23 at Guantanamo attempted suicide in 2003 (Agencies) Updated: 2005-01-25 09:01
Twenty-three terror suspects tried to hang or strangle themselves at the U.S.
military base in Guantanamo Bay during a mass protest in 2003, the military
confirmed Monday.
 Suspected Taliban
and al-Qaida detainees sit in a holding area at Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, during in-processing to the temporary detention facility in
this Jan. 11, 2002, file photo. [AP] | The
incidents came during the same year the camp suffered a rash of suicide attempts
after Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller took command of the prison with a mandate to get
more information from prisoners accused of links to al-Qaida or the ousted
Afghan Taliban regime that sheltered it.
Between Aug. 18 and Aug. 26, the 23 detainees tried to hang or strangle
themselves with pieces of clothing and other items in their cells, demonstrating
"self-injurious behavior," the U.S. Southern Command in Miami said in a
statement. Ten detainees made a mass attempt on Aug. 22 alone.
U.S. Southern Command described it as "a coordinated effort to disrupt camp
operations and challenge a new group of security guards from the just-completed
unit rotation."
Guantanamo officials classified two of the incidents as attempted suicides
and informed reporters. But they but did not previously release information
about the mass hangings and stranglings during that period.
Those incidents were mentioned casually during a visit earlier this month by
three journalists, but officials then immediately denied there had been a mass
suicide attempt. Further attempts to get details brought a statement Friday
night, with some clarifications provided Monday by military officials at
Guantanamo Bay and the U.S. Southern Command.
Alistair Hodgett, a spokesman for Amnesty International's office in
Washington, was critical Monday of the delay in reporting the incident.
"When you have suicide attempts or so-called self-harm incidents, it shows
the type of impact indefinite detention can have, but it also points to the
extreme measures the Pentagon is taking to cover up things that have happened in
Guantanamo," he said.
"What we've seen is that it wasn't simply a rotation of forces but an attempt
to toughen up the interrogation techniques and processes."
Officials said Monday they differentiated between a suicide attempt in which
a detainee could have died without intervention and a "gesture" they considered
aimed only at getting attention.
Army Gen. Jay Hood, who succeeded Miller as the detention mission's commander
last year, has said the number of incidents has decreased since 2003, when the
military set up a psychiatric ward.
In 2003, there were 350 "self-harm" incidents, including 120 "hanging
gestures," according to Lt. Col. Leon Sumpter, a spokesman for the detention
mission.
Last year, there were 110 self-harm incidents, he said.
"The Joint Detention Operations Group continually assesses the camp's
population for whom the informal leaders are, the mood of the detainees, and
their ability to communicate with each other," Southern Command said in a
statement.
"That assessment has enabled the leadership to take numerous measures to
reduce the opportunity for detainees to communicate a coordinated self-harm
incident, or strike out at another detainee or the guard force."
The military has reported 34 suicide attempts since the camp opened in 2002,
including one prisoner going into a coma and sustaining memory loss from brain
damage.
Of the 23 men who tried to hang or strangle themselves during the 2003
protest, two required hospital treatment and then were transferred to the
psychiatric ward, the military statement said.
Sixteen remain at Guantanamo Bay, while seven were transferred to other
countries, the statement said without giving details. Some transferred detainees
have been released while others continue to be detained in their native or other
countries.
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