San Juan, Puerto Rico – Detainees flinging body waste at guards. Guards interrupting detainees at prayer. Interrogators withholding medicine. Hostility and tension between inmates and their keepers at the Guantanamo Bay prison are evident in transcripts obtained by The Associated Press.
These rare detainee accounts of life inside the razor wire at the remote U.S. military base in Cuba emerged during Administrative Review Board hearings aimed at deciding whether prisoners suspected of links with the Taliban or al-Qaeda should continue to be held or be sent away from Guantanamo.
The Pentagon gave the AP transcripts of hearings held last year in a trailer at Guantanamo after the news agency sought the material under the Freedom of Information Act. Amid the tensions, they also show a few relaxed encounters between detainees and their guards and interrogators.
The military has said Guantanamo is relatively calm compared with last year. But a report released by the detention center last month shows mass disturbances are up sharply over 2006 and forced removal of prisoners from cells and assaults with bodily fluids are on pace to match or exceed last year’s total.
The transcripts, obtained Friday by the AP, illustrate the friction.
A Yemeni detainee, Mohammed Ali Em al-Zarnuki, warned his panel of three U.S. military officers that inmates would attempt suicide unless guards stop interrupting prayers, moving detainees during prayer time and whistling and creating other distractions.
Four detainees have committed suicide at Guantanamo – three last year and one on May 30. Several other detainees have tried to kill themselves, including by overdosing on hoarded medicine.
“I want you to be aware of it because I don’t want you to face a big problem,” al-Zarnuki said.
The hearing’s presiding officer assured the detainee he would pass the complaint on, but added: “We do not make the camp rules.”
Commanders at Guantanamo had no comment Tuesday.
Several detainees said some guards and interrogators treat them with respect, while others do not.
Abdennour Sameur, an Algerian who was a resident of Britain, described what he did to guards he doesn’t get along with: “I threw feces and I have spit on them.”
