Gitmo Dilemma Remains a Monkey on the Back of US Democracy

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/15858-gitmo-dilemma-remains-a-monkey-on-the-back-of-us-democracy



A guard watches from a tower at Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on June 9, 2010.

Gitmo Dilemma Remains a Monkey on the Back of US Democracy
Sunday, 21 April 2013 09:50 By Megan Cowell, Council on Hemispheric Affairs | News Analysis

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With every year that passes, prisoners of the detention camp have grown more and more restless with the uncertainty of their status and treatment while in the prison. This culminated on February 6, 2013, when a small number of Guantanamo prisoners began an internal protest by refusing to eat their meals. In the days that followed, solidarity among prisoners grew, resulting in a large-scale demonstration. The exact number of those involved is unclear, but on April 1, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that roughly 40 prisoners are taking part in the strike and 11 have needed to be force-fed liquid nutrients to keep them alive. [2] This is a very different story than what is being told by some lawyers of the detainees who have declared that the strike, in reality, involves the majority of the inmates, with the exception of the elderly and ill, bringing the total to 130 of the 166 inmates. [3]

The protest allegedly began as a result of detainees’ unrest regarding their current status in the prison, as well as a recent seizure of the prisoners’ personal belongings. For some, the strike is fundamental in nature in that their motivation for protest stems from their ongoing imprisonment. Many, like Marine General and Commander of SOUTHCOM John Kelly, an overseer of Guantanamo Bay, are frustrated by the lack of movements coming out of the U.S. government to close the camp, “‘They had a great optimism that Guantanamo would be closed’ based on President Obama’s pledge in his first campaign, but now they are “devastated” that nothing has changed.” [4] Captain Robert Durand, a U.S. military spokesperson, in an April 13 statement announced that the strike began after Guantanamo Bay prison staff had seized prisoners’ letters, photos, and other personal belongings. Most notably, detainees became enraged by the treatment of personal copies of the Koran that have been used in the course for personal worship. According to Guantanamo lawyers, prisoners feel as though the manor in which their Korans were handled during the seizer was not only inappropriate, but also sacrilegious. [5]

On Saturday, April 13, tensions reached an all time high. Early that morning, a new series of cell raids took place at the prison, a measure deemed necessary by guards after detainees allegedly covered window and security cameras installed at the compound. Violence erupted when troops arrived to transfer prisoners out of Camp 6, a communal section of the prison reserved for well-behaved detainees to enjoy additional freedoms, such as additional recreation time and access to T.V.s and computers were recalled. When prison guards arrived for the transfer of detainees back to their individual cells, the detainees began to fight the prison guards with broomsticks and mop handles, while guards responded by firing four nonlethal rounds, including a modified shotgun shell that fired small rubber pellets as well as a bean-bag projectile, according to a spokesman for the Florida-based U.S. Southern Command Army Colonel Greg Julian. [6]

U.S. authorities have stated that Camp 6, though closed indefinitely, will reopen when prisoners are obedient once again. For now, Durand believes that keeping prisoners in individual cells is the best way to keep an eye on the protesting detainees, as prison personnel are hoping to avoid the spread of the hunger strike through interactions between prisoners granted access to Camp 6. Lawyers, however, do not see this action as a means to an end, but rather of pushing the prisoners to new extremes. One federal public defender in Ohio, Carlos Warner, stated, “This is exactly the opposite of what they should be doing. As of last week, the strike would end if they allowed the men to surrender the Koran. Instead the military is escalating the conflict.” [7] In contrast, it has been suggested that a negotiation between prisoners and prison guards as a method of finding an end to the ongoing hunger strike; however, hatred and distrust between the two groups will likely impede any negotiations from being fruitful.