UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Guantanamo: 4 years too many - New torture testimonies

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13 Jan 2006
[International Secretariat]
Region: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Topic: Fight Against Terrorism and Human Rights
" ... the worst days of my detention, they were full of deprivation, humiliation, oppression and psychological stress ..."
" ... I was only allowed to talk to the three people who were in charge of torturing me ..."
" ... I became like a house of cards that always falls down: whatever side you try to build it from, it will still fall down ... "
Testimony of Jumah al-Dossari Bahraini national held in Guantanamo since January 2002.

On the 4th anniversary of the first transfers of detainees to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Amnesty International made public new testimonies of the use of torture and ill-treatment against prisoners in the US detention centre and further details on the cases of other detainees.

The testimonies include that of one of the first detainee to be transferred to Guantanamo. Jumah al-Dossari, a 32-year-old Bahraini national who was taken to the US Naval Base in January 2002 after being held by US forces in the Kandahar airbase in Afghanistan.
Jumah al-Dossari's testimony, corroborated by people who have now been released from Guantanamo, includes several allegations of physical and psychological torture and ill-treatment inflicted by US personnel both on him and on other inmates in Afghanistan and Guantanamo.

"In Guantanamo, around 500 men have been treated with complete and utter disdain of the type that nobody should be forced to endure. It isn't surprising that after years of uncertainty about their fate, some of these men have expressed their intention to die rather than remain in Guantanamo indefinitely," said Amnesty International.

Amnesty International also revealed further details on the cases of Al-Jazeera journalist Sami al Hajj, transferred to Guantanamo in June 2002 after spending time in detention in Bagram and Kandahar and on the case of Abdulsalam al-Hela, a Yemeni businessman, subjected to rendition and secret detention before being transferred to Guantanamo.

Today, thousands of Amnesty International members in more than 38 countries will send petitions to President Bush and Attorney General Gonzales to bring all Guantanamo detainees to a fair trial and to investigate all reports of torture and ill-treatment in the detention centre.

"There's no middle ground regarding Guantanamo. It must be closed and an investigation must be urgently advanced regarding the dozens of reports of torture and ill treatment that have taken place since 2002."

For more information, please see:
USA: Testimony of Guantanamo detainee Jumah al-Dossari
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR511072005

USA: Who are the Guantanamo detainees - Jumah al-Dossari
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR511292005

USA: Who are the Guantanamo detainees - Sami al Hajj
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGAMR512072005

USA: Who are the Guantanamo detainees - Abdulsalam al-Hela
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGAMR512062005

More information on Guantanamo, including audiovisual resources:
http://news.amnesty.org/pages/usa-news-eng

Other interviews with ex Guantanamo detainees and relatives of people currently held in the US Naval base are available in broadcast quiality upon request.

Amnesty International is campaigning to stop torture and other ill-treatment in the "war on terror". For more information, please go to
the campaign home page:
http://web.amnesty.org/pages/stoptorture-index-eng

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE
AI Index: AMR 51/008/2006 (Public)
Embargo Date: 11 January 2006 00:01 GMT

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