Guantanamo Bay: Two hours of sunlight

Sabin Willett, a lawyer at Bingham McCutchen LLP in Boston described the life of his client Huzaifa Parhat and other Uighurs that are currently detained at Guantanamo Bay during the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight. According to Willett, Huzaifa and other Uighurs are kept in solitary confinement; their only access to daylight is through a four meters square chimney during a two hour period of the day, and only if these two hours occur during sunlight. This detention remains despite the fact that Huzaifa and other Uighurs have been cleared of all original charges. Willett said that psychologists recommend that a person not be totally isolated for more than a day and reminded the committee that Uighurs have been confined in isolation for years.

The testimony of Murat Kurnaz, a Turkish citizen raised in Germany, is the first former Guantanamo Bay prisoner to testify before the United States Congress. Met with surprise and shock by members of the committee, Kurnaz recalled his story of being arrested in Pakistan while on a trip with a friend to learn Arabic with a British based Islamic foundation. Kurnaz was placed in military prisons in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. While detained, Kurnaz stated that he was punched in the stomach while his head was submerged in a bucket of water, forcing him to inhale water. He also said that he was hung repeatedly from the ceiling by his hands. Kurnaz said military interrogators told him he was being detained due to his involvement in his friend’s suicide bombing. Kurnaz reiterated that he had never been involved with radical Islam. In addition, his friend did not die in a suicide bombing and currently lives in Germany. According to Kurnaz’s lawyers, this man has never been charged with a crime. Kurnaz said he was only released upon signing a document stating that he had been involved with radical Islamists.

Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) stated that the Bush administration was able to avoid due process by labeling individuals as enemy combatants and suggested an critical review of the term. Chairman William Delahunt (D-Mass.) reminded the committee that the White House has yet to acknowledge mistakes made at Guantanamo Bay. Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) offered an apology to Kurnaz on behalf of the United States government while Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) stressed the need to correctly identify human rights violations and emphasized the need to combat radical Islam.