Guantanamo prisoners pray for sunlight

NEW YORK, Saturday (AP) - Detainee Abdul Helil Mamut's good behavior earned him a spot in a medium-security compound at the Guantanamo Bay prison, where he slept in a barracks, shared leisurely meals with other prisoners and could spend more than half the day in an outdoor recreation area.

In this Dec. 5, 2006 photo, reviewed by a U.S. Dept of Defense official, two cells, which are among 178 total, await detainees soon to be transferred from the older Camp Delta detention center to this brand new state of the art maximum security facility known as Camp 6, at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba. Billed by the government as a more modern addition that improves the lives of detainees, the new unit houses 160 detainees _ more than a third of the total at Guantanamo _ and is similar to the highest security U.S. prisons, even though no one at Guantanamo has been convicted of a crime. (AP

But in December, Mamut was transferred along with dozens of other prisoners from Camp 4 to the maximum-security Camp 6, the newest section of Guantanamo Bay's military prison.

Billed by the government as a modern addition that improves the lives of detainees, the new unit houses 160 men _ more than a third of the total at Guantanamo _ and is similar to the highest-security U.S. prisons, even though no one at the prison has been convicted of a crime.

In his new cell, Mamut, an ethnic Chinese Uighur captured in Pakistan, spends all but two hours a day alone. The walls are solid. Only narrow windows give him view of the prison interior. He eats and prays by himself.

For his daily recreation, a guard wearing protective gloves guides him to a concrete courtyard surrounded by high walls in which each detainee is kept separated by a chain-link fence. If his allotted time comes at night, he sees no sunlight at all.

Mamut and other Uighur prisoners complain their days are now filled with ''infinite tedium and loneliness,'' said Sabin Willett, an attorney for the men, in an affidavit filed in a Washington court.

''All expressed a desperate desire for sunlight, fresh air and someone to speak to,'' Willett wrote after a January visit to the prison on the U.S. military base in southeastern Cuba, where the U.S. holds nearly 400 men suspected of links to al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

Wells Dixon, who also represents Uighurs imprisoned at Guantanamo, said the lack of human interaction in Camp 6 will cause detainees to lose their grip on reality.

''It will very soon become an insane asylum,'' he told The Associated Press in a phone interview after he returned from the base in January.

The military, for its part, says Camp 6 has improved life for detainees A guard at Camp 6, an Army sergeant whose name cannot be disclosed under military rules, insisted that the prisoners prefer the new air-conditioned cells and the privacy.

''It's kind of like having their own apartment,'' he said.

When the first detainees arrived at Camp 6 in December, they found on their bunks two pieces of baklava _ a sweet pastry common in the Middle East _ to welcome them to their new quarters, according to one prison official.

Originally, Camp 6 was going to be more like Camp 4, with detainees allowed to congregate in a common area and share meals. But the commander of the detention center, Navy Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris, said that plan changed after three detainees committed suicide in June in Camp 1, which held compliant prisoners, and an attack on guards by 10 detainees in Camp 4 last May.''Our understanding of the detainees improved and evolved,'' Harris said in an interview. In Camp 6, guards handcuff detainees through a slot in the steel door before escorting them to the recreation area. ''They never touch another living thing,'' Willett said. ''They never see, smell, or touch plants, soil, the sea or any creature except insects.

Willett said he does not know why Mamut, who is about 30, or the other Uighurs were moved out of Camp 4. The military will not discuss individual detainees or decisions about their custody _ but officials say tight security is warranted in all cases.

''I firmly believe that the detainee population that we have right now is literally still at war with us,'' said Army Col. Wade Dennis, the detention center warden. ''We have to be constantly vigilant.''

Willett believes Mamut doesn't deserve to be in a high-security section, saying he is among the more than 100 detainees slated for release or transfer from Guantanamo.

Uighurs have been accused by China of leading a violent Islamic separatist movement in the western province of Xinjiang, though their supporters say Beijing uses claims of terrorism as an excuse to crack down on peaceful pro-independence sentiment.

Under U.S. law, they can't be deported to China, because it has been determined that they would likely face political persecution. Five Uighurs were sent to Albania last year, but other countries have been unwilling to accept the 17 or so Uighurs remaining in Guantanamo.

Camp 6 was built for US$37 million (euro28 million) by Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Houston-based Halliburton Co. The military has transferred prisoners there from other parts of the detention center, including from Camps 1, 2 and 3, where detainees were held in steel mesh cells that allowed them to easily communicate with each other but also left guards vulnerable to being spat upon or targeted by other bodily fluids.

Another unit, Camp 5, is reserved for the least compliant and ''high value'' detainees, who are also kept in individual, solid-wall cells.

Camp 4 now holds about 35 prisoners, down from about 180 at the time of the attack on guards in May. Harris said it will never return to its previous size.