As long as there are people still detained unfairly, we’ll continue campaigning, insists Ahmed.

CAPE TOWN — "As long as there are people still detained unfairly, we’ll continue campaigning," insists a determined Rahul Ahmed, a former Guantanamo detainee.

Ahmed, who was caged for three years in the notorious detention camp after being arrested while on a road trip with three friends in Afghanistan in late 2001, flew to South Africa to promote a film about his hellish Guantanamo nightmare.

In 2001, Ahmed, Monir, Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal set out to Pakistan for Iqbal’s wedding.

With time to kill before the wedding ceremony, they decided to venture out and have a look at neighboring Afghanistan. But their timing could not have been worse.

When they arrived in the country it was bombed by the US and war between the Taliban, Washington and its proxy Northern Alliance of Afghan warlords flared up.

Monir went missing and the three remaining young men, who "have come to terms with that," as Ahmed puts it, were arrested by the Northern Alliance.

They were "sold" to the Americans who flew them like hundreds of foreigners arrested in Afghanistan at the time to the remote, high-security detention center.

The Road to Guantanamo, a documentary/drama directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross, marries interviews with the friends, news clips of the Afghan war and dramatization of their travels in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The film, which earlier this year received a Silver Bear award for direction at the Berlinale film festival, is currently being screened at the Cape Town World Film Festival runs from November 14-21.

It opens nationwide in South African on November 17.

Campaigning for Freedom

The 25-year-old Ahmed, who dreamed of becoming a boxer when was younger, has taken up the fight of his life and is voluntarily campaigning for the freedom of the remaining 438 Guantanamo detainees.

"I’m not bitter about my experience. It was part of my fate. God handed it to me," says Ahmed.

Alongside Amnesty International, Ahmed travels to various countries where The Road to Guantanamo is being screened. In the process, he gets from time to time to pay for so doing.

Ahmed met this week with activists and community workers in Cape Town.

At one event, organized by the local Palestine Solidarity Group and the Muslim Youth Movement, he talked in detail about his time in Guantanamo.

Ahmed told local media that he missed his flight on the way to South Africa when British police detained him at London’s Heathrow Airport.

It is not the first time that actors in the movie were detained and questioned by British police though.

In February this year, according to the BBC, two of the film’s young actors who portray the friends were temporarily detained and interrogated when arriving in London from the Berlin film festival.

Ahmed was also detained and asked if he planned to participate in any more political films. British police denied the allegations.

Ahmed complains that Muslims also faced discrimination in Britain.

"There’s a lot happening. Muslims are being targeted throughout England. It’s a common thing. Muslims get arrested and are put in jail for a couple of days. We’re getting tired of this."

He accused the British government of failing to help him.

His wife Shada Akhtar, who accompanied him in Cape Town, recalled her nightmarish experience.

"All of a sudden it was national news. There was press coming to us… you’d contact the home affairs office, local police or MP, you’d get a blank. There was lack of support and the media was really horrible."

Hellish

Since his release on March 9, 2004, Ahmed has been reliving his experiences of torture and interrogation.

"The Northern Alliance sold us to the Americans for US$35,000 each… the American forces took us and told us that we’ll be treated better, but they put a bag over my head and tied my hands behind my back. Randomly selected foreigners were taken to Guantanamo," he recalls.

"We were tied worse than animals and the flight (from Afghanistan) was terrible.

"Eventually we were put in two-by-two-meter cages. Guantanamo Bay is really hot. You had to sit in a position and look directly into the sun. We were not allowed to pray. We were given a bucket to defecate and urinate and a bucket to drink water."

Ahmed recalls that the cages were not sheltered from "rats, mice, snakes and tarantulas (that) would come to our cage at night."

He said that prisoners had no privacy either.

Ahmed maintains that the physical torture involved beatings "until you go unconscious".

"We were handcuffed under difficult conditions for up to a day or two. They would hold you down in cold water so you freeze. They played loud music… when they have you in that position and the strobe light and heavy music, it gets to you," he recalls bitterly.

"Your head wants to explode and your body cramps. They’d also have dogs barking in front of you at your face. And interrogators kick you… There’s also sleep deprivation. They’d move you around every 15 minutes from one block to another. They also deprived us of water for weeks."

Ahmed charges that the Qur’an, Islam’s holy scripture, was abused as a form of instigation among the detainees.

"The International Committee of the Red Cross gave us Qur’ans. The soldiers would mistreat it and throw it in the toilet. Interrogators stood on it and asked us where was our god now. We told the commander of the camp that we don’t want the Qur’an. We could see that they were abusing it. Then they made a law that every cell had to have a Qur’an," he insisted.

Ahmed said the interrogates tried to manipulate the detainees.

"They would try their best to torture you. They would make you confess to an allegation that you knew about al-Qaeda and were part of the Taliban… they accused us of being members of the Taliban. As time went by the accusations became more serious. Eventually you’d be blamed of knowing about the attacks of September 11," added Ahmed.

"They would use us as a tool against each other. They would tell me that my friend said I was al-Qaeda. They would use letters from our families as psychological abuse. Receiving a letter gives one hope but taking the letter away makes one feel depressed."

Ahmed insists that Guantanamo "is a really different kind of prison".

"Most of the prisoners were praying. Every detainee would look after each other. If a detainee was missing, the whole prison would make a noise until he was returned to his cell."

Ahmed says that he was not informed why he was taken to Guantanamo or why he was eventually released almost three years later.

"Detainees in Guantanamo have no rights. If we did, we’d have legal representation. We wouldn’t be cuffed up like dogs. We weren’t give Prisoner of War status. We were taken to Guantanamo Bay because it’s not part of America. They don’t have to obey any laws," he complained.

"It’s been five years and only one detainee has been to a tribunal and not even he was sentenced."

While the film captures all the horrific details, it ends on a positive note.

"It was for Asif’s wedding that we went to Pakistan. We end up back at square one at the end of the movie," says Ahmed.

"He went to Pakistan even before we started filming. He postponed his wedding so we could get it in the film. It’s a great way to end."