– GUANTANAMO’S SUICIDES

Despite the constant watch, three Guantanamo detainees committed, on 06/10/2006, a coordinated suicide, considered as a sort of protest against the concept of Guantanamo.

The three were identified as: Yasser Talal al-Zahrani, 21, from Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. Yasser Talal al-Zahrani was captured at the age of 16 in 11/2001 and was accused of being “a front line fighter for the Taliban”, despite later revisions that stated he had never advanced past the “second line”. Yasser Talal al-Zahrani was one of the Qala-i-Jangi massacre survivors, on 11/23/2001. He was also accused of arranging weapons purchases. Yasser Talal al-Zahrani was a relative of Khalid al-Zahrani;

* Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi al-Otaibi, 25. a member of the Islamic group “Tablighi Jamaat”. He arrived to Afghanistan from the Gulf Emirates probably in 09/2001 and was detained by Pakistani forces, with a stolen passport wearing women’s clothing, on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan after the fall of Kabul, in 12/2001, during operation Absolute Justice. Mani al-Otaibi was recommended for transfer to another country, probably back to Saudi Arabia;

 

* Ali Abdullah Ahmed, 36, a Yemeni citizen.  In 05/2005 Ali Abdullah Ahmed participated in a 100 days hunger strike in Guantanamo. He was captured on 03/28/2002 along with Abu Zubaydah and Alla Bin Ali Ahmed in Faisalabad, South East Pakistan. Ali Abdullah Ahmed was identified as an Al Qaeda member also by another senior Al Qaeda Yasser al-Jazeeri. His younger brother, Mohammed Ahmed Taher, was also held in Guantanamo.

The three detainees had apparently hanged themselves using their clothing and sheets to fashion makeshift nooses in what military officials believe was a coordinated suicide pact. All left suicide notes written in Arabic. Military officials said that the detainee suicide attempts are designed to gain attention and to manipulate world opinion.

There have been 41 suicide attempts by about 25 individual detainees – many by hanging – but in each previous case, medical personnel were able to save them.

 

* Abd al-Rahman al-Amiri, a Saudi citizen and a former Taliban fighter, hanged himself in Guantanamo on 05/30/2007. Abd al-Rahman al-Amiri was a nine-year veteran of the Saudi army. He reportedly had confessed to having gone to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban against the USA installed Afghan government and the Americans. Abd al-Rahman al-Amiri was captured in Pakistan in early 2002 and was then sent to Guantanamo.

 

* Muhammed Ahmad Abdallah Salih al Hanashi, 31 year-old Yemeni captive, killed himself, on 06/01/2009, while journalist were at the camp for Omar Khadr’s Military commission. The journalists were not allowed to report news of Muhammed Salih death until they left Guantanamo. He was captured in Mazar-i-Sharif, Northern Afghanistan in late 2001.

 

* Related topics –

–

12/2008 -ToRTURE  

07/2009 -TEENAGER TO BE RELEASED FROM GITMO   

04/2004 -ABU-GHRAIB  ABUSE

 

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