Mounting Tensions Escalate Into Violence During Raid at Guantánamo Prison
WASHINGTON — Weeks of mounting tensions between the military and detainees at the wartime prison at Guantánamo Bay,
Cuba, escalated into violence on Saturday during a raid in which guards
forced prisoners living in communal housing to move to individual
cells.
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“Some detainees resisted with improvised weapons, and in response, four
less-than-lethal rounds were fired,” the military said in a statement.
“There were no serious injuries to guards or detainees.”
A military spokesman at the base did not immediately respond to a
request for greater detail, including whether there were minor injuries,
what kinds of improvised weapons were wielded by the prisoners, how the
prisoners had resisted and why the decision was made to take this
action now.
A hunger strike by some detainees has escalated tensions for weeks. As
of last week, the military said 43 of the 166 detainees at the prison
were deemed to be participating in the hunger strike; lawyers for the
prisoners contend that the number is significantly higher.
The military has not allowed reporters to visit the prison facility for several weeks.
A military news release said the commander of the prison task force,
Rear Adm. John W. Smith Jr., ordered the raid at 5:10 a.m. on Saturday
“to ensure the health and safety” of detainees because prisoners in the
communal areas, where guards rarely enter, had covered surveillance
cameras, glass partitions and windows, restricting the ability of the
guard force to observe them.
It added that “medical personnel conducted individual assessments of
each detainee. The ongoing hunger strike necessitated these medical
assessments.”
However, a government official briefed on the action said that the
operation had begun significantly earlier in the morning than the news
release said, and that it had taken longer for guards to regain control
of the camp than planned. The official also said the prisoners had
started covering the cameras and windows several months ago.
Detainee lawyers and military officials also disagree about the catalyst
for the hunger strike. The lawyers say their clients told them that the
guard force had recently started becoming stricter about living
conditions and had conducted a search for contraband in early February
that involved looking through prisoners’ Korans, which they considered
to be desecration.
The military acknowledged that it conducted that search but said it did
so under longstanding procedures, whereby a translator — who is Muslim —
handles the Islamic book, not the guards. Military spokesmen have
accused the detainees of manufacturing claims of Koran abuse and
orchestrating the hunger strike to win attention from the news media.
Carlos Warner, a federal public defender in Ohio who represents several
Guantánamo detainees, criticized the action on Saturday.
“This is exactly the opposite of what they should be doing,” he said.
“As of last week, the strike would end if they allowed the men to
surrender the Koran. Instead, the military is escalating the conflict.”
Several weeks ago, Capt. Robert Durand, a prison spokesman, said in an
interview that the military would not accept the detainees’ offer to
take away their Korans instead of periodically searching them.
“The hunger strikers have created an unfortunate situation with no clear
path to resolution,” Captain Durand said at the time.
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