KARACHI: Ailing Guantanamo inmate may die, says his lawyer

By Zofeen T. Ebrahim

KARACHI: Terming her life “slightly abnormal” when she compares it to her friends’ who are just finding their way to adulthood, Muneeza Paracha, 25, says she has no complaints having had to suddenly grow up and juggle between mothering her now ailing mother and acting as a “cushion” to her two teenage siblings.

And that’s not all. While continuing her studies, she is keeping her father Saifullah Paracha’s business running till “he comes back and takes over”.

While Muneeza is waiting to hand over the business reins to her father, the latter’s lawyer is not too sure if he will make it alive unless the Pakistan government intervenes.

Saifullah Paracha, incarcerated in the United States military prison in Guantanamo, Cuba, since September 2004, suffers from a serious heart condition and may not live unless he is provided special care, says the lawyer.

“The government of Pakistan cannot sit by and allow this to continue,” Zachary Katznelson, senior counsel with Reprieve, a British legal rights group, told this reporter through e-mail.

“I am gravely concerned that unless Mr Paracha is given heart treatment immediately, he will die in Guantanamo Bay. He is 60 years old and suffers severe heart pains and shortness of breath multiple times a week. Far too many of his close relatives have died of heart disease around the same age. The technology exists to keep him alive, but the US government will not help him. He needs a heart procedure to diagnose the problem and quite likely needs open heart surgery for which he needs a proper cardiac facility,” pointed out Katznelson, adding: “The government of Pakistan must step in to save Mr Paracha’s life.’’

One of the six Pakistani prisoners currently in Guantanamo, Paracha, Karachi-based businessman and philanthropist, went missing in July 2003 while on a business trip to Bangkok. The family learnt later that he had been picked up from the Bangkok airport and whisked away to Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. After 15 months, he was flown to Cuba.

So far, five prisoners have died in Guantanamo, the last death being that of Abdul Razzak, 68, from Afghanistan, in December. “The US said he died of colon cancer, a treatable condition if caught early enough, and claimed to be investigating three of those deaths for a year and a half, but has never released results of the investigation. They have been investigating the fourth death since May 2007, also with no public result,” said the Reprieve counsel.

According to ‘Cageprisoners’, a London-based human rights group, there are several Guantanamo inmates suffering from serious health problems.

Among those believed ailing are Abdul Hamid Al-Ghizzawi, a Libyan, who got infected with HIV during blood transfusion in Guantanamo. Sami al-Haj, a Sudanese cameraman for the Al-Jazeera TV network, complained of pain and blood in his urine and Abdulkhaliq al Baidhani, a Yemeni, who had earlier lost an eye and is fast losing sight in the other one.

Katznelson, who met Paracha on Jan 18, said he was being kept in a “steel box” in Camp 5. “He is kept in his cell (2m by 3m) 22 hours a day and allowed some reprieve for two hours either at 6am or sometimes at midnight. He can go for weeks without seeing the sun, but the cell is lit up by the monstrous neon lights 24 hours a day. He is given only one book a week to read and not allowed to speak on the telephone with his family, nor can he receive visitors, except his lawyers; mail often takes six to nine months to get through and when it does, it is heavily censored.”

Last year, the US government had offered Paracha treatment at the base, but he refused saying that the facilities were “inadequate and risky”. He had then asked to be sent to a proper cardiac unit. He had also said that his decision was purely rational and not emotional.

”When Paracha asked the Guantanamo doctor whether he saw him as a patient or as an enemy, the doctor’s response was ‘enemy’,” said the lawyer.

But while these four years may have taken a toll on his health, his spirit remains far from broken, says his counsel. “He remains driven by two facts. One, he has always maintained his innocence of any affiliation with terrorism or extremism. Two, he longs to be reunited with his wife and children. All he is asking for is the chance to defend himself.”

Wife’s life at standstill

Back home, things are not well for Paracha’s family. His wife, Farhat, is in deep depression and seems to have given up the “hope to live”. “The fighting spirit in her has died,” says Muneeza sorrowfully.

At 53, Farhat Paracha’s life is on hold. She finds no closure in this “forced separation”.

“In a way I think a woman who is divorced or a widow still accepts her circumstances and moves on. For her, the torture of waiting continues,” says her daughter.

But it is not just the forced separation of her husband alone that has brought Farhat’s life to a tragic standstill.

Her son Uzair Paracha, a fresh graduate on his maiden business venture to the US, was picked up by federal agents in February 2003, on suspicion of having links with the Al Qaeda. He was sentenced to 30 years and has been in a US prison now for exactly five years.

Uzair is being represented by Joshua Dratel, who also represented David Hicks, the young Australian who became the first Guantanamo prisoner to plead guilty under the US Military Commissions Act passed last year and was sentenced to nine months in prison in Australia.

Sadly, while international lawyers seem to be losing sleep trying to get this Pakistani released, rights groups here remain unmoved and the Paracha story seems relegated to the far recesses of their minds.

“We have often highlighted Paracha’s case in our reports,” says I.A. Rehman, chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. “Asma Jehangir tried to visit Guantanamo with two other rapporteurs, but was disallowed,” he said.

Criticising Islamabad, Mr Rehman said: “Our government is quite callous about Pakistanis in distress abroad. It assumes every Pakistani who comes into conflict with law abroad deserves to be ignored and left to fend for himself. Islamabad does not want even to see that Pakistanis, facing trial or execution in foreign lands, have the minimum necessary guarantees of justice.”

Even the political parties are least pushed and not pressuring the government to take concrete steps.

Former senator and spokesman for the Pakistan People’s Party, Farhatullah Babar, said his party had repeatedly raised the issue of those whisked away to Guantánamo with the government. “We have reproached the government and asked it to divulge what it was doing in this regard. Not once have we been given any formal response,’’ Babar said.

However, he acknowledges “we may not have done enough” as there are no positive results to be seen. “Perhaps what is needed, now more than ever, is for all the political forces to join hands and pressure the government to get our citizens back.” —Dawn/IPS News Service