Agony in Guantanamo’s Darkest Cell
Agony in Guantanamo’s Darkest Cell Sami Al-Haj | Director of Al Jazeera Center for Public Liberties & Human Rights
It is difficult, if not impossible, to keep track of the date in the dark solitary confinement cell of Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp. But I did my level best. It was when the facility’s 6th camp was inaugurated that I decided to go on a hunger strike. It coincided with the first week of January 2007, as I recall it. I began by minimising the amount of food I eat every meal. Then I reduced the number of meals I ate by taking one and refusing others. Having refused three meals for three consecutive days, the detention centre wardens cleared the cells to both my right and left. On the following day, the superintendent came to the cell with a physician. “We will examine your blood pressure on a daily basis,” they said. My BP was checked three times a day, and when found low, they forced me to drink two bottles of water. I suffered constipation and then haemorrhoid bleeding. As I held on for one complete month, the prison authorities realised I was serious, so I was transferred to a hospital. There, I was put on
intravenous feeding. I resisted with whatever power I had left in my body. A nursing crew would grab me forcefully and put the needle painfully into my veins. All I knew throughout the period of my detention was pain, ill-treatment, insult, and torture. It made me more resolved to continue with my hunger strike. They waged psychological warfare in order to force feed me. As I was starving to death, the medical crew gathered around my bed, tied both my arms and legs with handcuffs, and forcefully shoved a nasogastric tube into my nose. I fainted. Once they started pouring liquids into my stomach, I felt a fire blazing deep within. The liquid sieved through to my lung and I suffocated. I could not breathe for a while and my whole body was sweating. I was on the verge of death. It was the sudden vomiting that saved the situation. I stayed in hospital for days reeling under the harsh treatment and pain. Minutes seemed to last forever. I could not make out day from night.
But I had a feeling of inner strength unlike anything I had experienced before; it was something divine. It made me more resolved. As I continued the hunger strike, they continued to terrify me. I was tied up to an execution chair. More than 12 straps were tightened around me. The tube was pushed through my nose. Inflammation spread all over my body - from my throat to my limbs.
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