CCR Releases Newly Declassified Eyewitness Account of Military Police Attack On Detainees
Center for Constitutional Rights
Rubber Bullets & Pepper Spray Used to Subdue Elderly Detainees Objecting to Searching of Koran
Synopsis
On August 21, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) released newly declassified notes detailing an eyewitness account of the mistreatment of the Koran and a subsequent attack on detainees by military police at Guantánamo in early June 2006. CCR represents more than 200 detainees, but due to the security measures imposed on attorney-client communication at Guantánamo, this most recent account had previously been unavailable.
Ala’ Ali bin Ali Ahmed is a twenty-three-year-old prisoner from Adem, Yemen. Although he has been imprisoned in Guantánamo since 2002, he has never been accused of fighting against the United States. Prior to July of this year Ala’ lived in Camp 4, but it wasn’t until a July meeting with his lawyer, CCR attorney Gitanjali Gutierrez, that he had a chance to describe how the military’s mistreatment of the Koran led to violence.
According to Ala’, on May 18th the GTMO Commander ordered the military police (MPs) to search the prisoners’ Korans. Many prisoners voiced their opposition to the MPs searching and handling of the holy book, asking those who conducted the search, “Why are you doing this?” The MPs answered that they had orders to search the Korans and anyone who refused would be forced to comply.
Ala’ explained that the English-speaking detainees attempted unsuccessfully to negotiate with the MPs to diffuse and resolve the situation. The MPs refused to discuss the issue and began their search on a block that housed 50- and 60-year-old Afghani prisoners. When these older men refused to allow their Korans to be searched, the MPs indiscriminately pepper-sprayed the detainees and opened fire on the older prisoners with rubber bullets.
When he first heard the shots, Ala’ assumed that the MPs were using live bullets. “I saw the guns in their hands and the bullet proof vests and thought it was live ammunition,” said Ala’. “I thought the MPs were going to kill all of us right at that moment.”
Instead, the MPs continued to blast the prisoners with highly-toxic pepper spray, using fire extinguisher-sized canisters. “My eyes burned from the gas and I couldn’t stop crying.” Ala’ said. “I fell to the ground and couldn’t move.” If any prisoner stood up, the MPs sprayed him again until he sat down or lay on the floor. Ala’ noted that the Commander was present while the pepper spray was used. “I felt that this was done on purpose and planned for by the military. This Commander followed a stupid policy in dealing with the detainees. Ever since I arrived here, the Koran has been mistreated.”
“We are extremely concerned about the ongoing and utterly unjustified interference with the prisoners’ religious rights,” stated CCR attorney Gitanjali Gutierrez, “particularly when it serves as a pretext for harsher punitive measures. The conduct of the personnel on the ground at Guantánamo is immoral, illegal and unjustified. Guantánamo has been a monumental failure and the Administration should close the prison immediately.”
Source: www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/report.asp?ObjID=MFG589SLvY&Content=815