WASHINGTON,
March 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The 300 detainees from
the U.S. led attacks on Afghanistan held at an American base in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be transferred from temporary cells to a
more secure prison next month, a U.S. military source said Monday.
This comes as four U.S. service members assigned to guard detainees
have been transferred to new duties at the Guantanamo Bay naval
base.
"We
expect that the new Delta Camp will be completed by 12 April and we
expect to move detainees shortly thereafter," said Major
Stephen Cox, a spokesman on the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba.
For
now the alleged Al-Qaeda or Taliban members live in small individual
cells at "Camp X-Ray," a temporary center hastily built to
house the detainees who began arriving on January 11.
Officials
said Delta Camp will contain 408 units and will be extended later to
house as many as 2,000 detainees.
Cox
signaled that one of the detainees had been involved in a recent
confrontation with guards at the camp's hospital, but described the
incident as minor. However, at one point the detainee had to be
sedated. The detainee's behavior - refusing to be shackled and
yelling - posed a security concern inside the medical facility, CNN
reported.
"One
detainee had become routinely disruptive when he was associated with
two guards," he said. "The guy was resisting having
shackles ... there was physical contact but it is not as if the
detainee had a swing at one of the guards."
However,
the detainee was disruptive enough to cause the transfer of two U.S.
military guards who were cited as “stressed.” The guards were
transferred away from a hospital at Guantanamo where the detainee
constantly resisted to “normal duties,” said CNN.
Another
two Army guards serving day-to-day security for the detainees, but
not in direct contact with them, were also transferred from their
posts citing general discomfort.
In
addition, CNN reports that Muslim service members at Camp X-Ray may
face heightened stress. "I help [troops] try and cope with
issues and their mission," said Lt. Abuhena Saiful-Islam, the
Muslim chaplain. Muslim troops must ensure that the sharing of
religious beliefs with detainees does not affect the way they carry
out their duties, he told CNN.
Meanwhile,
Cox said that a hunger strike that began on February 27 and was
followed on and off by most of the detainees was "effectively
over."
The
Pentagon is to announce soon the form and the regulations governing
the military tribunals that are to be set up to try some of the
detainees, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday, March 15.