A Kuwaiti man being held at Guantanamo Bay has told
the BBC in a rare interview that the force-feeding of
hunger strikers amounts to torture.
Fawzi al-Odah said hunger strikers were strapped to a
chair and force-fed through a tube three times a day.
A senior US official denied the use of torture in
Guantanamo Bay.
Mr Odah's comments, relayed by his lawyer in answer
to BBC questions, came as another inmate launched a
legal challenge to the force-feeding policy.
The case is being brought on behalf of Mohammed
Bawazir, a Yemeni who has also been held there since
2002.
The action is the first test for a new law explicitly
outlawing torture of terrorism suspects, which President
George W Bush signed in December.
New testimony
The BBC Today programme's Jon Manel submitted
questions for Mr Odah to his lawyer, Tom Wilner, who has
access to the camp.
There was no opportunity for the BBC to challenge Mr
Odah's responses.
Mr Odah, who has been held at the base since 2002,
was one of 84 inmates at Guantanamo who went on hunger
strike in December. Just four are still refusing food.
 |
US TORTURE BAN
Bans cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
of terror suspects
Limits interrogation techniques to US Army
standards
CIA interrogators have same legal rights as
military
Proposed by US Republican Senator John
McCain
Initially opposed by White House
|
Speaking to the BBC, US state department official
Colleen Graffey said all detainees were afforded regular
status reviews and offered the opportunity to renounce
violence.
Through his lawyer, Mr Odah described his treatment
during his hunger strike.
"First they took my comfort items away from me.
You know, my blanket, my towel, my long pants, then my
shoes. I was put in isolation for 10 days.
"They came in and read out an order. It said if
you refuse to eat, we will put you on the chair [for
force feeding]."
He told how detainees were given "formulas"
to force them to empty their bowels and were strapped to
a metal chair three times a day, where a tube was
inserted to administer food.
"One guy, a Saudi, told me that he had once been
tortured in Saudi Arabia and that this metal chair
treatment was worse than any torture he had ever endured
or could imagine," Mr Odah said.
Strain
Mr Odah told the BBC that he felt like an old man
despite being only 29.
He described a regime where young military guards
routinely beat detainees who caused problems.
"If anything bad happens to the United States
anywhere in the world, they immediately react to us and
treat us badly, like animals," he said.
"I'm always tired. I have pain in my kidneys. I
have trouble breathing. I have pain in my heart and am
short of breath. I have trouble urinating and having
bowel movements.
"Death in this situation is better than being
alive and staying here without hope," Mr Odah
added.
The US has said it is holding Mr Odah because he is a
dangerous "enemy combatant", who travelled
through Afghanistan with the Taleban, fired AK-47 rifles
while at an al-Qaeda training camp and fought against US
and coalition forces.
He dismissed the general allegations, branding them
as "rubbish" and "absolutely
untrue".
However, he refused to elaborate, insisting he would
only discuss the accusations against at a court hearing.
New rules
In Washington, lawyers for Mohammed Bawazir, who has
now ended his hunger strike, said the force-feeding
inflicted "unbearable pain" on detainees.
The BBC's Justin Webb, in Washington, says the legal
challenge may be a shot in the dark.
Under the terms of the new law it is not even clear
whether courts have the right to hear this case, he
adds.
The lawyers are arguing that the new anti-torture
rules which Mr Bush signed in December outlaw this
practice.
The UN Human Rights Commission said recently that it
regarded force-feeding at Guantanamo as a form of
torture, a charge the US firmly has repeatedly denied.
Hear
the interview
Death in this situation is better than
being alive and staying here without hope
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