ya allah madad
0mm3afnan
Interview with Isa Al Murbati, Detainee O52
By Sandeep Singh Grewal
Isa Al Murbati
6:30 am- Breakfast food tray is pushed inside the cell by the staff. The meal consists of a bowl of cornflakes, bread with cheese(peanut butter occasionally) and glass of milk.
Isa Al Murbati spends his day reading books brought from the library of the camp. Alternative days the detainees are allowed to go to the rec ( recreational room).
He picks up his favorite football which he plays with his shadow in his cell.
1:30 pm- The tray is again pushed inside for lunch. The meal consists of chicken and eggs or fish with rice with salad.
It's been more than nine hours, Murbati is still in seclusion in his cell playing with football, writing letters to his family or reading a collection of short stories in Arabic.
7:45 pm- Dinner is served on the tray. This time it's mutton or fish with bread.
Another day ends for Detainee 052…
Six grueling years of life lost in a 8 by 10 foot cell in Camp- 6 is what Isa Al Murbati remembers as he speaks of his days of ordeal at Guantanamo Bay.
He looks weak but relaxed sitting at his home with his family in Isa Town. He starts unfolding his story as his kids sit beside him, looking at their father after a long time.
“I don’t want anything from anyone, but to be left alone with my family. I want to regain those moments which I have missed, like my children growing up without their father. I just want to know them,” he says.
The last Bahraini detainee, recalling the ‘horrific’ torture by the hands of the officers at the camp, says, “They used everything they could on me, from injecting chemicals, playing loud rock music, to physically assaulting me. During our hunger strike, they inserted a tube in my backside and mouth to forcefully feed me. It was like swallowing a sack of sand,” Murbati recalls.
When asked when was the last time he was tortured, the 42-year-old said, “It’s been a while since they assaulted me. They had these huge yellow fans which sounded like a jet engine and the inmates could not sleep. They were meant to blow our eardrums.” He speaks in his American accent.
We asked him under which circumstances he was arrested in Pakistan in November 2002, two months after 9/11, Murbati replies, “I traveled to Pakistan for my back treatment and was arrested at the airport. They took me to a jail, which I do not remember and tortured me till I lost consciousness.
They made me sign papers which I could not read as my eyes were swollen. I found out that the papers stated that I was a Mujahideen man for them now and was then shifted to Guantanamo Bay.”
Isa was charged by the US government of being an enemy combatant, with allegations that he was associated with Al Qaeda.
The former detainee said that he had no information about his release until three days back, a US army official told him. "I had no information on Juma’s release and was informed by the officer two days back that I will be released. They blindfolded me and put on a bus from the Camp till the airport. Then they put me in a straight jacket which was removed when I reached Bahrain,” he said.
He was taken to the Public Prosecution office in Bahrain directly from the airport and first met his elder brother Mohammed Al Murbati. As we speak, friends start pouring in the family house to meet their friend and hug him.
Some friends said that he should be given the same allowances which the Saudi Arabia government has given to Juma Al Dossary. “The government should provide Isa with a job, house and car as it will help the family. There was no source of income for the family, there has to be some compensation given by the authorities.”
The six Bahraini detainees in Camp Delta were Adel Kamal, Shaikh Salman Al Khalifa, Abdullah Majid Al Nuaimi and Salah Al Beloushi who were released in 2005 and 2006 followed by Isa Al Murbati and Juma Al Dossary this year - who are all no longer prisoners of the cruel past.
Will all the former detainees take action against the US authorities?
Murbati replies, “I want to be with my family for now and have not thought about anything. I just want to enjoy the chicken majhbooz my wife has cooked.”
We leave him with his family and friends who have waited for many years to see him shift from the orange jump suits to the white thobe which Murbati is wearing.
