Murat Kunaz a former prisoner in Guantanamo says that the inmates currently on hunger strike will not voluntarily eat again unless they get a fair trial and the detainees cleared for release are discharged.
Kunaz, who languished in Guantanamo for five years even though
the American authorities knew he was innocent after 4 months, told
RT that he was tortured to sign papers saying he was a member of
Al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
RT: How did you end up in Guantanamo?
Murat Kunaz: I was sold for bounty, $3,000 dollars to the
American government, but as soon as the American government found
out that I was innocent and not a terrorist, they let me go back
home. They knew I was innocent 4 months after I got arrested, but I
stayed 5 years in Guantanamo altogether. They always forced me to
sign papers saying that I should agree that I am a member of
Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and every time I refused to sign those
kinds of papers they tortured me in different kind of ways like
water-boarding and electric shocks. They thought that I would agree
to sign those papers.
RT: Why, if they knew you were innocent after four
months, were you only released after 5 years?
MK: I was from the beginning innocent, so they could have
let me go home any time if they wanted. The German government had
to agree that they wanted to take me back, so as soon as they did
this I was allowed to come back home.
RT: But why did it take so long if they knew you were
innocent?
MK: Because once you are in the system it’s very
difficult to get out even if the government knows you are innocent.
95% of those prisoners have never had a trail and they still won’t
get one in the future. That means they’ll be staying there all
their life, even though they are innocent.
RT: Did you ever go on hunger strike when you were in
Guantanamo?
MK: Yes, I went on hunger strike a couple of times during
my time in Guantanamo. If you have been on hunger strike more than
3-4 weeks, they start force feeding you and that means you get
handcuffed and shackled to a chair so you can’t move and you get
fed food through a pipe up your nose and into your stomach, so they
can keep you alive for many months or years of course.
RT: What is driving prisoners to take these desperate
measures?
MK: I can understand those detainees, they have been
there more than 11 years, and they still haven’t had a trial. I
think it will be their last hunger strike for most of the
detainees. I believe they will never eat regular meals there again.
They’ll have to be force fed or else they will die.
RT: Did anything change in Guantanamo when the Obama
administration came into power?
MK: Yes, a little bit. There were small changes, a couple
of things. It was very important for us to get medication for sick
prisoners. We had some prisoners who were very sick, they needed
medication that they weren’t getting. So, when we started hunger
striking they started giving out medication for those sick
people.
RT: What needs to be done to close
Guantanamo?
MK: Of course more pressure needs to be put on the
president of the USA, Barack Obama, including the hunger strike. So
if this continues things might change.
RT: What do the inmates of Guantanamo
want?
MK: They want to be tried. This is all they need. As soon
as this happens they will be happy.
RT: How long do you think this hunger strike will go
on for?
MK: We can’t compare this hunger strike now with other
ones, which went on for one or two months – this hunger strike is
already over three months. Even the American government has to take
it very seriously now because more than 80% of the prisoners are on
hunger strike.
RT: Have you spoken to anyone else who has been in
Guantanamo?
MK: I have talked to a couple of prisoners who were
released after I got released, so they told me a couple of things
were much the same, after Barack Obama, a couple of things got
changed but nothing much.
This article originally appeared on : RT