by Vedrana SEKSAN
A piece of paper, size of a postcard, on which the prisoner JAJJJD wrote a message in the eight lines left for the text, is the only way in which prisoners from the most controversial American prisoner camp can communicate with the world outside. Sent in June, the piece of paper needed four months to reach Sarajevo. The delivery of other pieces of paper with about ten, carefully censored sentences, from an easily memorized address - Camp X-Ray, Cuba, South America - also took about four months.
It's been almost a year since the Bosnian Algerian group has been sent to a temporary vacation abroad. During that time a lot has changed in their adopted homeland. Their wives have given birth to new children, whom they could see on photographs only, they have been stripped of Bosnian citizenship or residence permits, but in return they were awarded $5,000 each by the Bosnian Human Rights Court. If they are unable to claim the money, voluntary contribution of Bosnia-Hercegovina to the global war against terrorism, after twelve months their wives will be authorized to claim it. On the other hand, they are unanimous in saying that they do not need the money. They want their husbands back instead!
Football in terrorist home: Emina Susic, wife of Saber Lahmar, had been married for about a year before her husband was taken to the investigative prison. A student at the College of Islamic Science in Sarajevo, she claims that her life before and after marriage was more or less the same. "I've always lived more or less in accordance with Islam. I was covered even before marriage, so that Saber did not influence my life in that sense," she says. She met Lahmar by chance, through common friends, and needed a year to agree to marry him.
"It's a very ordinary story, just like with other people. We met, saw each other, and finally got married," Emina says. After the marriage, she also covered her face. "In my mind, nikab [full Muslim cover for women] is only a piece of clothing, just like shoes or a dress. Some people always disapprove, regardless of what one wears. After the deportation I had a hard time, because I had to go to municipal offices, visit commissions, ministries... People asked me whose wife I was and immediately blamed my husband for nikab. Actually, I decided about that. I know that, if I decided to stop wearing nikab, my husband would have fully supported that decision. But I'll keep wearing it," says Emina, who has been living with her parents since the deportation.
The wife of other member of the Algerian group, Mustafa Ait Idir, Sabiha Delic, has been living with her three sons with her family. After the arrest of her husband by the Bosnian authorities and his deportation by the American authorities, she says she had no money for rent. She works as a volunteer with Red Crescent, three days a week. She met Mustafa for the first time in Croatia, where they worked together for a humanitarian organization during the war in Bosnia. Chance had it that they met again, after his transfer to Sarajevo, and got married. Sabiha saw Mustafa for the last time on January 18 in a police jeep. His hands and legs were tied.
"I begged a policeman to let me come closer, to say selam to my husband. The policeman said he was just doing his job, feeding his children. I stayed out, in snow, the whole night. I was two months pregnant at the time. Abdulah never saw his father, nor did Mustafa see his son," Sabiha says. On the fateful day she visited her husband and tried to convince him that he would not be deported. "That day, on January 17, they had to be released from the investigative prison. I visited Mustafa and simply did not know what to tell him, nor did he know what to tell me. Later, that night, I heard on the prime time TV news that they were supposed to be released. When I came in front of the Central Prison, there were already a lot of journalists there. That's how I found out they were going to be deported."
Emina Susic found out about the deportation from a friend. Eight months pregnant, she followed the events on Radio Naba, which directly broadcast from in front of the Central Prison. "When they reported that the first jeep had left, I though I was going to die. If one could die from sorrow, I would have died that night," Emina says. Her father was the only witness at the questioning of six Algerians before the deportation. At the same time, because his son-in-law was accused of terrorism, he lost his job. Before that he worked at the US embassy in Sarajevo. The daughter of Saber Lahmar, Sara, was born a month after her father had landed at the US military base in Cuba. To this day, Sara plays with an American football, a present from the US ambassador to her father.
Bosnian betrayal, Algerian indifference: Emina and Sabiha do not know families of their husbands in Algiers. Both established first contacts with them after the deportation, because until then none of the arrested Algerians wanted to inform his parents about the arrest. Mustafa's brother has started a campaign in Algiers demanding that the Algerian government work for the release of the deported Algerian citizens from Bosnia-Hercegovina, and Sabiha contacted one representative in the parliament who told her that the deportation is the product of "Bosnian betrayal, Algerian indifference and American revenge".
