Mansoor Adayfi launched his new book 'Don't Forget us Here', at Charlie Byrne's Bookshop alongside the Galway Alliance Against War
Guantanamo Bay survivor Mansoor Adayfi launched his new book 'Don't Forget Us Here' to a packed audience at Charlie Byrne's Bookshop last week.
Famed for writing open letters to US presidents Bush and Biden, over two hours Adayfi described to a Galway audience his harrowing experiences of being a prisoner in the USA’s Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.
The former Guantanamo prisoner stood at the top of the room in an orange t-shirt with his former identity number, 441, printed on it as a show of defiance.
Niall Hanlon, a Galway Alliance Against War (GAAW ) member, introduced the night by linking the inhumanity in Guantanamo to Ireland's involvement and complicity in war crimes through the use of Shannon Airport. He stated that "we have to keep the pressure on," so that Ireland does not just keep doing "whatever the monsters in [Washington] want".
From 2002 to 2008, 147 planes stopped in Ireland with kidnapped 'prisoners' from Europe and Afghanistan, according to Hanlon. The GAAW wants to close Guantanamo now and focus on Irish complicity in US wars via Shannon "Warport" and what it describes as EU militarisation.
For the 13 years he was held prisoner, Adayfi said he faced death many times, and suffered torture beyond what any normal human should have to fear. Suffering intense interrogations, fake executions and enduring numerous hunger strikes, Adayfi still manages to crack jokes and remain positive when recounting his life story.
His tale dissects the tragedy of an unjust imprisonment system. Adayfi asserts his strength: "You'll never break me, you'll never change me. I speak out because many prisoners cannot speak out."
Adayfi continues to wear the colour orange, the same shade as his prison jumpsuit, as a show of resistance against Guantanamo Bay detention centre. He managed to keep one of his orange jumpsuits from Guantanamo, and showed it to the audience. He stated that he, and organisations such as Galway Alliance Against War, are not looking for forgiveness exactly, but rather they are looking for justice and "accountability, accountability, accountability."
