WASHINGTON - Detainees interviewed by FBI agents at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba complained repeatedly that military guards and interrogators mistreated the Koran, with one alleging that the Muslim holy book had been flushed in a toilet, documents made public Wednesday show.
The documents -- FBI summaries of interviews with detainees at the military-run prison in 2002 and 2003 -- show that the treatment of the Koran was a key point of contention between detainees and their guards, one that prompted hunger strikes and threats of mass suicide.
Most complaints dealt with the handling of the Koran by guards or its being taken away from detainees as a form of punishment. In some cases, the detainees admitted to not having witnessed the alleged mistreatment themselves.
But detainees also alleged that the Koran had been thrown or kicked by guards, and one said it had been flushed in a toilet, according to the documents.
In a summary dated August 1, 2002, a detainee told his FBI interviewer that he personally had nothing against the United States but that the guards at the detention facility "do not treat him well.
"Their behavior is bad. About five months ago, the guards beat the detainees. They flushed a Koran in the toilet. The guards dance around when the detainees are trying to pray. The guards still do these things," the summary said.
In an FBI interview on March 6, 2004, a detainee charged that military police "have been mistreating the detainees by pushing them around and throwing their waste bucket to them in the cell, sometimes with waste still in the bucket, and kicking the Koran."
The detainee noted that, "in the Muslim culture, people do not get dressed, shower or use the bathroom in front of others; however, they are being forced to do so," according to the summary.
A summary dated March 11, 2004 said that "some unknown detainees are not talking in retaliation to an incident where a guard kicked the Koran."
Another on July 30, 2002 said an uprising at the prison earlier that month started when a detainee claimed a guard had dropped a Koran.
"In actuality, the detainee dropped the Koran and then blamed the guard. Many other detainees reacted to this claim, and this initiated the uprising," the summary said.
Names and other details were blacked out in the documents, which were released in response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU posted the documents on its website.
The interview summaries contain a litany of other allegations by detainees -- that they were beaten by guards, sexually molested by female interrogators, shown pornographic images or had their heads and beards shaved as punishment. The theme that the detainees` religion or culture was under assault by guards runs through many of the summaries.
05/25/2005 16:37 GMT