Jumma Jan

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Jumma Jan is the name the United States calls a citizen of Tajikistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] His detainee ID number is 1095. American intelligence analysts estimate he was born in 1978, in Kurgantapa, Tajikistan.

[edit] Identity

The detainee informed his Combatant Status Review Tribunal that his name was not Jumma Jan, it was Zain Al Abedin.^[2]

"That's true the people who found me, that's me they arrested me. But I'm not that name, I don't know what they call me. Jumma Jan. I am not that person."^[3]

The Tribunal's President responded to the detainee's assertion that his name was Zain Al Abedin, not Jumma Jan by stating:^[2]

"The detainee requested person or persons who positively identified him referring [sic] to his statement listed in the unclassified summery [sic].

"The detainee was captured in Mazar-e-Shariff [sic], Afghanistan by coalition forces and positively identified, on 3 July 2003. The identification of those who positively [sic] him at that time and place [sic] if available [sic] will be addressed in the closed session, because it would refer to classified information. The identification of those witnesses if they are identified will be referred to and be addressed in a closed session. So, for open session, for your information [sic] at this time [sic] these witnesses are not reasonably available. I have directed the Personal Representative to comment on the classified information relative to your request. That will be in the closed session of this hearing at a later time.

"Your other request, which I note [sic] on the Detainee Election Form [sic] was that you wished records indicating that you were a citizen of Afghanistan. Your citizenship as an Afghani is not relevant to your determination of [sic] being and enemy combatant..."

The Tribunal's President told the detainee he couldn't understand why he wanted the documents he felt would establish his identity and prove he was innocent of the allegations against him.^[2]

During his Administrative Review Board hearing Al Abedin gave a statement about his identity.^[4] He told his Board that, initially, his interrogators not only asserted that his real name was Jumma Jan, but also that he was an Uzbek.

Al Abedin told his Board he had only had a single, twenty minute interrogation, since he had arrived in Guantanamo, and he had no idea where the allegations against him arose.^[4]

[edit] Press reports

Abedin was captured on July 3, 2003 near Mazari Sharif, Afghanistan.^[3]

On March 15, 2006 The Guardian published an Associated Press story that reported that Abedin told his Tribunal he was a refugee who had fled Tajikistan in 1991 or 1992.^[5] They reported that he claimed he was just a taxi driver, but that the US documents accused him of being a member of the Taliban and a leader in Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin who had carried out an al Qaeda mission Tajikistan.

Zain Al Abedin is the nickname used by the fourth Shi'a imam's^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a small trailer, the same width, but shorter, than a mobile home. The Tribunal's President sat in the big chair. The detainee sat with their hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor in the white, plastic garden chair. A one way mirror behind the Tribunal President allowed observers to observe clandestinely. In theory the open sessions of the Tribunals were open to the press. Three chairs were reserved for them. In practice the Tribunal only intermittently told the press that Tribunals were being held. And when they did they kept the detainee's identities secret. In practice almost all Tribunals went unobserved.

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunal to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

Jan chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[2]

[edit] Allegations

a. -- The general summary of the allegations that establish an association with terrorism were missing from the transcript. --

1. The detainee, as a military commander, reportedly was assigned a mission in Tajikistan after 11 September 2001 as part of an al Qaida and Taliban operational plan.
2. The detainee was a leader of a Taliban compound.
3. The detainee is a high-ranking Taliban member and is currently a Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin [sic] (HIG) Commander.
4. Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin [sic] (HIG) has been designated by the United States as a terrorist organization.
5. The detainee was captured in Mazar-e-Shariff [sic], Afghanistan by coalition forces [sic] and positively identified, on 3 July 2003.

b. -- The general summary of the allegations of hostile activity were missing from the transcript. --

1. The detainee was in leadership role in a rocket attack against United States forces at the Mazar-e-Shariff airfield.
2. The detainee has been implicated in the roadside bomb assassination attempt of General Dostum, a Northern Alliance leader.