To the question whether they ever thought, even for a moment, that the charges against their husbands were true, Emina gives a short answer: never! "On Monday before the arrest, my father, at the time still an employee of the US embassy, was summoned for questioning and asked who he lived with. He said that he was living with his son-in-law, who was an Algerian. That's what he told us. On Tuesday he went to work and everything seemed fine. On Wednesday, the US embassy was closed, but my father was asked to report to work, and Saber was arrested that evening at 9 p.m. He was not stupid. We were aware they were making inquiries about him. If he were guilty, he had three days to escape. He did not run, because he is not guilty," Emina says.
Mustafa Ait Idir was taken away by the Bosnian police at 1 a.m., to "sign some documents at the Police". "He told me at the door not to worry, that there was no reason to worry about anything," Sabiha says. However, on one occasion, she did ask Mustafa why he had been arrested. "I feel awful when I remember that now. I am ashamed for asking him that. He said - you tell me."
Neither Emina nor Sabiha ever considered seeking divorce. "It is difficult to explain that to our people. All of them are convinced that my husband forced me to wear nikab, that he kept me shut in the house. No one knows, or perhaps no one wants to know that I was never left wanting anything, that bills were always paid on time, that he never let me take rubbish out, because he believed I should not do that. I was married for a short while, but our marriage was such that today, even if I knew that they would again take him to Cuba and that I would never see him again, I would choose him again. That is not a matter of love, but of respect," Emina says. Emina hasn't been contacted by anyone from the High Saudi Committee, where Lahmar worked, or received any assistance from them.
"Everybody has some sort of prejudice. I've been told that it serves me right to have my husband deported, because I married an Arab. Now, after the decision of the Human Rights Court, people say ‘good for you, you're going to be rich now'. There are rumors that I've been getting money from Al'Qaida, that I've been getting tons of cash, that I have sponsors... I only know for sure that the truth will come out and patiently wait for that day," Sabiha says. She started working two months after giving birth to her third son.
Is there a dad on the plane? $5,000 awarded by the Human Rights Court to each member of the Algerian group cannot be claimed by their wives before November 11, 2003. "I was not interested in the process that took place at the Human Rights Court. Regardless of how much I need that money right now, or what it would mean for my husband once he is released from the prison camp, given that he lost his job, I still regard that sum as an insult. How else could I regard it, given that I found out that my husband and all others were in Cuba from the media, that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs never responded to my inquiries about Saber's whereabouts, and that a policeman stopped by on his way home to tell me that Saber had been deported?" Emina asks.
She says that Saber was not a strict husband. He liked Bosnian dishes and his worst fault was that he was "quiet and read all the time". He graduated from the College of Islamic Science and wanted her to get a degree as well. Even though she still maintains the status of a student Emina is now on her parental leave. "Watching footage from Guantanamo Bay is the worst; Saber is fair skinned, but all of them look to me like him. Still, perhaps after this, we shall be stronger. Perhaps we shall have a better life. Perhaps all of this is somehow good for us, but we don't realize it," Emina says. She is convinced that she will spend the rest of her life with her husband.
Where? She does not care.
Mustafa is an IT professional. But he loved karate above all. "He could miss everything, but he never missed his karate training sessions. Since 1998 he coached a group of boys in ‘Bosna' karate club, as a volunteer. He was extremely social. I never had as many friends as he had," Sabiha says. Her worst experience since the deportation is a photograph she saw in the newspapers. The photograph depicts a Bosnian politician kissing his son before bedtime.
When, on the other hand, her eldest son asks Sabiha where his father is, she lies. "I am 32 and it is a shame, but I cannot tell him where his father is. I say that he is traveling on business and that he will be back soon. Whenever he sees an airplane, he asks whether his dad is on that flight."
According to the latest information of the team of lawyers based on Qatar, led by the JD Nejjib Eneym, who represents sixty families of prisoners held in Cuba, including the six Algerians, the investigation conducted in Guantanamo Bay did not prove that anyone from the Algerian group from Bosnia-Hercegovina was involved in carrying out or planning of terrorist acts.
The investigation was concluded in May 2002.
All six Algerians are still being held in camp X-Ray.