First Islamic militant prisoners arrive at Cuban prison camp

12 Jan, 2002 10:45 AM7 mins to read

12.00 PM

US NAVAL BASE, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - The huge Air Force transport plane hove into view just before two o'clock, made a sharp turn over the Caribbean coast, and one of the most extraordinary events in the history of this US Navy base which has seen its share of drama over the years began to unfold.

As ground crewmen guided the C-141 transporter into its parking place on the runway, a squad of nine US Marines who had been waiting on a hillside road moved down. They were followed by two Humvee vehicles mounted with machine guns.

Also in waiting was a truck load of marine military police in helmets and masks and carrying shields and weapons.

This was the "Welcome to Gitmo" committee for a group of 20 Islamic militants, taken captive in Afghanistan in the US-led war on terrorism and now flown 12,800km across the world to be held in a prison camp in the steamy Caribbean.

If that was not an unlikely enough event in itself, the US base is an oddity of its own, perched in a corner of communist Cuba, the United States' avowed foe.

US Marines and Cuban frontier guards face off against each other along a fortified perimeter that rings the land edge of the 116sq km base.

But all eyes on Friday were on the landing strip fringed by the glittering Caribbean Sea on one side, a parched area of hilly scrubland with cactuses and gumbo limbo trees on the other.

A group of 10 reporters, the only non-military media allowed into the enclave, were permitted to watch the scene from a nearby hill along with their military escorts.

In the hills in the distance, Cuban officials were also watching. A trawler lurked off the coast although it was not clear how much fishing it was doing.

And two vultures circled overhead.

At a signal from their team leader, the Marines ran from their crouched position on the edge of the runway to take up guard about 182m from the plane, facing outwards. Four armed Humvees completed the defensive square.

The back ramp opened. A forklift truck unloaded two pallets of gear and a grey container that gave rise to speculation among the hillside watchers that the prisoners could be in a prefabricated cell.

A Navy Huey Helicopter, with a door gunner, roamed the sky above. An ambulance and firetruck were on standby. A cluster of MPs and other soldiers and military officials conferred at the ramp with the escorts who had brought the prisoners across the globe. The tropical sun beat down.

Then two white buses came down the hillside, followed by the truck of some 40 MPs. They pulled up 91m from the ramp. The MPs huddled down behind their truck, held in reserve in case of an outbreak of trouble.

Then the first prisoner emerged, clad in an orange jump suit, and guided forcefully by an MP. He limped and his left leg was bandaged. MPs frisked him and checked a number on his clothing.

It was not known if the prisoners had any idea where they were or could see much of their new surroundings. All wore goggles as well as turquoise surgical masks, fluorescent orange caps, and white footwear.

All had their hands bound in front of them and several wore leg shackles.

Two army clerks handled the paperwork. As the one prisoner was loaded onto a bus, another was led out. The second appeared to struggle. The sixth was forced to his knees.

Whether they resisting or were merely disoriented and trying to find their legs after the gruelling journey was unclear. Most shuffled along helplessly though several others looked less willing to move until helped along.

Some shouting and yelling could also be heard, although whether it was soldiers issuing directions or prisoners protesting was also hard to discern. The prisoners disappeared from view on the buses, whose windows were blacked out except for a gap at the top.

Then Humvees formed a convoy with the buses, pulled away and drove over the hillside and down to a dock where they squeezed on to ferry which took them from the leeward side of Guantanamo Bay to the windward side, where they were to be settled into their new homes in small, open cells in a prison compound dubbed Camp X-ray.

On the runway, the flight crew and members of the welcoming committee posed for a group photograph on the plane ramp.

Guantanamo Bay has seen its share of drama since US Marines landed here during the Spanish-American in 1898 and a 1903 treaty established the base.

It was an important site as the United States kept a close eye on Cuban affairs in the years following independence and it also saw a huge build up during World War 2.

The base provides security while denying the prisoners rights they might be afforded on US soil. If they were to be tried at the base, the captives would not be able to appeal to a US federal court.

The prisoners' arrival on U.S.-controlled territory comes four months after the Sept. 11 attacks, which killed more than 3,000 people in hijacked plane strikes blamed by Washington on Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda guerrilla network.

Meanwhile, in eastern Afghanistan, US warplanes pressed their pounding of targets in the Khost region where Osama bin Laden's Qaeda network ran a guerrilla training base, a Pakistan-based news agency said.

And with President Bush's offensive against terrorism expanding beyond Afghanistan, some supportive governments in the region moved against suspected al Qaeda members while others complained of heavy-handed US pressure to enlist their help.

Despite an interim government established to fill the vacuum, warlords and bandits have set up fiefdoms across Afghanistan.

On Friday, US troops began disarming rag-tag militia fighters in the town of Spin Boldak on the Pakistani border, witnesses said.

Local commander Gud Fida Mohammad said that security men of Gul Agha, governor of the surrounding province of Kandahar, as well as his own men had also disarmed many of the private militias in the city on Thursday.

"The mopping up operation is going to be extended to adjoining areas as well," he said.

A Reuters reporter saw two US soldiers enter a room at a checkpoint set up by a militia group near the border with Pakistan while a third uniformed soldier stood guard outside.

A few minutes later the soldiers emerged from the room carrying about 16 Kalashnikov rifles that they dumped in their vehicle, he said.

US efforts to help rebuild Afghanistan were underlined on Friday with the announcement Secretary of State Colin Powell will visit Kabul later this month. The most senior US official to visit Afghanistan since the fall of the Taleban is expected to hear Afghan leaders' needs for reconstruction and promise continued US assistance.

In Southeast Asia, Singapore said it had uncovered plots to blow up a shuttle bus ferrying US military personnel and to bomb US naval vessels along waters off the island state. The information followed the arrest last month of 13 people for suspected links to al Qaeda.

Malaysia also said its crackdown on alleged Islamic militancy had revealed about 50 locals had links with al Qaeda and some detainees had admitted training in Afghanistan.

But with the Bush administration debating where its war on terrorism should move next, several nations, under consideration for possible action, appeared to feel the heat.

Indonesian officials warned the United States against targeting the world's most populous Muslim nation because it would lose investment in the country.

In Iran, influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani called Bush "rude and impudent" for warning Tehran on Thursday against harbouring al Qaeda fighters.

The president of Somalia's transitional government complained of a US propaganda campaign portraying the country as a possible haven for bin Laden's followers.

- REUTERS

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