Gitmo Inmates Attack Guards

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Military.com | May 19, 2006

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Prisoners wielding improvised weapons clashed with guards trying to stop a detainee from committing suicide at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the military said Friday.

The fight occurred Thursday in a medium-security section of the camp as guards were responding to the fourth attempted suicide that day at the detention center on the U.S. Navy base, Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand said.

The prison holds detainees suspected by the U.S. of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

Detainees used fans, light fixtures and other improvised weapons to attack the guards as they entered a communal living area to stop a prisoner who was trying to hang himself, Durand said.

Earlier in the day, three detainees in another part of the prison attempted suicide by swallowing prescription medicine they had been hoarding. The attempted suicides and clash occurred on the same day the military transferred 15 Saudi detainees to their country, leaving about 460 prisoners at Guantanamo. It was unclear if the disturbances were related to the transfers.

The detainees who clashed with guards were moved to higher-security sections. The medium-security Camp Four, where the clash occurred, houses detainees in dorm-style rooms that hold up to 10 people. Camp Four is for the most compliant prisoners and those who are slated for release.

Those who attempted suicide received medical treatment, the military said. Their names were not released.

There have been more than 40 suicide attempts at Guantanamo since the prison opened in January 2002, according to the military. At least 12 were by Juma'a Mohammed al-Dossary, a 32-year-old from Bahrain.

The suicide attempts reflect the desperation of detainees who have been held for more than four years and have no idea when, or if, they will be released, Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, an attorney for al-Dossary, told The Associated Press on Friday.

"Under these circumstances, it's hardly surprising that people become desperate and hopeless enough to attempt suicide," he said. Colangelo-Bryan said he visited al-Dossary last week and saw scars on his throat and the back of his neck from his most recent attempt in March.

Colangelo-Bryan, whose New York-based law firm, Dorsey and Whitney LLP, represents three detainees from Bahrain, said he doesn't know if any of his clients were involved in Thursday's incident.

It was at least the second reported simultaneous suicide attempt at the detention center. The U.S. military said 23 detainees carried out a coordinated effort to hang or strangle themselves in 2003 during a weeklong protest in the secretive camp in Cuba.

The military, which did not disclose the mass hanging protest until 2005, called the actions "self-injurious behavior" aimed at getting attention rather than serious suicide attempts.

There have been previous reports of protests and disturbances at the detention center, including incidents in which detainees hurled urine and other bodily fluids at guards or banged on cell doors for hours at a time. A hunger strike that began last August has involved up to 131 detainees but has dwindled to handful.

Word of the clash came as a U.N. panel that monitors compliance with the world's anti-torture treaty called on the United States to close the prison.

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