Guantanamo Desperation Seen in Suicide Attempts
One Incident Was During Lawyer's Visit

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 1, 2005; A01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/31/AR2005103101987_\
pf.html

Jumah Dossari had to visit the restroom, so the
detainee made a quick joke with his American lawyer
before military police guards escorted him to a nearby
cell with a toilet. The U.S. military prison at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had taken quite a toll on
Dossari over the past four years, but his attorney,
who was there to discuss Dossari's federal court case,
noted his good spirits and thought nothing of his
bathroom break.

Minutes later, when Dossari did not return, Joshua
Colangelo-Bryan knocked on the cell door, calling out
his client's name. When he did not hear a response,
Colangelo-Bryan stepped inside and saw a three-foot
pool of blood on the floor. Numb, the lawyer looked up
to see Dossari hanging unconscious from a noose tied
to the ceiling, his eyes rolled back, his tongue and
lips bulging, blood pouring from a gash in his right
arm.

Dossari's suicide attempt two weeks ago is believed to
be the first such event witnessed by an outsider at
the prison, and one of several signs that lawyers and
human rights advocates contend point to growing
desperation among the more than 500 detainees there.
Lawyers believe Dossari, who has been in solitary
confinement for nearly two years, timed his suicide
attempt so that someone other than his guards would
witness it, a cry for help meant to reach beyond the
base's walls.

Two dozen Guantanamo Bay detainees are currently being
force-fed in response to a lengthy hunger strike, and
the detainees' lawyers estimate there are dozens more
who have not eaten since August. Military officials
say there are 27 hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay,
all of whom are clinically stable, closely monitored
by medical personnel and receiving proper nutrition.

The hunger strikers are protesting their lengthy
confinements in the island prison, where some have
been kept for nearly four years and most have never
been charged with a crime. The most recent hunger
strike came after detention officials allegedly failed
to honor promises made during a previous hunger
strike.

Military authorities do not publicly discuss
individual detainees and declined to comment on
Dossari. Lt. Col. Jeremy Martin, spokesman for Joint
Task Force Guantanamo, said yesterday that there have
been a total of 36 suicide attempts by 22 different
detainees, including three in the past 20 months.
Martin said all detainees are treated humanely and
"any threat of injury or suicide" is taken seriously.

He added that rapid intervention in suicide attempts
has prevented deaths. No detainee has died at the
military prison, he said.

The protests come amid rising international concern
about the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Human rights organizations and the United Nations have
complained about the lack of access to the detainees
and voiced concern about allegations of physical and
psychological abuse, including prolonged solitary
confinement.

U.S. officials are trying to return many of the
detainees to their home countries, but the process has
been fraught with delays and diplomatic wrangling.

Three U.N. experts said yesterday that they would not
accept a U.S. government invitation to tour Guantanamo
unless they are granted private access to detainees, a
concession the U.S. has not been willing to make,
citing the ongoing war on terror and security
concerns. Last week, the United States invited the
U.N. representatives on torture and arbitrary
detention to the facility, and the experts said
yesterday that they hope to visit in early December.
But they described their demand for access to the
detainees as "non-negotiable."

"They said they have nothing to hide," Manfred Nowak,
U.N. special rapporteur on torture, said yesterday at
a news conference in New York. "If they have nothing
to hide, why should we not be able to talk to
detainees in private?"

Colangelo-Bryan said he fears that many detainees
would rather die than be held indefinitely. He said he
was shocked but not surprised by Dossari's Oct. 15
suicide attempt, given his "horrible ordeal."

He said he knows only that medical personnel
apparently were able to revive Dossari, he had surgery
and is in stable condition.

Detainees "see it as the only means they have of
exercising control over their lives," Colangelo-Bryan
said in publicly describing the incident for the first
time. "Their only means of effective protest are to
harm themselves, either by hunger strike or doing
something like this."

Martin said claims that hunger strikers are near death
are "absolutely false." He said the latest protest
began on Aug. 8 and at one point had 131 participants
but is now much smaller.

"This technique, hunger striking, is consistent with
the al Qaeda training, and reflects the detainees'
attempts to elicit media attention and bring pressure
on the United States government," Martin said. The
military also has long argued that terrorist groups
have instructed fighters to invent claims of abuse if
incarcerated.

Dossari has told Colangelo-Bryan that he has endured
abuse and mistreatment on par with some of the worst
offenses discovered at any U.S. detention facility
over the past four years. In declassified notes
recording the meetings, Dossari describes abuse and
torture that stretches back to his arrest in Pakistan
in December 2001, through the time he was turned over
to U.S. forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and
ultimately to his stay in Guantanamo Bay.

Dossari, 26, said U.S. troops have put out cigarettes
on his skin, threatened to kill him and severely beat
him. He told his lawyer that he saw U.S. Marines at
Kandahar "using pages of the Koran to shine their
boots," and was brutalized at Guantanamo Bay by
Immediate Response Force guards who videotaped
themselves attacking him.

The military says the IRF squads are sent into cells
to quell disturbances.

Dossari told his lawyers that he had been wrapped in
Israeli and U.S. flags during interrogations -- a
tactic recounted in FBI allegations of abuse at
Guantanamo -- and said interrogators threatened to
send him to countries where he would be tortured.

Dossari maintains that he is not connected to
terrorism and does not hate the United States. A
fellow detainee said that he saw Dossari at an al
Qaeda training camp, his lawyer said.

Colangelo-Bryan is a private New York lawyer with the
Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents
some of the detainees. The group plans a "Fast for
Justice" rally today in Washington to bring attention
to the Guantanamo Bay hunger strike.

Colangelo-Bryan said Dossari has tried to commit
suicide before. Prolonged solitary confinement has
given him almost no contact with others and access to
only a Koran and his legal papers.

"In March, he looked at me in the eye and said, 'How
can I keep myself from going crazy?'" Colangelo-Bryan
said.

Researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
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More on Guantanamo Prisoner Abuse at:
http://www.islamawareness.net/Persecution/Guantanamo/