Guantanamo Suicides “Acts of War” — BBC, June 11, 2006:
The suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, amount to acts of war, the US military says.
The camp commander said the two Saudis and a Yemeni were “committed” and had killed themselves in “an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us”.
Lawyers said the men who hanged themselves had been driven by despair.
A military investigation into the deaths is now under way, amid growing calls for the detention centre to be moved or closed. . . .
Rear Adm Harris said he did not believe the men had killed themselves out of despair.
“They are smart. They are creative, they are committed,” he said.
“They have no regard for life, either ours or their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.”
All three men had previously taken part in some of the mass on-and-off hunger strikes undertaken by detainees since last August, and all three had been force-fed by camp authorities.
They had left suicide notes, but no details have been made available.