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Guantanamo Bay; World's most controversial Prison
Short documentaries and investigative reports covering Guantanamo Bay—widely known as one of the world's most controversial detention camps—explore its history, legal limbo, and human rights issues:
Short documentaries and investigative reports covering Guantanamo Bay—widely known as one of the world's most controversial detention camps—explore its history, legal limbo, and human rights issues:
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TVTranscript
00:07Prison Camp Guantanamo, one of the most controversial places in the world and one of the most secretive.
00:16Here the American military allegedly jails mainly high-ranking terrorists.
00:22We want to find out what the detention conditions in the camp are really like.
00:27And former prisoner Murat Kurnats tells us about his experiences in Guantanamo.
00:34After eight months and filling in countless documents, we finally made it.
00:39We got permission to film in Guantanamo.
00:42The filming terms are extremely restricted.
00:49Our journey starts at Miami Airport.
00:52We're surprised we're not flying from a military airport, but from an airfield for private jets.
01:00We're met by officers and a final check of our personal details.
01:04We'll spend exactly 24 hours in Guantanamo.
01:09The flight takes two and a half hours.
01:12The destination is the island of Cuba, Guantanamo Bay.
01:15Here, there's a large US naval base.
01:22The ferry takes us to the other side of the bay.
01:26There lies the prison camp, isolated.
01:30In 1903, the Americans leased land from the Cuban government for a military base.
01:35In 2002, the notorious internment camp was put into operation there.
01:41The trigger? The terrorist attacks on September the 11th.
01:45Since the beginning of 2002, the prison has mainly included alleged members of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
01:51Here, only terrorist suspects are held.
01:54The camp is controversial.
01:56The reason? The US doesn't comply with the Geneva Convention.
02:00This means that the prisoners have no legal rights.
02:06Finally, we reach the camp.
02:08From now on, each of our steps will be monitored and our footage as well.
02:15Everybody else that you talk to today in the camps can be, but no shots of guards.
02:21Specially trained media officers lead us through the camp.
02:27A short overview.
02:30The US naval base in Cuba is called Guantanamo Naval Base.
02:35The area is over 116 square kilometers in size.
02:39In the southeast is the prison camp.
02:42This consists of 10 different camps with different levels of security and detention conditions.
02:48Some of these camps are no longer in operation.
02:53Camps 5 and 6 are currently the main prisons.
02:57In Camp Echo, prisoners spend the last few days before leaving Guantanamo.
03:03There is also a hospital and a library.
03:08That's what the officers want to show us first.
03:11We can't show the face of the soldier who runs the library.
03:18The prisoners can borrow over 35,000 different books, DVDs and magazines in a variety of languages.
03:25All charitable donations.
03:32We take them to them on a weekly basis and we'll take a couple hundred items, we'll box up, take
03:38over to them.
03:40And they're allowed to tell us, hey, I'd like to get this item this week.
03:44Or we're looking for things that promote good order and discipline in the camps, have positive themes and values.
03:52Positive. This is how the soldiers want to present the camp to us.
03:55Time and again, they emphasize how well the prisoners are doing here.
03:59We hope that we can get an impression of that ourselves.
04:03A bus drives us over the area. We're not allowed to move freely.
04:08The camp looks huge. At its peak, more than 700 prisoners sat in these cells.
04:15It's hard to imagine that so many people are locked up here.
04:18You can see fence wires everywhere, the barbed wire fence.
04:21It's a very claustrophobic, very frightening and fearful feeling.
04:27This feeling is one that Murat Kornac knows well.
04:30He was in Guantanamo from 2002 to 2006.
04:34The charge? He's a terrorist. Wrongly accused.
04:38After his release, he returned to his native city of Bremen.
04:42There, we have an appointment with him.
04:44What did he experience in Guantanamo?
04:47We show him our pictures.
04:49What are his memories like?
04:55It means torture and injustice.
04:58All these things come back to your mind.
05:00And the worst thing is that there are still people there enduring that.
05:05Still.
05:08What exactly does Murat Kornac mean by enduring?
05:12What did he experience during his imprisonment?
05:18For example, I myself was punished for feeding birds by sitting in the dark hole for 60 days and doing
05:24push-ups for 30 days in the dark hole.
05:33We want to get an idea of the detention conditions ourselves.
05:38At the time of our filming, 79 people are being detained.
05:42Most are held in Camp 6.
05:44The soldiers take us there next.
05:46The terms for filming are further tightened.
05:53Can we film during the drive?
05:56No.
05:57We'll tell you when you can start.
05:59Here, for the first time, we meet Colonel Steven Gabavix.
06:03He's commander of the prison camp.
06:07I think it's extremely important that the world gets to see what we do here
06:11and how our great soldiers, sailors, airmen, marine and coast guard do their mission on a daily basis
06:15to provide the safe, secure, humane and legal treatments to our detainees.
06:19The majority of our detainees are here in Camp 6.
06:22Roughly 60% are here in Camp 6.
06:24Another approximately 20% are in Camp 5.
06:27That leaves 20% unaccounted for.
06:30They don't want to show us their accommodation.
06:33We're allowed to look around Camp 6 after all.
