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Some Guantanamo detainees allowed to garden

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A select group of detainees at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been allowed to plant gardens for the first time, a military spokesman said.

Prisoners in Camp 4, which holds the “most compliant” detainees, started growing tomatoes several weeks ago in concrete soil-filled planters, Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand said.

The military allowed the gardens — and provided plastic gardening tools, watering cans and seeds — at the request of lawyers for detainees, Durand said Friday in an e-mail response to questions about the activity.

Gardening is intended to “provide intellectual stimulation,” to prisoners, he said, comparing it to the military’s detainee library and literacy programs in Arabic and Pashto.

Camp 4 holds about 35 detainees, who are allowed to congregate with each other, spend 12-14 hours a day outside, eat communally and live in barracks-style housing.

Only those who have “demonstrated long-term compliance with camp rules,” are permitted to live in Camp 4, Durand said.

In all, Guantanamo holds about 385 prisoners on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban. Most are held in one-person cells, eat alone and have only limited outdoor recreation.

Lawyers said they appreciated the decision to allow Camp 4 detainees to garden.

“This is welcome news, and one small but important step toward sanity,” said Sabin Willett, an attorney who represents ethnic Uighurs from western China held at Guantanamo.

Willett said that gardens have traditionally been allowed in prisoner-of-war camps and even Army regulations require that “men held in prolonged imprisonment must be given some useful and creative thing to do.”

Clive Stafford Smith, an attorney with the British human rights group Reprieve, said he asked the military to allow gardens last year and had begun collecting donated seeds. He learned they had been authorized during a visit he made to the prison last week. “It’s a small step forward,” he said.