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Former U.S. detainees say despair a cause of suicides PAISLEY DODDS / AP | June 12 2006 LONDON -- Dispirited and desperate prisoners at Guantanamo Bay look to suicide as a way out of a hopeless situation, and not because they seek martyrdom, said three British Muslims once held there. "There is no hope in Guantanamo. The only thing that goes through your mind day after day is how to get justice or how to kill yourself," said Shafiq Rasul, 29, who waged a hunger strike while at the camp to protest alleged beatings. "It is the despair -- not the thought of martyrdom -- that consumes you there." In an interview late Saturday, Rasul and two boyhood friends, Ruhal Ahmed and Asif Iqbal, disputed the charge by U.S. officials that three suicides by Guantanamo prisoners over the weekend were political acts. "Killing yourself is not something that is looked at lightly in Islam, but if you're told day after day by the Americans that you're never going to go home, or you're put into isolation, these acts are committed simply out of desperation and loss of hope," Rasul said. "This was not done as an act of martyrdom, warfare or anything else." The three Britons are the subjects of a movie, "The Road to Guantanamo," that traces their trip to Pakistan for a wedding to the U.S. outpost in Cuba, where they were held for more than two years without being charged. Many of the roughly 460 Guantanamo prisoners, accused of links to Afghanistan's Taliban regime or the Al Qaeda terror network, have been held for more than four years without being charged. Among them were the two Saudis and one Yemeni who, the U.S. military said, hanged themselves early Saturday. The British friends said they saw several attempted suicides at the camp. The men said they suffered beatings, saw guards throw Qurans in the toilet, were forced to watch videotapes of prisoners who had allegedly been ordered to sodomize each other and were chained to a hook in the floor while strobe lights flashed and heavy metal music blared. The allegations are part of their lawsuit against the United States seeking $10 million each in damages. The three men were released in March 2004. ---------------------------------------------------
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