[Ugnet] THREE COMITE SUICIDE IN GUANTANAMO
Guantanamo's First Suicides Pressure US By Julian E. Barnes and Carol J. Williams The Los Angeles Times Sunday 11 June 2006 Three prisoners, all held without charges, are found hanging in their cells. Human rights advocates urge an immediate shutdown. Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - Three Middle Eastern detainees being held without charges at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay hanged themselves, military officials said Saturday, becoming the first captives to take their own lives at the prison and prompting new calls for an immediate shutdown. The Defense Department said Saturday that the men - two from Saudi Arabia and one from Yemen - were found in their cells and had left suicide notes. By taking their own lives, the prisoners confounded strenuous measures by military officials to prevent suicides. And the deaths come as the Bush administration battles growing international criticism of its detention procedures and faces a potentially fateful Supreme Court decision this month. The military did not name the prisoners and released few details about the men, but said at least two were believed to have been members of international terrorist organizations and the third part of a Taliban uprising. All three had been on hunger strikes and all had been force-fed, a process that frequently involves the use of nasal tubes and restraints. "These are men who had gone on a hunger strike together," said Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the prison network. "The methods of hanging themselves were similar. I believe this was a coordinated attempt." He called the three "committed jihadists" who died in acts of "asymmetrical warfare" - the term commonly used by U.S. military officials to describe tactics used by insurgents who face a militarily superior U.S. force in combat. Army Gen. John Craddock, leader of U.S. Southern Command, said the men were not among detainees seeking U.S. court reviews of their cases and had not appeared before military trial panels. Although the three were not accused of any crimes, Craddock insisted they were enemy combatants and terrorists. "This is a determined, intelligent and committed element," he said. "They will continue to do everything they can ... to become martyrs in the jihad." But as many detainees pass their four-year mark in captivity without formal charges, human rights activists and defense attorneys said the prisoners have grown despondent over being detained without charges and without imminent prospects of a court hearing. "People have been indefinitely detained for five years without any prospect of ever going home, or ever seeing their families, or ever being charged, or having any resolution," said Jumana Musa, an advocacy director for Amnesty International in Washington. "There is no question serious psychological trauma comes from that." Previously, military officials said there had been 41 suicide attempts at Guantanamo this year, including three last month by detainees who tried to take their lives by overdosing on hoarded medication. The Pentagon noted that a single detainee was responsible for at least a dozen of the suicide attempts. But there have been many other attempts by Guantanamo detainees to hang or otherwise harm themselves since prisoners were sent there beginning in 2002 - 23 attempted a mass hanging in 2003. Last year, as many as 131 prisoners engaged in hunger strikes, and a similar protest this year involved 89 detainees, prison officials said. There are currently eight detainees on a hunger strike, Harris said. Only 10 of the approximately 460 men in custody at Guantanamo have been charged with crimes for their alleged involvement in terrorist activity. Meanwhile, recurring allegations of interrogation abuses and the trial system have spurred global condemnation. The United Nations Committee Against Torture called on the Bush administration last month to shut down the prison, and the European Parliament this year urged that the prison be closed and detainees be given trials without delay. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for shutting down the prison, and top officials in Britain, Germany and elsewhere have expressed concern to U.S. counterparts and called for drastic changes. Katherine Newell Bierman, a counterterrorism counsel for Human Rights Watch, said the suicide attempts are likely to continue if the U.S. does not move to give the detainees a fair trial. "It is only going to get worse," she said. "They need to close it, and they need to close it responsibly. You need to prosecute the people who may have committed crimes, and the rest of them need to be sent home and need an apology." President Bush, spending the day at Camp David, was told of the suicides at 7:45 a.m. by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Later, he was briefed about the incident by Stephen Hadley, his national security advisor, and Joshua Bolton, his chief of
