Groups Seek Probe Into Gitmo Prison
The recent rash of attempted suicides among suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba might not be anything out of the ordinary in a prison or POW population, suicide experts and Pentagon officials say.
Since the first of the 650 prisoners arrived in January 2002, 16 detainees have tried to kill themselves, three of them twice, military officials said. The attempts, involving hanging or similar forms of asphyxiation, have come in clusters - 10 since the beginning of this year and three in one week in February.
Whether the rate is normal is difficult to assess objectively. There are no good studies of suicide rates at POW camps in past wars, nor are there studies showing the suicide rate among the multinational population of Islamic fighters from which the Guantanamo prisoners were drawn.
But the statistics that do exist suggest what is occurring at Guantanamo may be within expected norms.
In the United States, about one out of every 1,000 prisoners awaiting trial kills himself, according to the International Association for Suicide Prevention. At Guantanamo, there have been no actual suicides, although one prisoner remains hospitalized a month after trying to kill himself, officials said.
The rate of attempted suicides among prison populations has not been well-researched. The study generally regarded as the most definitive was conducted 30 years ago among pretrial prisoners in the District of Columbia. It showed a rate of 3.2 percent -slightly higher than Guantanamo's 2.9 percent for the 19 attempts.
"I'm not so sure I would say what's happening at Guantanamo is a high rate," said Lt. Cmdr. Barbara Burfeind, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
The Guantanamo prisoners were captured in a military campaign, have not been charged with a crime, are not allowed visitors and have no way of knowing how long they will be held.
Military officials say they're doing what they can to prevent suicides at Guantanamo: Counseling is available, guards are trained in suicide prevention and at least two dozen detainees are being given antidepressants or anti-psychotic drugs.
Prisoners attempt suicide for three reasons - a desperate legal situation, harassment by other inmates or guards, or personal problems such as divorce, said Lindsey Hayes, project director at the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, which works with courts and prisons to reduce overcrowding, improve mental health services and reduce prison suicides.
Daniel Kennedy, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Detroit, suggested another possibility: The suicide attempts at Guantanamo could be attempts to manipulate the system or efforts to make the world aware of their situation.
"This is a pretty handy way of forcing some response," said Kennedy, co-chairman of the task force on jail suicide at the American Association of Suicidology, a nonprofit research and outreach group.
Michael Ratner of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights said his best guess is that the cause is "complete desperation."
Kateb al-Shemmari, who represents several Saudi detainees, said the suicide attempts suggest physical and psychological torment. On Monday, he called on the Red Cross to investigate.
Regardless of whether the rate at Guantanamo is unusual, the attempted suicides "alarm us," said Amnesty International spokesman Alistair Hodgett. "It tells us that something is amiss."
Though some censored letters family members have received say the prisoners are being treated well, others contain signs of anguish.
"Every time they state they are going to release me soon, but unfortunately this is far away," Abdulaziz Sayer Owain al Shammari wrote to his father last March. He had gone on a food strike for 27 days and given up water and talking for four days, demanding, he wrote, that the Americans "set me free as I am innocent or to take me to the court for trial in order to obtain all my rights or to die as I cannot stand life in this place."
As the Guantanamo prisoners are processed, those determined to be uninvolved in terrorism and unable to provide useful intelligence are being released, officials say. Four were released in October.
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Hog
