Several of the detainees told Human Rights Watch that the water made them sick but that the building would get so hot that they would have to drink it anyway. One man said, “The biggest problems here are the toilets and no water to drink. My urine becomes very yellow because I only drink Coca Cola that I pay for. There are two showers, but the taps are broken, so you can only use the faucet at the bottom and there is no hot water.”119 Many of the detainees were in visibly poor health. A Bangladeshi teenager now in Kırklareli told of his time at the Tunca facility: “Edirne was a very awful situation. There was no place for bathing. Insects would get inside the skin. Everyone there gets skin diseases. The food is a half a portion of bread and the hot food tastes like rubber. There is no doctor.”120 Since the iron-barred door is usually padlocked and there is little movement in or out of the room, there is actually little contact between guards and other staff and the detainees. But every point of contact is a source of friction. Feeding a room filled with hundreds of hungry men through one slot in the bars of the door creates an obvious potential for conflict: They think we are not men, that we are the same as animals… It is never possible to communicate with the guards. Nobody respects the two men who distribute the food. They are not police. The stronger one of the two, a big fat man about 40 years old with brown hair, had three loaves of bread in his hand. He told me to take the smallest one. I told him I wanted the other and I got angry and threw the bread in the dust bin. He then took me outside, beat me up, and spat in my face. He hit me four times. He punched me twice with his fist and slapped me twice with his hand.121 When detainees at Edirne have any contact at all with guards and staff, beatings are common. A 20-year-old French-speaking African man claiming to be Somali, who was 119 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld, B-108), Edirne, June 13, 2008. 120 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld, B-100), Kırklareli, June 10, 2008. 121 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld, B-110), Edirne, June 13, 2008. 55 Human Rights Watch November 2008