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Last night I had a call with my client Ahmed Rabbani, one of the 39 detainees still detained in Guantanamo Bay. Like nearly half of the men arrested at a prominent U.S. military facility, Ahmed was allowed to be released a few months ago, but he is still there. As one of his inmates once said, the Guantanamo Eagles described the famous song as the Hotel California, “You can look at it whenever you want, but you can never leave.”
However, I expected Ahmed to be at home in Pakistan before the end of the holiday. Nothing was stopped: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has put his personal stamp of approval on his return. But this did not happen. So I had to call him to give him some urgent and unwanted news.
I had to tell Ahmed that his mother-in-law is on his deathbed in a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Doctors believe he has only four or five days left to live. Four days, of course, is a long time for a plane to take Ahmed from Guantanamo to Karachi, but only if the U.S. military lets it go. They are unlikely to play in time, and Ahmed is aware of that. So the truth is, I told Ahmed the sad news that he probably wouldn’t see his mother-in-law again.
There was silence when I finished speaking at the other end of the line. “I’ve lost a lot of my relatives in the 20 years I’ve been here,” Ahmed finally said. “Two of them, in particular, were very close to me, and I was very sad and depressed when they died. One was a relative who died five years ago, who treated me like his son. The other was my father. It’s sad that my mother-in-law is in this situation now. If he dies, that will leave me as the oldest member of the family, with all the responsibility. However, I am included here. “
“It’s a very sad situation.” Ahmed continued in silence. “While I’m listening to this, I’m really crying. My wife has only suffered for 20 years without me and this is really the last straw for her. To me my mother-in-law is so much more than my wife’s mother, she loves me and I love her so much. Sometimes he acted like he loved me more than his children. It would be an honor for me to spend his last days with her and do all I could for her. ”
“At least I could kiss his feet before he died,” he concluded.
I didn’t know how to answer. It is likely that my people will deny this last dignity.
Ahmed has been on an almost constant hunger strike since 2013, and despite being forced to eat twice a day, he lost half his weight, causing irreparable damage to his body. I replaced him for fifteen years, he was close to losing his will to live, and he tried many times to end his life. So I was worried that the news I was giving him might plunge back into a self-destructive episode of depression, and I wondered about his health.
“It simply came to our notice then [for release]”But now I have some heart problems. Every time I take a deep breath, it hurts in my chest.
“It’s a stress issue,” he continued. “There’s a lot of stress when they clean you up but I can’t release you. Before I knew it I was going home, here was a day like 10 days of real life, constantly dragging. Now every day is like a month. We’re waiting. We know we’ll be released one day, so “There is hope. However, we hope, and nothing happens. Our country is ready to accept us, America has said it is gone, and yet we remain here until my mother-in-law dies. Waiting is worse than hopelessness.”
In the call, we also briefly discussed January 11, 2022 – the 20th anniversary of Guantanamo Bay.
“For us,” Ahmed said, “it is an anniversary of suffering. I wish it was the anniversary of my death, it would have been better. I survived because I wanted to see my family, otherwise I would have gone home long ago in a coffin. I’m 50 now and there’s not much between me and death. Maybe we should kill ourselves before we know it. ”
Ahmed wonders if his case has become a political football between the US and Pakistan. “What does Biden want from me? Why are you keeping me here? I have no answer. ”
He says he sees the only way out of his situation. “I have only one solution. I can only do one thing where I can control my fate: I think I will go on a peaceful hunger strike.”
“This time I’m ready to do it until I die, even if it’s just to help others get out. I’ll start right away. After this call, I will be incommunicado. I will deny everything until I die, and I will go home in a box. Until I die. It’s not hard for me to die. ‘
I believe that after almost two decades of suffering, it would not be difficult to kill Ahmed. But it would also not be difficult for the Biden administration to stop wasting time and go home to see their mother in love for the last time.
My country stole a few decades from this man’s life, to show the least compassion he can do, this time.
Ahmed Rabbani’s mother-in-law passed away before this article was published. His lawyer was unable to send him a message, so he was not informed.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial attitude of Al Jazeera.
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