Guantanamo suicides trigger more condemnation

Three Guantanamo Bay detainees hanged themselves yesterday using nooses made of sheets and clothes, the commander of the detention centre said, in the first reported deaths among hundreds of men held at the base.

The apparent suicides, by two Saudis and one Yemeni, triggered further condemnation yesterday of the isolated detention centre at the US military base in south-east Cuba, which holds some 460 men on suspicion of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban. Detainees have been held for up to 4 1/2 years, while only 10 have been formally charged.

“These apparent suicides … are the tragic results of years of arbitrary and indefinite detention,” Amnesty International said in a statement from Washington

All three detainees had engaged in a hunger strike to protest their indefinite incarceration and had been force-fed before quitting their protest, base commander Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris said in a conference call from Guantanamo Bay.

The men, whose names were not released, had been held there for about four years, he said.

One of the detainees was a mid- or high-level al Qaida operative, while another had been captured in Afghanistan and participated in a riot at a prison there, Harris said. The third belonged to a splinter group, he added.

Neither the public nor the detainees have been allowed to see or hear classified evidence of allegations against them.

The three men were found dead shortly after midnight yesterday in separate cells. Military commanders said they believed the suicides had been co-ordinated for maximum effect.

US President George Bush expressed ”serious concern” over the suicides and directed an aggressive effort by his administration to reach out diplomatically while it investigates.

“He wants to make sure that this thing is done right from all points of view,” White House press secretary Tony Snow said last night.

Within hours, the Bush administration had contacted the United Nations, the European Union, most European nations individually, the embassies of Mideast and near-Mideast countries, the International Committee of the Red Cross, bipartisan members of the congressional leadership and the ranking Republican and Democratic members of the House and Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees, Snow said.

“There’s been an aggressive effort not only on the part of the Pentagon to begin investigating and follow proper procedures and also the White House,” Snow said. “It’s kind of common sense. Guantanamo is obviously an issue of some concern.”

Snow said there was “no direct indication” that the suicides were connected to the killing this week of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a US air strike in Iraq.

He also said that “to the best of anybody’s knowledge” all proper procedures were followed to prevent the suicides at a facility where a few dozen had been previously attempted. But Snow said the investigation would continue until those sorts of questions were fully answered.

“These things do happen and it’s an awful thing,” he said. “People are going to take a very careful look at the situation there.”