Guantanamo Bay: September 2008 Archives

by Andy Worthington

09/19/08

Photo: Amnesty International Canada

Today, Omar Khadr, the sole Canadian citizen in Guantánamo, marks his 22nd birthday in isolation. Seized in Afghanistan when he was just 15 years old, Omar has now spent nearly a third of his life in US custody, in conditions that ought to be shameful to the US administration responsible for holding him, and to the Canadian government that has abdicated its responsibilities towards him.

...what happened to me was very hard and my
personal situation is difficult. But when I think of those who are
still in Guantánamo, and their families that they miss very much and
who have no news at all of them, I tell myself that my situation, as
difficult as it is, is better than theirs. I cannot forget that in
Guantánamo I have left behind brothers who have been crushed, who
have gone mad. I am thinking in particular of a Yemeni doctor who
now lives naked in his cell because he has lost his mind.  

Today torture survivor and journalist Sami El Haj is driven by the idea of bringing to the world's attention these tens of thousands of prisoners who are still suffering inhuman treatment in the prisons of Guantánamo, Bagram and Kandahar. He replies tirelessly and with good humour to all the journalists who interview him, hoping that his words will allow those who no longer have a voice to be heard.

http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=25632