Sudanese Journalist Describes Gitmo

Conditions are harsh for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, a hunger-striking prisoner said in a letter released Wednesday, although he did not provide details.

“Each of us suffers new physical pain, and our injured hearts suffer from a psychological pain that cannot be described,” Sami al-Haj, a Sudanese cameraman for the Al-Jazeera TV network, said in the letter.

Al-Haj was captured by Pakistani authorities on the Afghan border in December 2001 and turned over to U.S. forces about six months later. He is believed to be the only journalist from a major international news organization held at Guantanamo. Authorities have accused him of transporting money in the 1990s for a charity that allegedly funded militant groups.

His lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, said the letter was written in Arabic in late December and had to be cleared by U.S. government censors before it could be released. Stafford Smith said al-Haj has been on hunger strike at the remote U.S. military prison in Cuba for 374 days and is force-fed with a nasal tube to keep him alive.

The 38-year-old cameraman also criticized the U.S., which holds him without charges, and the public for what he perceives as a lack of interest in the plight of Guantanamo detainees.

“All of this takes place in a world which knows what is happening but remains silent and does little more than watch this sorry theater,” he wrote.

A spokesman for the detention center, Navy Cmdr. Rick Haupt, said the U.S. military has a policy of not commenting on the condition of specific prisoners but all are treated humanely and are visited by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“We are caring for Sami al-Haj as we would for any other detainee here, safely and humanely,” Haupt said.

There are 10 prisoners currently on hunger strike — including eight being fed through nasal tubes and two who have been on strike for more than 700 days — but the spokesman would not confirm whether al-Haj is among them.

Separately Wednesday, a lawyer for Libyan prisoner Abdul Hamid Abdul Salam Al-Ghizzawi reported on her Web log that he wrote her a letter revealing that a doctor has diagnosed him with AIDS. The lawyer, H. Candace Gorman, said she has previously confirmed the detainee has Hepatitis B and tuberculosis and is trying to confirm the new diagnosis.

Haupt said he could not confirm whether any Guantanamo detainee has AIDS.

The U.S. holds about 275 men at Guantanamo on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida or the Taliban and has released about 100 over the past six months.

A 68-year-old Afghan detainee died from cancer at the prison Dec. 30, and four prisoners have committed suicide.

– By Ben Fox

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