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Detainees 'were not depressed'
28/06/2006 11:07 - (SA)
Cuba - Three Guantanamo Bay detainees who hung themselves in their cells received psychological exams only days prior to their suicides and showed no signs of being depressed, a military doctor said on Tuesday.
The doctor suggested the exams, performed one to two weeks prior to the June 10 suicides, supported assertions by military officials that the prisoners killed themselves as a political act - not because they were despondent about their prolonged detention.
"None had showed any signs of being depressed or having a mental condition," said the doctor, who is the medical officer in charge of the remote US prison on Cuba's south-eastern tip. He spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.
The three detainees - two Saudis and a Yemeni - were given psychological exams as a formality because they had recently participated in a hunger strike, including one who refused meals for 180 days. The military said they were found hanging in their cells from nooses fashioned from bed sheets.
'Asymmetrical warfare'
After the suicides, Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the US detention operation, called the deaths an act of "asymmetrical warfare" against the US military.
"If you ask my opinion, I agree with the admiral that this was somewhat of a political statement," the doctor told reporters visiting the US Naval base.
The doctor said medical personnel examined the detainees some 10 minutes after they were found and "did everything we could" to revive them, including using defibrillators.
He suggested that American guards might have noticed the detainees sooner had the prison not been following International Red Cross recommendations on the level of comfort detainees should receive, including how the dark their cells should be at night.
"If we did everything the Red Cross wanted, there would be very little that we could do to keep detainees alive short of putting them in a straight jacket," he said.
"Every time we give them something to make their lives easier, they use it against us by trying to harm themselves."
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