In an act of desperation that underscores the monstrous conditions at the US concentration camp at Guantánamo Bay, three prisoners committed suicide early Saturday morning, hanging themselves with primitive nooses made from bed sheets. The deaths were the first among Guantánamo prisoners to be confirmed by US authorities. Two of the prisoners were Saudi nationals and the third was Yemeni, according to American officials. All three left behind suicide notes written in Arabic, although none were made public. The three men had been involved in hunger strikes over the past year carried out by detainees to protest their sadistic and illegal treatment. The hunger strikers, including the three who took their own lives, have been force-fed by their captors, who have used the brutal procedure of strapping their victims into metal chairs and shoving feeding tubes down their throats.
The triple suicide is the latest in a series of increasingly desperate actions by the Guantánamo prisoners, who have in many cases been held for more than four years, have been denied the minimum legal rights required under international conventions, and confront the prospect of spending the rest of their lives in the US prison camp.
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US officials refused to release the names of the three suicide victims, but the Interior Ministry of Saudi Arabia identified the two Saudis as Ani bin Shaman bin Turki al Habradi and Yasser Talal Abdullah Yahya al Zahrani.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jun2006/guan-j12.shtml
Please see also:
USA: Independent investigation must be held into deaths of three Guantánamo detainees
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engamr510912006
Guantanamo and Suicides
http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=1291
End 'lawlessness' of Guantanamo after suicides: Amnesty
http://www.guantanamo.com
U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay Official site. http://www.nsgtmo.navy.mil
Guantanamo:
Honor Bound to Defend Freedom
http://www.timelinetheatre.com/guantanamo/index.htm
and related articles in our International Law section.
For clarity, please click the U.S. Department of Defense photo.
The triple suicide is the latest in a series of increasingly desperate actions by the Guantánamo prisoners, who have in many cases been held for more than four years, have been denied the minimum legal rights required under international conventions, and confront the prospect of spending the rest of their lives in the US prison camp.
…
US officials refused to release the names of the three suicide victims, but the Interior Ministry of Saudi Arabia identified the two Saudis as Ani bin Shaman bin Turki al Habradi and Yasser Talal Abdullah Yahya al Zahrani.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jun2006/guan-j12.shtml
Please see also:
USA: Independent investigation must be held into deaths of three Guantánamo detainees
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engamr510912006
Guantanamo and Suicides
http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=1291
End 'lawlessness' of Guantanamo after suicides: Amnesty
http://www.guantanamo.com
U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay Official site. http://www.nsgtmo.navy.mil
Guantanamo:
Honor Bound to Defend Freedom
http://www.timelinetheatre.com/guantanamo/index.htm
and related articles in our International Law section.
For clarity, please click the U.S. Department of Defense photo.