Svendsen, Kent - short clip - ForbiddentoSpeaktoDetainees

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-	The commander brought me into his office	0:00
	and brought me to attention	0:03
	and came right up into my face	0:06
	and looked at me and says, chaplain, under no circumstances	0:08
	you have any kind of conversation	0:11
	or even say hello to a detainee.	0:13
Interviewer	Did he explain why?	0:16
-	Well, he explained why in terms	0:17
	of the person that I relieved had taken the place	0:19
	of Chaplain Ye and Chaplain Ye	0:24
	was the Muslim chaplain whom the military	0:27
	had considered espionage charges against	0:30
	because of his activities.	0:34
	And I don't want to go any farther than that.	0:35
	Just to say that	0:37
	Chaplain Ye basically had the	0:39
	took the initiative of giving the detainees more	0:43
	and more rights, which really were not the rights	0:45
	for privileges and was causing a very big disruption	0:48
	in the camp because of the	0:51
	the antagonism was created because of his activities.	0:53
	And so therefore was thought the best to simply	0:57
	not allow the chaplain to talk	0:59
	to the detainees or have any direct contact with them.	1:00
	And that would solve the problem.	1:03
	You know, I was as close as I am to you to the detainees	1:05
	in many occasions and even spoke to me	1:07
	they even spoke to me	1:09
	and I couldn't so much to say (indistinct).	1:11
	I couldn't say anything to him.	1:13
	And so I hid behind my sunglasses and basically didn't talk	1:14
	and explain to the the guards,	1:17
	I'm not allowed to talk to them as much	1:20
	as I would love to be able to have that conversation.	1:22
	I can't.	1:24
	And in many of the guards had some very good rapport	1:25
	with the detainees in the camp.	1:29
	And so I learned, I related to them through the guards.	1:31
Interviewer	Were you disappointed	1:35
	that you weren't able to talk to the detainees?	1:36
-	Um, yes,	1:39
	yes,	1:42
Interviewer	Because?	1:42
-	Because I'm always interested in, you know	1:44
	how to relate to people that are different than me.	1:47
	I wanted very much to know who these Muslim individuals were	1:51
	and what they held is valuable	1:56
	and in what their hopes and dreams were.	1:59
	And, you know, the biggest issue of bigotry and prejudice	2:01
	in this world is that we don't take the time to stop	2:04
	to understand people that are different	2:06
	than us and understand why they're different from us.	2:08
	And that that's not necessarily a bad thing.	2:10

Item Info

Title:

Svendsen, Kent - short clip - ForbiddentoSpeaktoDetainees

Date:

October 30, 2010

Interviewer:

Honigsberg, Peter Jan

Interviewee:

Svendsen, Kent

Role:

Chaplain

Description:

This interview may include descriptions of violence.
Christian Chaplain
Kent Svendsen, male, age 58, served as chaplain for the military police battalion in Guantanamo from May 2004 to March 2005, working inside Camp Delta for the commanding officer and the troops.
Description was provided by Witness to Guantanamo.

Subject:

United States

Format:

oral histories

Language:

English

Extent:

1:29:31

Digital Collection:

Witness to Guantanamo

Source Collection:

Witness to Guantanamo Video Collection, 2009-2017

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Rights Note:

Unless otherwise noted, copyright is held by Peter Hongisberg. Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license, you are free to use and share these materials subject to the following conditions: You must attribute Peter Hongisberg as the rights holder. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. You may not distribute any modifications to the materials. For other uses, including commercial uses, please contact Rubenstein Library at http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/ask.

Identifier:

185c9184621c37b77059312a731ecae3
witnesstoguantanamo
ark:/87924/r4z035v05
db71c425-2040-4e41-9f4e-12a50c68b8e3

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4z035v05

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Svendsen, Kent - short clip - ForbiddentoSpeaktoDetainees

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