[edit] Al Abedin's testimony in response to allegations

• Al Abedin denied being a member of the Taliban, either before, or after September 11, 2001.
• Al Abedin asserted he hadn't been in Tajikistan for 13 years prior to his capture.
• Al Abedin denied being a leader of anything.
• Al Abedin provided his Tribunal with a brief biography:
  • Al Abedin said he was born in 1978, in Tajikistan.
  • Al Abedin said he left Tajikistan as a teenager, due to chaos. main Tajikistan civil war
  • Al Abedin said he lived in Afghanistan, as a refugee, during 1991 and 1992.
  • Al Abedin told his Tribunal he then traveled to Pakistan, and became a refugee there, to continue his education. Al Abedin's translator told his Tribunal he thought Al Abedin meant Afghanistan, not Pakistan.
  • Al Abedin told his Tribunal that, while he was in Pakistan, his parents returned to Tajikistan.
  • Al Abedin told his Tribunal that, after he finished his education in Pakistan, he developed a serious case of tuberculosis. He didn't have the money to get medical treatment in Pakistan, so he decided to try to return to Tajikistan.
  • Al Abedin told his Tribunal that when he traveled from Pakistan to Afghanistan, an "Afghanistan gentleman" sponsored his Afghani citizenship, and provided him with a car to drive, as a taxi, so he could earn money to pay for his medical treatment.
  • Al Abedin said he earned the funds to pay for his medical treatment, and started working as a tractor driver.
  • Al Abedin told his Tribunal he would have left Afghanistan, except that his Tuberculosis treatment was not completely successful, and had to be repeated.
  • Al Abedin suggested that the doctor who treated his Tuberculosis could serve as a witness.
• Al Abedin pointed out to his Tribunal that the Taliban and Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin were enemies. According to Al Abedin the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin had fought against the Taliban during their regime, and had been one of the organizations in the Northern Alliance. He questioned how someone could be a senior member of two organizations that were at war with one another.
• Al Abedin denied ever being a member of Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin.
• Al Abedin offered an account of the circumstances of his capture:
  • Al Abedin described crossing the bazaar in the village he lived in outside of Mazari Sharif. He was carrying a fan-belt for a car he was planning to fix.
  • Al Abedin saw some American soldiers in the bazaar. After he had passed them, they called out after him, and asked him to get in their vehicle. When he complied they put a hood over his head, and drove him off to captivity.
  • Al Abedin said he was kept in isolation in a small room, prior to his first interrogation, which lasted 24 hours.
• Al Abedin denied having a role in either the attack on Mazari Sharif airfield, and the assassination attempt on General Dostum.
• In response to the allegation he had participated in an attack on Dostum, Al Abedin explained:

  "When we got as a refugee [sic] in Afghanistan, first [sic] time we came to the Caliza District and (inaudible) in the side of the road. As soon as we escaped form the Tajikistan side and passed the river because of the chaos inside Tajikistan and our enemy was following us and we came on the other side of the river, those Dostum he provided us with helicopters. One and a half years he supported us with food and clothes. The number of the refugges which they landed in the dessert [sic] which was sand only and Dostum provided a camp for us, it was 15000 (inaudible). When a person fees you for one and a half years how can you destroy the salft. It is an expression in that [sic] language. When you eat from somebody you can't do bad to him. How can I eat for one and a half years from him, food and I destroy the salt for him? It is not possible. For 13 years I was away form Tajikistan and they accuse me that I was doing the plan in Tajikistan, it is not possible. This is my story.

[edit] Al Abedin's answers to the Tribunal officer's questions

• Al Abedin said he was captured two years prior to his Tribunal.
• Al Abedin said he was engaged to a woman in Mazari Sharif.
• Al Abedin said he had never heard the name Jumma Jan prior to his capture. The only Jumma he knew waa a doctor Jumma, who was a fellow refugee he met in the refugee camp.
• Al Abedin confirmed that he had no idea why anyone would accuse him of being Jumma Jan.
• The man who owned the tractor and the bus he drove was Haji Rasseed.

The President of Al Abedin's Tribunal could not understand why Al Abedin hadn't requested the man who owned the tractor and bus Al Abedin drove to testify on his behalf. Al Abedin's Personal Representative tried to explain it to him

"Yes, sir. As we saw from his replies to all the pieces of evidence against him, he did tell me, at that time, that the information was in the file and yes I explained to him that the Tribunal does not look at the file, nor does the Personal Representative before we meet with the individual. Because it gives us both a more objective approach to deliberate the evidence against that side of the story. So regarding the specific asking for witnesses, it is clear he has disputed each and every piece of evidence on the unclassified summery. His story and time in Afghanistan is a lengthy and detailed one. He had no idea what evidence to cause to skew things in his mind far out there, which is why he had asked me for the individual or individuals who had positively identified him, to address what they knew how they identified him and what they were bringing up his allegations. Based on all the information received then he could provide names and numbers, phones locations of anybody the Tribunal would like."

