28/06/2006
By Jane Sutton
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, June 27 (Reuters) - Guantanamo detainees were found with pills stuffed into the waistbands of their pants and in one case, inside a prosthetic leg, weeks before three prisoners hanged themselves, a doctor at the camp hospital said on Tuesday. U.S. military officials have implemented new measures aimed at preventing suicides since the prisoners killed themselves, an event that intensified pressure on Washington to close the controversial prison at a remote U.S. naval base in Cuba. The prisoners received new uniforms and new bed mattresses, and they are being watched more closely while taking medication. Two Saudis and a Yemeni hanged themselves with clothes and bedsheets in their cells on June 10. They were the first prisoners to die at Guantanamo since the United States began sending al Qaeda and Taliban suspects to the base in 2002. The doctor in charge of the detention hospital said military officials searched cells after two prisoners overdosed on prescription drugs in May and found stashes of pills. Pointing to a box of prosthetic limbs, the doctor, whose name cannot be used for security reasons, said, "One was found hoarding medication in one; I think it was a leg prosthesis." He said the prisoner had about 15 prescription pain pills, which "probably couldn't have killed him" but would have knocked him out, and several others had one or two pills hidden in the waistbands of their pants. Guantanamo houses about 450 suspected al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners. Only 10 have been charged before U.S. military war crimes tribunals. Amnesty International and other rights groups have called for the closure of the camp, which has helped undermined international support for the U.S. war on terrorism launched after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. PUNCTURE-PROOF MATRESSES The doctor said about 10 percent to 20 percent of the detainees receive medicine such as blood pressure medication, sleeping pills, pain killers and anti-anxiety pills. Under procedures implemented after the overdoses, a guard now accompanies a corpsman who distributes pills on the cellblocks and watches as each prisoner puts the pill on his tongue, swallows it with water and then opens his mouth and his hands to show he has not hidden it somewhere. "I think it's as good as it can be without putting it down the throat myself," the doctor said. The two who overdosed had swallowed a combination of medicine apparently obtained from other prisoners because none had been prescribed for them. Camp officials have made other changes since the suicides. The detainees got new uniforms that do not have hems where contraband could be stored, the doctor said. A truck load of new blue mattresses arrived on Tuesday, made of puncture-proof material that cannot be torn into shreds for making nooses. The doctor said the three who hanged themselves had undergone psychiatric exams about a week before their deaths and showed no signs of despair or suicidal plans, even though at least one had been on an extensive hunger strike. He quoted one as saying "I'm sleeping well, I feel well." The doctor said camp officials are trying to make the camp suicide-proof but that "I would say that's impossible, short of putting these guys in straitjackets."
SOURCE: Reuters via Alertnet.org |
