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US Sends Home Bodies of Three Guantanamo Detainees
Will Dunham
Reuters
June 16, 2006
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has sent to their home nations the bodies of two Saudis and a Yemeni it says committed suicide at the Guantanamo Bay prison for foreign terrorism suspects, the Pentagon said on Friday.
The United States said the men hanged themselves with clothes and bed sheets in maximum security cells on June 10, making them the first prisoners to die at the camp since it opened in 2002 at the U.S. naval base on Cuba.
"The remains of the deceased detainees have been treated with the utmost respect. A cultural advisor has assisted Joint Task Force Guantanamo to ensure that the remains are handled in a culturally and religiously appropriate manner," the Pentagon said in a statement.
The U.S. military has identified the three men as Ali Abdullah Ahmed of Yemen, and Saudis Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi al-Utaybi and Yassar Talal al-Zahrani.
The deaths renewed long-standing criticism of the prison, which many human rights groups and some governments say should be closed.
On Friday, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema urged the United States to move quickly toward closing the prison.
At a joint news conference in Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States did not want to be "the world's jailer."
But she said, as Washington seeks to reduce the number of Guantanamo inmates, it would be helpful if governments agreed to allow more prisoners be transferred home.
The Pentagon said U.S. personnel "worked diligently to preserve the dignity of the remains and to ensure application of the rituals of the Islamic faith."
It said Lt. Mohammed Saifulislam, a U.S. Navy officer who is a Muslim imam, "supervised all aspects of preparing the remains for transport."
NO RECENT DISTURBANCES
U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, said, Saifulislam supervised washing and shrouding of the bodies and a prayer service in preparation for flying them home on a commercially contracted plane.
The men's families have questioned the circumstances of their deaths, saying the devout Muslims would not have committed suicide.
The United States currently holds about 460 detainees at the Guantanamo prison, most held without charges for more than four years. Ten have been charged with crimes, but not one trial has been completed.
The United States says the prison is needed to prevent dangerous al Qaeda and Taliban figures from returning to the battlefield and to extract information that may help prevent future attacks.
Gordon said there had not been any disturbances involving detainees at Guantanamo since the suicides.
Pathologists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's office conducted autopsies on the bodies of the three detainees but were still awaiting test results before announcing an official cause of death.
The military has also said it launched an investigation into whether U.S. personnel allowed a journalist at Guantanamo to hear classified or sensitive information.
Charlotte Observer reporter Michael Gordon was permitted to report on a staff meeting held two days after the suicides.
He reported that the detention center commander, Army Col. Mike Bumgarner, ordered staff to assess and tighten policies on clothing, meals, recreation time, lighting and discipline and ordered more frequent patrols in the cellblocks.
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