Diary: Sami Muhyideen
http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=9929
UNCLASSIFIED
Letter No. II
9th August 2005
Clive Stafford Smith, Lawyer
Reprieve
London EC4Y 1HS
Dear Clive:
This is my diary of the hunger strike so far.
On the 12th of July a food strike started at Camp IV. It started at Whisky Block, where everyone was striking, and the other blocks joined the strike. Also other parts of Camp Delta came in, for around 190 detainees total. The demands include stopping the heavy handed approach to the prisoners, particularly those in Camp V, and to give us the health care that we need so much. Also to stop the widespread practice (used most in Camp V) of drugging the prisoners and manipulating their state of mind.
On the 15th of July there was an important group of visitors being shown around Camp Delta, people we believe to have been from the U.S. Congress. For reasons known only to the authorities here, these people were not given the normal tour of Camp IV, maybe because of the heightened tensions around the whole camp. But the tour did include the hospital, which is situated close to Whisky Block. Out of desperation, the prisoners started speaking out (actually, shouting) to the people on the tour, explaining our problems. Some of the detainees were shouting the word ‘Freedom!’ Others, I am afraid, were shouting, ‘Bush is Hitler!’ Other’s were shouting, ‘This is a Gulag!’ Everyone was desperate for someone to listen from the outside world.
Some of the visitors approached Whisky Block to get closer to the Detainees and hear them better (despite a warning not to from the escorting guards). Some of the visitors seemed to sincerely want to understand the situation, while others were looking at us in disgust. On the 17th of July at 5:00 pm, the authorities at Camp Delta started to forcefully remove the prisoners from Whisky Block (we believe this was because of the incident with the tour two days before). They took eighteen detainees back to Camps II and III (where the conditions are much harsher). Jamil el Banna, one of your clients, was among those removed. Although none of the detainees was violent in any way, the authorities used the ERF team to force this on us.
UNCLASSIFIED
By the end of the operation, they had removed eighteen prisoners from two bays. All the other detainees at Whisky Block then told the authorities that they wanted to join their comrades and go to Camp II and III as well. At this time, things in Camp IV started to deteriorate, and others in blocks all around the place demanded to be moved to the harsher conditions of Camp II and III. In the end, about forty prisoners demanded to be taken there. All of them followed the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for leaving Camp IV, leaving everything but the minimum belongings and standing outside the Bay so that the authorities would take them seriously. Those involved spent the whole night outside the Bays.
On the 18th of July at about 3 pm they removal of these detainees started to Camps II and III.
As the strike progressed, the prisoners started to chant: ‘Why are we enemies?’ To begin with, the General said he had no authority to make changes on this. But then we were told that Donald Rumsfeld had sent from Washington, D.C., telling the General to apply the Geneva Conventions to Guantanamo.
The most important issue to us, immediately, was to close Camp V, more important than any other issue in the camp. The conditions are so bad there.
Military officers came around and we were also promised a canteen where we would have 145 items for purchase by the prisoners. We were told that our families could send money, and that those without money would be given $3 each a week.
There was a Prisoner Council established that could talk about prisoner issues and negotiate with the authorities, and hold a consistent position for everyone. They met, but were not allowed to discuss matters in private and in confidence. So they passed notes around to each other and then chewed the notes up. The authorities were angry at this.
On the 5th of August the issue of Hisham Sliti caused serious problems. He had been beaten up when he was being interrogated, and they abused the Qur’an again. There have also been other on-going problems with the Qur’an. For example, recently an MP asked Asshamrani from Yemen for something during prayer time, and he said he would do it right after prayers were finished. Instead they ERF’d him. There was blood all over his face, and they knocked the Qur’an on the floor and then trampled on it. This is not the only issue. Hakim from Yemen was told at his ARB that he was a ‘danger’ to American because he has memorized the whole Qur’an. This is an insult to the whole Islamic faith.
Meanwhile, Saad from Kuwait was taken by force to a ‘Reservation’ for interrogation. He had previously been forced to spend over five hours with a woman who was taunting him sexually. Omar Khadr, the kid from Canada, was also forcibly taken to ‘Reservation.’
UNCLASSIFIED
This provoked Camp III into breaking their lights. They were forcibly taken to Romeo, which is the block where people are humiliated by being forced to wear only shorts. The authorities stopped the water flow for 24 hours, and brought no food.
On the 8th of August the General canceled the meetings of the prisoner council. Camps II and III started their rolling strike on the 7th of August; Camp I on the 9th.
When the strike began again, the Colonel came with a megaphone and wanted to talk to the leaders of each block. But we would not talk to him.
So we all had to go back on hungerstrike again. It is not something I look forward to, but I must. We have to stand together on this, more for the prisoners who are being mistreated in Camp V than for anything else. I hope to survive it alive. But please tell my wife and my son that I love them.
Your friend and client,
Sami Muhyideen al Hajj
