Kebriaei writes: "It's been four years since the Obama administration
promised to review indefinite detentions. For my client there, it's been one
long nightmare."
Zaher Hamdoun has been detained in Guantanamo for nearly 14 years. (photo:
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty)
'I Have Become a Body Without a Soul': 13 Years Detained in Guantánamo
By Padriss Kebriaei, Guardian UK
29 August 15
Its been four years since the Obama administration promised to review
indefinite detentions. For my client there, its been one long nightmare
I feel like there is a heavy weight on my chest its as if Im breathing
through a needle hole. And then I ask myself, If I write or say something,
is anybody going to listen to me? Is it really going to make any
difference?
Zaher Hamdoun is a 36-year-old Yemeni man who has been detained in
Guantánamo without charge since he was 22, one of 116 prisoners still
detained there six years after Obama promised to close the facility. After I
visited him earlier this summer, he followed up with a letter filled with
questions.
Will there be a day when I will live like others live? Like a person who has
freedom, dignity, a home, a family, a job, a wife and children?
Hamdoun is not among the 52 men approved for transfer from Guantánamo, nor
is he in a dwindling group of detainees the government plans to charge. He
is in a nebulous middle category of people the Obama administration has
determined it is not going to charge but doesnt know if it is ever going to
release. Though the president in 2011 ordered periodic administrative
reviews of men in this group to ensure that any continuing detentions were
carefully justified, the reviews didnt start until a mass hunger strike
broke out in 2013 and forced Guantánamo back onto the administrations
agenda. Still today, the majority of men havent been reviewed, including
Hamdoun.
Though he has been a Guantánamo prisoner for almost 14 years without charge,
and doesnt know if he will ever be released, the administration says this
is not indefinite detention. When I met with him, he asked me questions I
couldnt answer.
Will Obamas conscience weigh on him when he remembers that tens of human
beings who have fathers, mothers, wives and children have been waiting here
for over 13 years, and some of them died before even seeing their loved ones
again? Will his conscience weigh on him and make him finally put an end to
this matter? Or are we going to remain the victims of political conflicts,
which we have nothing to do with?
We discussed the reasons for the fits and starts of progress on Guantánamo
the political fear-mongering, judicial abdication, administration
dysfunction, the public exhaustion.
Many people have written, demonstrated, spoken out, filed lawsuits in
courts, held sit-ins and repeatedly gone on hunger strikes for long periods
of time. Hopelessness has, without a rival, become the master of the
situation. Mystery surrounds us from every direction, and hope has become
something that we only read about in novels and stories.
At the rate prisoners reviews are going, the administration will not finish
by the time Obama leaves office. Of those reviewed, most have been approved
for transfer, but they continue to languish. Theyve been added to the
administrations long list of people waiting for release, most for years.
The reviews are far from a panacea. They dont reach the underlying harm of
the administrations sanction of perpetual detention without charge. They
can only limit the incidence, and in even this they are so far failing.
I have become a body without a soul. I breathe, eat and drink, but I dont
belong to the world of living creatures. I rather belong to another world, a
world that is buried in a grave called Guantánamo. I fall asleep and then
wake up to realize that my soul and my thoughts belong to that world I watch
on television, or read about in books. That is all I can say about the
ordeal Ive been enduring.
Ill see Hamdoun again soon. He is still waiting to be heard.
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Zaher Hamdoun has been detained in Guantanamo for nearly 14 years. (photo:
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/28/14-years-detained-guant
anamo?CMP=share_btn_twhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/28/1
4-years-detained-guantanamo?CMP=share_btn_tw
'I Have Become a Body Without a Soul': 13 Years Detained in Guantánamo
By Padriss Kebriaei, Guardian UK
29 August 15
Its been four years since the Obama administration promised to review
indefinite detentions. For my client there, its been one long nightmare
feel like there is a heavy weight on my chest its as if Im breathing
through a needle hole. And then I ask myself, If I write or say something,
is anybody going to listen to me? Is it really going to make any
difference?
Zaher Hamdoun is a 36-year-old Yemeni man who has been detained in
Guantánamo without charge since he was 22, one of 116 prisoners still
detained there six years after Obama promised to close the facility. After I
visited him earlier this summer, he followed up with a letter filled with
questions.
Will there be a day when I will live like others live? Like a person who has
freedom, dignity, a home, a family, a job, a wife and children?
Hamdoun is not among the 52 men approved for transfer from Guantánamo, nor
is he in a dwindling group of detainees the government plans to charge. He
is in a nebulous middle category of people the Obama administration has
determined it is not going to charge but doesnt know if it is ever going to
release. Though the president in 2011 ordered periodic administrative
reviews of men in this group to ensure that any continuing detentions were
carefully justified, the reviews didnt start until a mass hunger strike
broke out in 2013 and forced Guantánamo back onto the administrations
agenda. Still today, the majority of men havent been reviewed, including
Hamdoun.
Though he has been a Guantánamo prisoner for almost 14 years without charge,
and doesnt know if he will ever be released, the administration says this
is not indefinite detention. When I met with him, he asked me questions I
couldnt answer.
Will Obamas conscience weigh on him when he remembers that tens of human
beings who have fathers, mothers, wives and children have been waiting here
for over 13 years, and some of them died before even seeing their loved ones
again? Will his conscience weigh on him and make him finally put an end to
this matter? Or are we going to remain the victims of political conflicts,
which we have nothing to do with?
We discussed the reasons for the fits and starts of progress on Guantánamo
the political fear-mongering, judicial abdication, administration
dysfunction, the public exhaustion.
Many people have written, demonstrated, spoken out, filed lawsuits in
courts, held sit-ins and repeatedly gone on hunger strikes for long periods
of time. Hopelessness has, without a rival, become the master of the
situation. Mystery surrounds us from every direction, and hope has become
something that we only read about in novels and stories.
At the rate prisoners reviews are going, the administration will not finish
by the time Obama leaves office. Of those reviewed, most have been approved
for transfer, but they continue to languish. Theyve been added to the
administrations long list of people waiting for release, most for years.
The reviews are far from a panacea. They dont reach the underlying harm of
the administrations sanction of perpetual detention without charge. They
can only limit the incidence, and in even this they are so far failing.
I have become a body without a soul. I breathe, eat and drink, but I dont
belong to the world of living creatures. I rather belong to another world, a
world that is buried in a grave called Guantánamo. I fall asleep and then
wake up to realize that my soul and my thoughts belong to that world I watch
on television, or read about in books. That is all I can say about the
ordeal Ive been enduring.
Ill see Hamdoun again soon. He is still waiting to be heard.
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