06:39In an empty single cell, the soldiers present us the items that are available to the prisoners.
06:46These include clothing, blankets, headphones, cosmetics, the Koran and injury-proof writing utensils.
06:55The cells are empty.
06:57There are no detained prisoners in this part of the camp.
07:04Then the officers take us to another part of the prison.
07:07Everything is shaded.
07:09We can only whisper.
07:12Behind mirrored windows, we see prisoners for the first time.
07:16Contacting them or even talking to them is strictly forbidden.
07:21It's prayer time just now.
07:23The prisoners don't know we're watching them.
07:33This is a very unpleasant situation.
07:35It feels a bit like being in the zoo.
07:40The men are detained without a trial.
07:42Nobody wants to tell us what they're accused of.
07:45The only statement is for war-related reasons.
07:49Time and again, former prisoners report arbitrary arrests.
07:53Americans allegedly pay a bounty in Pakistan and Afghanistan for soldiers or police officers to extradite suspected terrorists to the
08:01United States.
08:04Murad Kurnats was accused of fighting for the Taliban.
08:08Because of this suspicion, he was imprisoned for nearly five years.
08:12As it turned out, wrongly.
08:17In the beginning, I really thought of it.
08:20Believed that as soon as the Americans realized that I was the wrong one, they'd let me go.
08:24And kept on believing so.
08:26One year later, still.
08:30He never gave up hope of someday becoming a free man again.
08:36In Guantanamo, officers take us to the neighboring Camp 5.
08:40Again, they present an empty single cell.
08:45And the entertainment room.
08:47According to the statement, the prisoners are allowed to watch TV four hours a week with ankle cuffs.
08:53Time and again, the guards and officers emphasize how well the prisoners are doing.
08:59Conditions would seem to be better here than in American prisons.
09:04Murad has experienced the conditions firsthand.
09:07He can only smile about the equipment in the cells that we show him.
09:15I saw these pictures too after my release and wondered, wow, we had so much there and I didn't know
09:21anything about it.
09:21I was there for five years and I didn't see any of it.
09:26He was frequently relocated during his captivity.
09:29He was in different camps.
09:34For instance, there's a camp where you're in solitary confinement in the dark.
09:38There are no windows or anything.
09:42It's completely closed off.
09:46And then there's a camp where everything can be seen and the guards can see.
09:50Because the cages are covered with plexiglass.
09:56So the air is really bad.
09:58And Cuba, Guantanamo, is a very warm place.
10:02Extremely warm.
10:06We're not allowed to visit these camps.
10:08The officers insist that Guantanamo is not a prison.
10:12The biggest difference is that a prison, as you have, like in the United States or elsewhere, those are for
10:17people that have been convicted in a court of war.
10:19But detainees were not arrested.
10:21Detainees were detained in relation to some law of war aspect.
10:26The soldiers stand by this principle.
10:29Even Colonel Gabavix.
10:30He's been working in the prison camp for only a few months.
10:36I love it. It's a great job.
10:38The opportunity to be with all these soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marine, Coast Guard and everything, it's fantastic.
10:44Just every day to be able to come out here and see what these great Americans do, it makes me
10:48feel good.
10:51The day comes to an end, but sleep is out of the question.
10:55We're still in the media control post until after midnight.
10:59Picture by picture, the officers review our footage.
11:02Some of it is deleted.
11:06More than 700 prisoners have been released from Guantanamo by the Americans in recent years.
11:12Does that mean they were all held in spite of being innocent?
11:16We asked the top media officer.
11:20And once they're transferred from Guantanamo and the custody removes from us to some other entity, we've done our job.
11:32And so it's not up to us to talk about guilt or innocent.
11:39It's our job to detain the detainees and care for them safely and humanely while they're here.
11:47Guantanamo comes back to the headlines over torture allegations.
11:51Allegedly, soldiers use illegal interrogation methods such as waterboarding.
11:59We want to know, is that true?
12:02At the final press conference, the highlight of our trip, we have the opportunity to address the highest commander on
12:08the allegations of torture.
12:13There is no torture.
12:15And when we do voluntary interviews, that is exactly what they are.
12:21They're voluntary.
12:23You know, I can't speak from what may have happened in other places or many, many years ago here, but
12:30for a long time now, there has been nothing that could be considered by anybody as torture.
12:37We do voluntary interviews.
12:41Is everything really voluntary?
12:46It doesn't sound like it with Murat Kornac.
12:49In the five years he was in American custody, the officers did plenty to get a confession out of him.
12:58There was food deprivation, a plexiglass insulated cell where you couldn't breathe.
13:09Then 30 days in a cell where it's freezing cold.
13:16And then there were times when they locked you in a cell for 30 days, torturing you with heat.
13:26In 2009, President Barack Obama promised to close Guantanamo.
13:32But the prison camp still exists.
13:35For how much longer?
13:39I can tell you that right now we are following the directives that we are given.
13:43And the intent right now from the president is to close Guantanamo Bay.
13:46We'll continue to do what we need to do to facilitate that.
13:48No one can tell us when that will actually be.
13:51It's difficult for former prisoners to start a new life after release.
13:57Murat Kornac has done it.
13:59Our journey comes to an end.
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