excerpt from WORLD WAR 3 REPORT, #. 69. Jan. 20, 2003 PASSAIC DETAINEES ON HUNGER STRIKE Seven Muslim detainees at Passaic County Jail began a hunger strike Jan. 14 to protest their continued captivity and demand that INS officials to be punished for their mistreatment. The strikers include Farouk Abdel-Muhti, a Palestinian activist suing the government for holding him beyond the normal limit for immigration violations. The detainees' statement reads: "We denounce the gross violations of our human rights. We are being held without adequate ventilation, in unclean and unhealthy quarters. We are being denied medical care, visitation, and Islamic services. The food is completely inadequate and non-nutritious. We ask all people to defend our rights and to demand our freedom."
The detainees are demanding their immediate release, and release of all other detainees who have not been charged with crimes. Most of the detainees arrested in the government's post-9-11 sweep are held on immigration violations. "They said they're sacrificing their bodies in order to gain their rights," said Namita Chad, of the South Asian advocacy group DRUM. "They said they're going to continue the strike until someone from the INS meets with them." Bernard McFall, Abdel-Muhti's former roommate in Queens, expressed concerns for his friend. "His health was not that good before he went to jail," McFall said. "His blood pressure is high and he's not eating right or getting any exercise." INS Kerry Gill said INS guidelines define a hunger strike as a refusal of food or drink lasting 72 hours or more. "At this time, no detainees in the Newark district have missed meals over a 72-hour period," he said. (AP, Jan. 14) (http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--detainees-hungers0114jan14, 0,6057103.story) As WW3 REPORT goes to press, the strike is approaching the 72-hour mark, and authorities have increased the pressure. On Jan. 16 Wilfredo Diaz of the New York INS regional office served Abdel-Muhti with a "first warning for failure to depart," threatening him with up to four years in prison for his alleged refusal to cooperate with his deportation. Abdel-Muhti said he would not sign the document without consulting his attorney. On Jan. 17 Deportation Officer Frantz Jeudi visited Abdel-Muhti and made a second attempt to get the detainee's signature. Abdel-Muhti again insisted on his right to an attorney, and says Jeudi then became abusive and said that if he refused, "you will lose everything." The INS may be trying to interfere with a habeas corpus petition Abdel-Muhti filed on Nov. 6, which charges that he has been held unlawfully beyond the six-month period the Supreme Court set as a standard in the 2001 Zadvydas case. Abdel-Muhti does not wish to leave the US, where he has lived for more than 25 years, but insists he has cooperated fully with efforts to deport him. Abdel-Muhti is a stateless Palestinian, and the INS has failed in several efforts to deport him since the 1970s because no country would accept him. Five of the striking detainees have accepted the INS's offer of transfer to the Hudson County Jail, also in New Jersey--but INS officials insist they must end their strike before they are transferred. INS spokesperson Kerry Gill called the hunger strike "disruptive behavior." The strikers have also been strip-searched and placed in solitary confinement. One of the original seven has since taken food, due to health concerns. "The INS is playing hardball by saying it won't even transfer the detainees until they end the hunger strike," said Jane Guskin of the Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants (CHRI). "But it's the INS that provoked this strike in the first place. They know that conditions in Passaic are below even their own low standards... This time they pushed a group of detainees to the point where they're willing to risk their health, even their lives. In Farouk's case and many others, the INS is flaunting the law by refusing to abide by the Zadvydas decision. The INS needs to stop criticizing the detainees for taking this desperate measure and start obeying the law." (Committee for the Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti, Jan. 18) Abdel-Muhti's supporters are urging pressure on INS District Director Andrea Quarantillo, politley but firmly demanding respect for the strikers' minimum demands: 1. improvements in food, 2. adequate and safe medical care, 3. proper air quality in the units, 4. contact family visits, 5. a resumption of the Friday Islamic services suspended a month ago 6. separate living quarters for post-9-11 detainees. Andrea Quarantillo District Director, INS Newark District 970 Broad St. Rm. 136 Newark, NJ 07102 (973-645-4421) Also contact INS assistant commissioner David Venturella in Washington (fax: 202-353-9435; phone: 202-305-2734; email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Your message can be as short as "Free Farouk Abdel-Muhti and all INS Detainees!" Thanks to: Committee for the Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti PO Box 20587, Tompkins Square Station, New York, NY 10009 Phone: 212-674-9499 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
