Guantanamo inmates allowed film nights and gardening

A holiday camp it plainly will never be but the American officers running the Guantanamo Bay compound in Cuba are taking steps to make the lives of its detainees marginally more tolerable with recreational treats such as once-a-week film nights and limited access to television.

The steps, though limited, mark a change of tack for the American military after months of seeking to toughen discipline at the facility after unrest in one of its sections - Camp 4 - erupted last year with a brief riot and the suicides of three inmates.

It is in Camp 4, which is reserved for the most compliant of the prisoners, that the first changes are being brought in. Its roughly 45 detainees - out of a total of 375 still at Guantanamo - have already been allowed to tend a vegetable garden and watch television shows selected by officers. Among them is a documentary show about deep sea fishing off Alaska called The Deadliest Catch. The idea is to provide the inmates, most of whom are accused of ties with al-Qa'ida or the Taliban, with "increased mental stimulation," Navy Rear Admiral Mark Buzby said this week. Another innovation is the expansion of language classes, both Arabic and English, for detainees who must nonetheless sit in classrooms with one ankle chained to the floor.

"There are certainly benefits to giving them outlets other than sitting in their cell or sitting in their recreation cell for hours at a time with nothing else to exercise their mind or think about other than their situation," he explained.

Admiral Buzby said it has become easier to relax some restrictions because the number of inmates has shrunk. About 100 have been released in the past year. Discipline problems have also been on the wane, although another inmate died from an apparently suicide at the end of May.

But it is hardly likely that the new recreational activities will do much to blunt criticism of Guantanamo in the US and around the world. Many inmates have remained for five years without having specific charges brought against them. The White House recently indicated it was working on plans to move them elsewhere and close the complex. However, there is little information on when a decision might be made and Admiral Buzby said his changes at the camp would go forward regardless.

"These Band-Aid measures are going to do nothing to help alleviate the hopelessness and despair that many of our clients are fighting," said Marc Falkoff, a law professor who represents 18 detainees. "I hope that learning about these 'improvements' will help the public understand how harsh our clients' lives have been for more than five years."

Improved conditions are also under way in other sections of the compound, where inmates considered less compliant are held. Windows are being cut into concrete walls around recreation areas, which themselves are being made larger to allow inmates to leave their cells more often.