Dispirited and desperate prisoners at Guantanamo Bay look to suicide as a way out of a hopeless situation, and not because they seek martyrdom, say three British Muslims once held there.”
There is no hope in Guantanamo. The only thing that goes through your mind day after day is how to get justice or how to kill yourself,” said Shafiq Rasul, 29, who waged a hunger strike while at the camp to protest alleged beatings. “It is the despair — not the thought of martyrdom — that consumes you there.”
Read the article: Former Guantanamo Detainees Recall Despair
June 12, 2006 ~ by Paisley Dodds ~ Associated Press
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – A “stench of despair” hangs over the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and the deaths of three detainees who killed themselves there on the weekend may only be the beginning, said a defence lawyer who recently visited the U.S. jail in Cuba.
While U.S. officials argue the suicides were political acts aimed at hurting Washington’s standing in the world, human rights activists and former detainees say prisoners are desperate after years in captivity and view suicide as the only way out even though Islam forbids it.
Read the article: U.S. Criticized over Guantanamo Suicides
June 12, 2006 ~ by Andrew Selsky ~ Toronto Star / Canada