Guantanamo inmates to fast for Ramadan

WASHINGTON: Muslim detainees held at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will be allowed to fast between sunrise and sunset during the holy month of Ramadan, according US military officials.       

 

The detainees, many of them held for years at the camp without charges in the US-led war on terror, will be given special food as they engage in the annual Muslim dawn-to-dusk fasting ritual.      

 

"When the new crescent moon appears around September 24, the Islamic month of Ramadan officially begins," reads an article published in the military newspaper for US personnel at the prison camp.   

 

"For Joint Task Force-Guantanamo, it means ensuring that those Muslims who desire to fast during Ramadan have the opportunity to observe one of the five pillars of Islam," reads the unsigned article obtained by AFP.          

 

Camp cooks "will work around the clock to prepare meals for the detainees," which will include "Ramadan-specific foods" aside from "the normal menu consisting of halal-certified meats, vegetables, fruits, drinks and fresh bread."            

 

Special pre-dawn meals will include "dates, honey and some light beverages," while post-sunset meals and midnight meals will include "sweets, dates, nuts and honey."        

 

Regular meals will be provided for non-Muslims and those not observing Ramadan.       

 

In Camp 4, where there is communal living, detainees will be able to break their fast in groups, said Lieutenant Colonel Lora Tucker, the Guantanamo deputy director of public affairs.            

 

"In the other camps detainees eat and pray in their own cell," Tucker said.            

 

A call for prayer is played from the camp loudspeakers five times a day, including a sunset call for prayer that will signal the end of fasting, Tucker said.         

 

Fasting detainees will "receive a double portion meal in the evening to ensure they have the nutrients and calories they need to stay healthy, and camp health professionals . . . will counsel and monitor those who fast to ensure that they do not jeopardize their health," the article reads.             

 

"We uphold the highest values of the American military by caring for our detained enemy combatants in a manner that is safe, humane and respectful of their religious  beliefs," Army Colonel Wade Dennis, one of the top Guantanamo commanders, told the newspaper.   

 

Since the camp opened in January 2002 detention conditions have been subject to controversy, including reports of torture and abuse. Inmates have carried out hunger strikes to protest conditions, and in June three inmates committed suicide.      

 

Following a June visit, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) inspectors reported that detention conditions at Guantanamo had considerably improved.            

 

Some 455 people are currently held at Guantanamo without charges, and most without access to a lawyer. Since the camp opened the US military has detained and interrogated 750 prisoners at the site, mostly captured after the US-led war in Afghanistan against the Islamist Taliban regime following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.     

 

The camp commander, Rear Admiral Harry Harris, said in September when 14 high-value Al-Qaeda prisoners were transferred to Guantanamo that the new faces would be treated like the other inmates.      

 

The new arrivals -- which include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed architect of the September 11 attacks -- had been held in secret CIA-run prisons in other countries before being sent to Guantanamo.       

 

"As is the case with other detainees, they receive adequate food, shelter and clothing. They are afforded the opportunity to worship and will have access to the Koran in their native languages and other prayer accessories," Harris told reporters.   

 

Harris also said the new detainees, like the current inmates, can send and receive mail, have access to books, can exercise, and get "three culturally sensitive meals a day and if appropriate, blessed by an imam."