The Guantanamo Bay prison camp for "war on terror" suspects faced renewed scrutiny and criticism yesterday after three inmates hanged themselves.
The triple suicide on Saturday represents a new challenge for US President George W. Bush's administration, which is under increasing pressure to close the camp from critics that include the UN, international human rights organizations, European governments and Britain's top legal adviser.
The deaths were the first successful suicide bids after repeated attempts by inmates in the camp, located on a US naval base on the southeastern tip of Cuba.
Rear Admiral Harry Harris, the camp's commander, described the suicides as an act of warfare.
"They are smart, they are creative, they are committed," he said of the prisoners. "They have no regard to life, neither ours nor their own. And I believe this was not an act of desperation, rather an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us."
The first victim was found early on Saturday by an "alert" prison guard who had noticed "something out of the ordinary" in the cell, Harris said in a telephone press conference.
"When it was apparent that the detainee had hung himself, the guard force and medical teams reacted quickly to attempt to save the detainee's life," Harris said.
Two other inmates were also found hanging in their cells after guards checked on other prisoners, he said. They had used clothes and sheets to hang themselves, he said
Medical teams tried to save all three -- a Yemeni and two Saudis -- but they were pronounced dead "after all life-saving measures were exhausted," he said.
There have been 41 suicide attempts by about 25 detainees but in the previous cases, US medical personnel were able to save them, according to the Washington Post.
Lawyers with the Center for Constitutional Rights, an advocacy group based in New York which represents some 200 inmates and helps private attorneys representing other inmates, were saddened but not surprised about the suicides.
"These deaths reflect the desperation for a basic human need -- a need for justice, a need to have someone hear what they have to say," said the Center's legal director, William Goodman.
Katherine Newell Bierman, a counterterrorism counsel for Human Rights Watch, said the suicide attempts would likely continue if the US did not move to give the detainees a fair trial.
Saudi authorities yesterday released the names of its two dead nationals, and said it had set in motion procedures to repatriate the bodies. The official SPA news agency identified the dead as Maniy bin Shaman al-Otaibi and Yasser Talal al-Zahrani.
Saudis make up almost 25 percent of the estimated 400 security suspects held in Guantanamo.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique