85 Yemeni detainees waiting to return home

 

Written By: Fares Anam

Yemen Observer, Yemen

20/05/08

There are 85 Yemeni detainees in America’s notorious Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba who are still waiting to return home, despite the U.S. administration’s decision to release them one year ago, according to Sami al-Hajj, a Sudanese al-Jazeera cameraman and former Guantanamo detainee during a call with Khalid al-Ansi, the executive manager of the National Organization to Defend Human Rights and Freedoms (HOOD).Al-Hajj said that 15 Yemeni detainees were supposed to arrive in Sana’a Airport in March last year, noting that some Yemeni detainees had been rendered insane because the prison guards forced them to induce hallucinogenic drugs. “The atrocious detention conditions also make them go crazy,” he added.

He pointed out that a Yemeni security delegation visited the Yemeni detainees asking them to stop their hunger-strike. Al-Hajj expressed his thanks and gratitude to HOOD organization for their efforts in supporting all prisoners in Guantanamo. He promised to write a story about Yemeni detainees and visit HOOD’s headquarters in Sana’a.

This statement comes after several attempts by global and local organizations, including the HOOD to recover the Yemenis – who constitute nearly half of the detainees – and to force the Yemeni government to provide written guarantees that they would not be tortured.

“Several international and national attempts were made to repatriate the Yemeni detainees but so far the problem still exists. The US government said that it would return many Yemenis if the Yemeni government gave the US government official assurances that guaranteed that the returned detainees won’t be tortured and also they will join a rehabilitation programs,” the statement read.

The American government held the detainees under the pretext of having no official written assurance which is not necessary as alleged by the American lawyers, who stand for the Yemeni detainees, said the statement. Yet, the Yemeni government said that they have presented all the official written documents that the US state asked.

“The conflicted official responses from both Yemen and US made the lawyers uncomfortable. One of the lawyers, David Remes, said that he believed that there is something going on that the lawyers has no idea about it between the two sides,” according to the statement. Sami al-Hajj, a 39 year old Sudanese man had been working on al-Jazeera Channel as a cameraman when he was arrested on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan on December 15, 2001. He had a legitimate visa, yet was held as an “enemy combatant”
 
at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, with Guantanamo Internee Security Number 345, and was the only journalist to be held in Guantanamo. Since going on a hunger strike on January 7, 2007 he lost over 55 pounds and is in a questionable state of health. He was set free on Thursday, May 1 2008.