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearing

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat -- or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.

Jan chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.^[4]

Al Abedin explained to the Board that his name was not Jumma Jan.

Unlike the President of his Tribunal, the Board's Presiding Officer insisted that Al Abedin be referred to as Jumma Jan.

[edit] Letters

Al Abedin's Assisting Military Officer presented five letters addressed to Zainulabudin as evidence of his actual identity. Other detainees have had letters they submitted as evidence appended to their transcripts. But Al Abedin's letters were not appended.

[edit] Factors for and against continued detention

All of the Administrative Review Boards were presented with a memorandum where the Designated Military Officer had summarized the factors for and against the detainee's continued detention. A translated copy of this memo was always prepared for the detainee. The factors were always read aloud during the initial part of the hearings. They were usually repeated, one at a time, giving the detainee a chance to respond to each in turn, and thus recorded in the hearing's transcript.

Al Abedin's Assisting Military Officer read the response's Al Abedin had dictated to him, in response to the factors. The transcripts from other detainee's hearings include written responses read aloud by their Assisting Military Officers. But the factors for and against Al Abedin's detention were not recorded in his transcript.

However the Presiding Officer paraphrased several of the allegations during his questioning. According to the Presiding Officer:

[edit] Testimony

• Al Abedin confirmed that, in the late 1990s, during the initial ten months when he drove a car provided for him by

a benefactor, he drove around a member of the Taliban who had lost the use of his legs.

• Al Abedin confirmed he had worked for a Swedish organization. He said "they call it the Swedish Committee". The organization provided medical aid.
• Al Abedin confirmed that he had received further treatment for his Tuberculosis while in custody, four months in Bagram and seven months in Guantanamo.
• Al Abedin confirmed that he was also a citizen of Afghanistan.
• According to one of the questions from the Presiding Officer, Al Abedin
• According to one of the questions from the Presiding Officer, Al Abedin was associated with a Qarim boy. Al Abedin denied knowing a Qarim boy.

Al Abedin's Presiding Officer posed the following question:

"Jumma Jan, in your comments that the Assisting Military Officer made for you, you asked, "How do they find these things out, they're killing you with extra questions and what not, they do not ask me." So I am going to ask you a couple [of questions] here. The commitment [referring to the unclassified summary of information] [the] detainee has fought with the Taliban under several commanders. Can you explain.. .why the detainee has also resided with several HIG commanders, Hezb-e-Islami commanders, could you explain that?"

[edit] Concluding statement

For the last two years I have been detained under the name of Jumma Jan. I wanted to know what is the reason and what is the proof of people calling me Jumma Jan. First they called me Uzbek and if I am fiom Uzbekistan. Why [are] the letters coming for me from Tajikistan? Since I [have been here] in Cuba, they [have] just interrogated me for less than twenty minutes, once, only once. I don't know how these accusations [have] come about I [have been] here for one and a-half years and [only] one time [have] they interrogated me. [On] a weekly basis, I always insist for [an] interrogation, but nobody [will] take me. Well, the world and everybody [is] hoping [mat] America is a great country and [that] they are helping to vanish the terrorist and provide justice. I don't know why they [keep] call[ing] me a different name and [why] they are putting [so many] accusation^] against me. They should have proof. Tajikistan people, they are hoping [that the] Coalition Force[s] or Americans should come and control mem because they need stability. But this kind of stability, I don't know. Well when I moved from Pakistan to Afghanistan there was not [an] embassy from Tajikistan there. Also my parents or my family were not there, so I needed money for treatment I was vomiting blood and I was in a very bad shape so what was I suppose to do? The Taliban government was not a recognized government, so anyway I worked in order to get some money to buy the treatment for myself. Well thank you very much for listening to me. This is all I have.

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Jumma Jan's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 41-52
3. ^ ^{a b} Meet the world's most dangerous terrorists, Infowars, March 7, 2006
4. ^ ^{a b c} Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Jumma Jan's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 32
5. ^ Sketches of Guantanamo Detainees-Part II, The Guardian, March 15, 2006