Real lives
9 January 2009, 04:12PM
The following testimonies from Guantánamo detainees, their families and loved ones illustrate the impact that their detention has had on so many people.
Rabia, wife of detainee Majid Khan
Majid Khan was transferred to Guantánamo from secret CIA custody.
"My husband was kidnapped over three years ago, and in this period I have not known anything about his whereabouts and how he is keeping (...)", says Rabia. "Recently I have found out that he has been transferred to Guantánamo. I am very happy that he's alive, but it's a shock because I've heard a lot about what happens there."
Moazzam Begg
Released without charge in 2005, Moazzam Begg was unlawfully detained in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay for 3 years.
He spoke with Amnesty International in September 2006: "The biggest suffering everybody has in Guantánamo Bay, I think at this point, is the sheer lack of any ability to prove your innocence because you remain in legal limbo, and have no communication at all, no meaningful communication with your family."
Zahra Paracha, 14 year-old daughter of Guantánamo detainee Saifullah Paracha
"Sometimes I feel like going out to Bush and say ‘What the hell do you think you are doing’? And sometimes I just feel that maybe I should leave it alone."
Mustafa Aït Idir
Mustafa Aït Idir, a Bosnian national, has been held at Guantánamo for more than six years without charge. He says that guards beat him, bent his fingers back so they broke, and jumped on him leaving part of his face paralysed. On 20 November 2008, a US federal judge ordered the government to release Mustafa Aït Idir.
In December 2007 Mustafa Aït Idir replied to a letter from Yoshiko Koshimizu of Japan: "I am so happy to receive such a letter from the people from Japan... know that your letter it presents to me an opportunity that no money can buy. Thanks for your help. I appreciate it lots."
Martin Mubanga, released without charge after 33 months of detention
"From being in isolation and practically being stripped naked apart from a pair of shorts... In isolation the air-conditioning was left on so it was particularly cold at night. I wasn't able to sleep and had to do exercises throughout the night periodically, I kept waking up because of the cold."
Abdel Malik Abdel Wahab
A Yemeni national in his twenties and married with one daughter, Abdel Malik Abdel Wahab was taken into custody in 2001 by officials in Pakistan who he says "sold" him to US authorities. Soon after, he was transferred to Guantánamo where he says he has been tortured and otherwise ill-treated, including with threats of transfer to Egypt or Jordan for torture.
"If you have any evidence against me that shows I am an enemy of the United States or that I fought against the United States, I am willing to face that trial."
Nadja Dizdarevic, wife of Bosnian Guantánamo detainee Boudella al-Hajj
Boudella al-Hajj was transferred by the Bosnian authorities into US custody in Bosnia-Herzegovina in January 2002, and then flown to Guantánamo Bay. His wife Nadja Dizdarevic has become a leading campaigner for the rights of Boudella al-Hajj and other detainees: "Who has the right to split families up, to take these men away illegally without any procedures?"
Binyam Mohamed
An Ethiopian national and former UK resident now aged 30, Binyam Mohamed was arrested at Karachi airport in Pakistan in April 2002 and handed over to US custody three months later. He was transferred first to Morocco and then to Afghanistan, where he says he was tortured. In September 2004 he was flown to Guantánamo where he is currently held in isolation in Guantánamo’s Camp 5.
Binyam Mohamed spoke to his lawyer and described his treatment and the conditions in the prison, and the results on his physical and psychological health:
"It was pitch black, no lights on in the rooms for most of the time. They hung me up for two days. My legs had swollen. My wrists and hands had gone numb. There was loud music, Slim Shady [by Eminem] and Dr. Dre for 20 days. Then they changed the sounds to horrible ghost laughter and Halloween sounds. At one point, I was chained to the rails for a fortnight. The CIA worked on people, including me, day and night. Plenty lost their minds. I could hear people knocking their heads against the walls and the doors, screaming their heads off."
Download Amnesty International's Voices from Guantánamo digest for more words from detainees of the military prison.
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