Nađa Dizdarević

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Nađa Dizdarević is a Bosnian citizen. She is notable for the efforts she has made to draw the world's attention to the extrajudicial capture and detention of her husband, Boudella el Hajj.[1] Boudella was captured by American intelligence officials, and transported to detention in the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Dizdarević has organized demonstrations, sit-ins, and hunger strikes, to draw public attention to her husband's case.[2] Dizdarević collapsed and was hospitalized ending her most recent hunger strike, on December 9, 2005.[3]

On January 23, 2006 Dizdarević laid kidnapping charges against former Prime Minister Zlatko Lagumdžija, former Minister of the Interior Tomislav Limov, the warden of the prison where her husband and the others identified as the "Algerian Six" were held, and various other employees of the Interior Ministry.[4]

On January 30, 2006 Dizdarević was interviewed by the German magazine Der Spiegel.[5] In her interview she asserted that her husband's lawyers could not inquire too closely about the conditions of his detention, or he would be punished. But she had been assured by other detainees, who had been released, that Guantánamo guards had regularly shown disrespect to the Qur'an. She had asserted, just as firmly, that the guards were routinely beating children in Camp Iguana.

Three children were detained at Camp Iguana, Asadullah Abdul Rahman, Muhammad Ismail Agha and Naqibullah. They were all sought out by journalists, following their release on January 29, 2004. While they did report highly abusive treatment and interrogation while they were at the Bagram Prison in Afghanistan, they alone of all the prisoners at Guantánamo were treated well, once they arrived in Cuba. They were allowed showers twice a day, were allowed to play soccer and video games, and were provided with schooling for the first time in their lives.

Approximately a dozen other minors were detained in Guantánamo, within the general prison population. And some of them have reported, through their lawyers, the very harshest treatment. But they were not held in Camp Iguana.

The allegations of Qu'ran desecration and child abuse from Dizdarević's Der Spiegel interview were picked up and repeated by Qatar's Al Jazeera and Turkey's Kavkaz.[6][7]

[edit] References

  1.   Bosnian protest over Guantanamo, BBC, January 31, 2005
  2.   Nadja Dizdarevic, wife of Guantanamo prisoner, Algerian Boudella Al Hajj, on hunger strike in front of Bosnia's Presidency building in Sarajevo, Yahoo!, December 5, 2005
  3.   Sarajevo: Nadja Dizdarevic interrupts hunger strike, Fena, December 9, 2005
  4.   Sarajevo: Nadja Dizdarevic raises criminal charges against Lagumdzija, Limov and others, Fena, January 23, 2006
  5.   Claims about Guantanamo: "They Tear Up The Koran", Der Spiegel, January 30, 2006
  6.   “U.S. soldiers tear up the Qur’an in Guantanamo”, Al Jazeera, February 1, 2006
  7.   [U.S. soldiers tear up the Qur’an in Guantanamo, February 14, 2006