On the Suicides at Guantánamo 17 years, 10 months ago by Martey Dodoo

While reading about the news that three prisoners in Guantánamo Bay committed suicide by hanging themselves, I could help but feel that the officials in charge of the prison were not taking it as seriously as they should:

Military officials on Saturday suggested that the three suicides were a form of a coordinated protest.

"They are smart, they are creative, they are committed," Admiral Harris said. "They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us."

It is possible that Harris is correct; the suicide notes that the three prisoners left have not been made public, so it is difficult for outsiders to guess what their motives were. Harris himself has a suggestion:

He said the acts were tied to a "mystical" belief at Guantánamo that three detainees must die at the camp for all the detainees to be released.

Considering that many have suggested that several detainees are suffering from depression and listlessness, due to the fact that they assume that they will never be released, even if they are found to be innocent,^[1] I would be very concerned about the rise of mysticism in the camp. If the rumor was the inspiration for the three suicides, it invalidates Harris' claims that the suicides are a type of "warfare" - their goal would have been the release of the detainees, nothing more.

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^[1] Consider the case of the Uighur detainees, who were found to be innocent. Since the government did not want to send them back to China (where they would be persecuted) nor admit them into the United States, they languished in Guantánamo until Albania decided to take them.