Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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Six former Guantanamo prisoners have been sharing a house in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo for the last six months. The planned closure of the US detention facility could hinge on the outcome of this experiment.
Jihad Diyab walks with the help of crutches as he steps out of the front door of his new house on Calle Maldonado, a street in Montevideo, Uruguay, 12,000 kilometers (7,456 miles) from his native Syria.
He wants to talk outside, says Jihad. His housemates, a group of Arabs who, like Jihad, were recently released from Guantanamo and are now taking their first steps into freedom in this faraway country, don't have to hear everything, he says. Jihad hobbles along the sidewalk until he reaches the corner, where he sinks into a plastic chair in front of a corner store. He sets his crutches against the table and leans forward.
"So," he asks, "how do things look?"
During our first meeting a few days ago, Diyab had set a few conditions under which he would be willing to talk about how he feels, after 12 years in the hell of Guantanamo. He had said he needed a wheelchair, preferably an electric one. He also wanted a laptop, a camera and an iPhone 6, because he was planning to launch a campaign to free the prisoners still detained in that black hole in Cuba. He also said he had relatives who had fled the war in Syria, and that he would talk as soon as Germany could guarantee that they would be treated at Berlin's university hospital Charité.
Former Detainees Discover Life after Guantanamo in Uruguay - SPIEGEL ONLINE
This is a lengthy article that came out in May but it is very good.
Jihad Diyab walks with the help of crutches as he steps out of the front door of his new house on Calle Maldonado, a street in Montevideo, Uruguay, 12,000 kilometers (7,456 miles) from his native Syria.
He wants to talk outside, says Jihad. His housemates, a group of Arabs who, like Jihad, were recently released from Guantanamo and are now taking their first steps into freedom in this faraway country, don't have to hear everything, he says. Jihad hobbles along the sidewalk until he reaches the corner, where he sinks into a plastic chair in front of a corner store. He sets his crutches against the table and leans forward.
"So," he asks, "how do things look?"
During our first meeting a few days ago, Diyab had set a few conditions under which he would be willing to talk about how he feels, after 12 years in the hell of Guantanamo. He had said he needed a wheelchair, preferably an electric one. He also wanted a laptop, a camera and an iPhone 6, because he was planning to launch a campaign to free the prisoners still detained in that black hole in Cuba. He also said he had relatives who had fled the war in Syria, and that he would talk as soon as Germany could guarantee that they would be treated at Berlin's university hospital Charité.
Former Detainees Discover Life after Guantanamo in Uruguay - SPIEGEL ONLINE
This is a lengthy article that came out in May but it is very good.
