At Gitmo: From torture to rehabilitation?

It seems authorities are trying to facilitate and rehabilitate detainees in this controversial detainment facility.

GUANTANAMO BAY:

Authorities, it seems, are trying to facilitate and rehabilitate detainees in this controversial detainment and interrogation facility.

When journalists were given a carefully-orchestrated tour of certain selected areas of the infamous Guantanamo Bay, things appeared to be much different from the reputation that precedes this detention facility, which is home to 171 detainees.

In a cell block at Camp VI – dubbed communal style living – three detainees at Guantanamo Bay seemed engrossed in their Pashto-English lessons.

In another section of the same camp, media personnel are escorted by the Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) to see the new ‘Super Recreational Field’ — a 28,000 square foot outdoor field, being built at a cost of $744,000, to provide detainees with a purpose-built outdoor facility where they will play soccer, the most popular sport amongst the detainees.

Work on the field is expected to be completed in the next few months, and it will have electronic doors so that detainees do not have to be escorted there by guards.

Briefing the media, a JTF official who did not wish to be named said that the new recreational field will be connected to the cell blocks and will also have a shaded area, latrines and a water fountain. Detainees will also have access to the existing two recreational areas, where authorities recently installed exercise machines on the request of the detainees.

The tour is pre-planned and a carefully-orchestrated one — in Camp VI, one can look through the one-way glass and catch a glimpse of the detainees as they go about their daily life, which includes, as the media is told, language and art lessons.

Nearly 85% of the detainees live at Camp VI and are allowed to spend time together in groups, it is revealed. They have access to 20 hours of recreational time outside in the open without a roof, but the areas is surrounded by barbed wire, covered by cloth on all four sides and is under surveillance by CCTV cameras and guards on watch towers.

A recent report in The New York Times said that some detainees in Camp VII – which houses the high-value detainees and is off-limits to the media – had complained about a lack of newspapers and said that their food was not halal-compliant. A commander at Camp VI replied that the food served at the base was halal-compliant and was cooked in Middle Eastern style. They also give detainees candy bars and ice-cream every Friday.

However, Guantanamo Public Affairs Director Commander Tamsen Reese told The Express Tribune that 12 detainees were currently on a hunger strike.

While there were no reports of detainees protesting or going on strike, authorities confirmed that in January, detainees at Camp VI held a protest to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the facility and refused to come inside from the recreational field, many holding posters.

The tour then ventures into Camp V, a 100-bed facility that was opened in May 2004, where there is a model cell – one that displays books and clothing that are provided to the detainees living there. This camp houses those detainees that have broken the rules and are serving detention time.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2012.