Delivered Into Enemy Hands - Human Rights Watch

Both were detained in this first location in Afghanistan for about a year. Shoroeiya gave the
exact dates, stating that he was there from April 18, 2003 to April 25, 2004. 132 Sharif said
he was there for about a year from the time he arrived from Islamabad, though he did not
know the exact date of his arrival, until sometime between April 20 and April 25, 2004.
They were then moved to a second facility that they both also believed was in Afghanistan
and run by Americans. Shoroeiya stayed there for about four months and Sharif for approx-
imately one year.
The following is a description of the first facility in Afghanistan, where they allege the worst
abuse occurred.
Afghanistan I
Shoroeiya and Sharif each said they were kept in almost total darkness the entire time
they were in the first facility in Afghanistan. Their cells, as well as the rooms where they
were interrogated, were dark. Guards and interrogators would come to them with flashlights
and in some cases strong spotlights they would shine in their eyes. In addition to the
darkness, there was loud, Western music blaring constantly. 133 Both said they were denied
clothing during the first few months of their detention.
Shoroeiya had a thin mat in his cell, while Sharif said he had a carpet, perhaps a mat, in
his cell. Both had a bucket in their cell they were to use as a toilet. The men said that
chemicals were in the bucket that, when mixed with their urine and excrement, gave off a
terrible stench. Shoroeiya drew a layout of the facility where he was detained and his cell
132 When we asked Shoroeiya to explain how he was able to know the dates he was detained with precision given that he
was kept in darkness for much of his confinement, he said he knew the date he was arrested and how long he was detained
in different places in Pakistan. He noted that after he had been held for what seemed like a long period of time, he was taken
outside for the first time to see sunlight. When this happened, he glanced at his guard’s watch and noticed it was September
5, 2003, nearly five months since his detention in Pakistan. Later, his captors put very small lamps in his room and gave
them a Quran, a pencil that was flexible so that it could not be used as a weapon, and some papers. When this happened he
took the opportunity to make a calendar. The date he started with was September 5, 2003. From then on he kept track of the
days with the help of the person in cell 5, someone named Naseem, who he described as “a sort of specialist with time”
because he had a birds’ nest outside his window so when “a kind of movement started [in the nest] he could tell it was
morning.” Shoroeiya was fully composed up until that point of the interview, but when a Human Rights Watch researcher
commented on the remarkable adaptability of human beings, Shoroeiya became visibly emotional, tried to continue, but
then needed to stop for a break in the interview.
133 Bashmilah also described the same loud, Western music being played throughout his detention. Bashmilah Declaration,
para. 64.
DELIVERED INTO ENEMY HANDS 38