Soprando as velinhas dda Slvia L. Plath

O campo de concentração X-Ray, na base americana de Guantánamo, está fazendo cinco anos. Pra comemorar a data, alguns amiguinhos foram à imprensa pra mostrar as realizações do petiz - como enlouquecer pessoas. Atenção para a parte negritada, por favor.


Prisoners held at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba are being driven insane by a tightening of conditions and the situation of their indefinite detention without trial, according to lawyers and rights activists involved with the US camp.

The lawyers and activists also doubt whether the Bush administration intends to carry out its stated desire to close the facility.

Protesters around the world plan to mark today's fifth anniversary of the first delivery of detainees to Guantánamo with demonstrations calling for its closure. American anti-war activists and at least one former British prisoner intend to march to the perimeter of the US-held enclave in eastern Cuba.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, says the isolation regime at Guantánamo has tightened in recent months, piling the mental pressure on inmates who have "no fair procedure" that would lead to possible release.

Mr Roth told the Financial Times he had proposed to Angela Merkel, the German chancellor and chairman of the European Union presidency, that EU member states offer to take some of the detainees who cannot return to their home countries for fear of torture.

In exchange the US would offer a concrete closure plan that would lead to trials, preferably before a court martial, of remaining prisoners.

Ms Merkel was "intrigued but non-committal", Mr Roth said. But he does not believe the US is looking to close the camp - despite comments by President George W. Bush last year that he would "very much" like to shut it down.

Mr Roth is also sceptical of Mr Bush's claim in September to have closed CIA-run secret prisons when 14 terrorist suspects were transferred to Guantánamo. Human Rights Watch has documented 15 cases of prisoners who "disappeared" into the CIA prison system before September and have not been accounted for since.

Brent Mickum, a defence lawyer, says one of his two clients, Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi-born UK resident, "is slowly but surely slipping into madness" because of "prolonged isolation coupled with environmental manipulation that includes constant exposure to temperature extremes and constant sleep deprivation".

He says Mr Rawi's ration of toilet paper was removed because he used it for shielding his eyes from the light and his prayer rug was taken away because he used it for warmth.

Attorneys representing other prisoners say their clients kept in isolation are going insane.