On the first day, we mostly interviewed detainees housed in the smaller building. After we learned the significance of where people were detained, when we returned two days later we selected detainees exclusively from the big building. An indication of the fear of the guards and the difficulty in conducting interviews, even when completely private, is the comment of one of the detainees to a Human Rights Watch researcher on our second visit: “When you visited last time, people were afraid of expressing themselves and saying what happened to them. We were afraid of what might happen to us that evening after you left the camp. I want to talk to you, but I don’t know what will happen to me after this.”115 The conditions in the big building, particularly in the bigger of the two rooms, are abysmal—completely unfit for human habitation, even for a short duration. As a place of indefinite detention, the conditions alone are inhuman and degrading. Words fail to describe the sight and smell of 400 men crammed into a single room. For our own security, we were not allowed to walk into the room, but stood at the only door to the room, a padlocked iron gate, where we peered into the darkness. Though men crowded toward us, they parted their human sea so we could see the jammed crowd all the way to the wall. There was no space between any bodies; they sat shoulder to shoulder both along the walls and in the room’s interior. All the men were dirty and smelled foul. Some appeared to be quite ill. Men came forward who had particularly hideous skin infections and rashes. We saw men whose torsos and faces were completely covered in open sores that looked quite contagious. Those crowding against the bars of the door called out various messages, including: “There is beating here;” “The food is bad;” “I was slapped in the face;” “How long must we stay here?” “People are sleeping in the toilet.”116 The big building looks like an old warehouse. It is dark and fetid. There are only small windows at the ceiling level and these are made of glass so are useless in terms of air circulation and cooling. There is only one window fan and one other fan at the end of the room. Although the larger of the two rooms has an exit that leads to the courtyard 115 116 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld, E-158), Edirne, June 13, 2008. These comments are not coded as individual interviews, but were made to Human Rights Watch on June 13, 2008 at Edirne. 53 Human Rights Watch November 2008