First protest staged in Guantanamo

A Toronto Star reporter was part of a dozen journalists that witnessed a brief protest at Guantanamo Bay by two Uighur detainees hours before another detainee committed suicide last Monday. It was the detention centre’s first public protest. The prisoners flashed the journalists hand written messages in crayon on prison-issued sketch pads. "We are being held in prison but we have been announced innocent a corrding to the virdict in caurt," one message said, the Toronto Star reports. The Uighur prisoners have Chinese citizenship, but nowhere to go because their minority group is persecuted in China. Pentagon rules forbade journalists from sending photos or video footage of the signs until Guantanamo officials received clearance from the White House. Yemeni Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih, 31, who committed suicide, had been held without charges at Guantanamo since February 2002 and is believed to have participated in a hunger strike.

Toronto Star