Testimony to Witness to Guantanamo (Imad Achab Kanouni)

Distractions

There were times when they had given us some books to read, and there were other times when we had nothing. They take everything back, they take all the books back, they keep them for three months then…I don’t know it was just to create a mood. They remove the books. Then they return them to us. Then they take them back. Then they return them. So that we have to think of that instead of thinking about getting out. In other words, every time they removed the books we’re forced to make some noise, to rebel. Only for the books, for that kind of stuff, which keeps us from thinking about leaving. From asking them, “Why are we here, already?”

When each time the soldiers tried to create small problems. For example, they would throw the Quran on the ground, they would insult the detainees, they would create problems, so that we were always distracted by those small matters – which kept us from thinking about being freed.

Injustice

I learned that there is—which I didn’t know before—that there was so much injustice in the world. That is, before, I lived my own life with the people close to me. I cared about my religion, my future, and I wasn’t interested in anything else. Now today, I know what goes on in the world. And in Guantanamo I met people of different nationalities. They were all gathered there; there were about forty different nationalities over in Guantanamo. They were all touched by the same thing. And there one discovers another side of [breaks down in sobs] I just wanted to say, there is an evil side of the world, of mankind.