[Ugnet] Electric power and Museveni's Cabinet
Re: Electric power and Museveni's Cabinet Comrade Tacca, I have always treasured your weekly 'Monitor'column. Thisweek's howeverleft me baffled !! To hope that Hilary Onek, individually, can solve Uganda'selectric power problems seems so unrealistic. Is notwhat is neededa generation of more electrical energy ? What special attributes does Onek have that, by waving a magic wandlike God, command that 'Let there be more electrical energy' ? Unrealistic hopes only sets us and himup for a big fall !! I have to ask you why Professor Banda, who spent only a few months in the electricity sector quit. Now if you want to know Africa's 'rocket scientists', you will find Dr Banda up there holding the flag. His high regard extends far and wide,notonly in Uganda/East Africabut also here in North America and in China. You remember former Education Minister, Prof Abel Rwendeire, who too jumped out of Museveni's moribund outfit ? When you see our very best run I suspect they are overwhelmed bythe regime's stinking rot, thieving and criminality. They have treasured reputations to protect. May be Hilary Onek is in this class too, but unlike, say,Dr Banda, his namehasnot been heardso reverently referred to here. In Moscow where he went to school there may be thisinternational reverence.But does he claim to have a ready solution to our energy problem ? At any rate you could use your respected column to helpopen a debate for us on a real longtime solution to our energy needs, including the nuclear option as President Mbeki advised Ugandans. South Africa has invented a new 'poor man's nuclear reactor', the pebble bed technology. Why not ask President Mbeki more about the advice he gave our country when he last visited ?. I pleasantly came to understand that Japan, theEU, and the USA are busy forging ahead with an initial $20 billion investment in the fusion research project. They expect breakthroughs in about 20 to 40 years. I am also very sadthat my political leaders here in Canada, fearing the cost,chickened out of participation. When this thermo-nuclear technology is eventually rolled out Africa's geo-physical features show that Zimbabwe is sitting on the raw material, lithium, so stupendous that Saudi Arabia and all the world's petroleum areas will seem like a non story. It is imperative that we, at the least, start this debate now. God endowed our continent like no other.Except we her children have yet to, first, break the shackles of slavery and bondage. Thank you. Mitayo Potosi === OPINIONS COMMENTARIES ON THE MARK | Alan Tacca ... Electric power and Museveni's Cabinet June 11 - 17, 2006 Last week, I wrote and filed before President Museveni published the list of his ministerial allocations. When the list appeared in the Friday morning papers, I called the Sunday Monitor and assured the editors that I found no need to make changes to the article. Although I freely chose to write from the widely held assumption that Eng. Hillary Onek and Eng. Simon D'Ujanga would be posted to Energy to sort out the crippling power crisis, I observed that the President's final decisions in such matters could be truly confounding. Indeed, Mr Museveni sometimes appears to get a kind of mischievous pleasure from just defying what "most people" expect. So I cautioned that we should not be entirely surprised if Onek got something like the Gender ministry. The President has been true to form; Onek got Agriculture. But like many other events related to Museveni's Cabinet that make us smile, the decision was not necessarily illogical. Take Gen. Salim Saleh's pre-Cabinet radio talk-show rhetorical question, when he wondered whether, surely, it was only he, Saleh, who would die without ever becoming a minister? He made a ministerial post look almost like a universal human right. A number of people applauded. He subsequently got bolder and actually specified the slot he wanted: Finance. The President obliged, parcelling out to him the multi-billion-shilling Micro Finance department so that (in effect) the two brothers may make all Uganda's small people very rich! I did not smile over this one; I laughed. But then Saleh may (or should) not really be after Micro Finance. I think it is a tactical trick. Museveni knows that Saleh will probably bring as much chaos as charm to his new office. But the appointment in itself introduces Saleh into the pool that the President habitually rearranges to suit his political needs. Once in the pool, it is easier for Museveni to smuggle Saleh into Defence, should the need arise. Who knows; there may even be "demonstrations" by Saleh's admirers demanding such a move. So Dr Crispus Kiyonga, and Ms Ruth Nankabirwa (the two now at Defence) will be frequently glancing over their shoulders. But back to Onek, the new Agriculture minister, who almost everybody thought would go to Energy. Now, precisely because of the electricity crisis,
