Former Guantanamo detainee awakes from coma in Uruguay

A former Guantanamo detainee reportedly has awakened from a coma that resulted from a hunger strike to express his unhappiness about being resettled in Uruguay and his demand to be moved to another country.
Cristian Mirza, the Uruguayan government’s liaison with six resettled detainees, said Thursday that Abu Wa’el Dhiab had come out of the coma at his apartment in Montevideo.
Dr. Julia Galzerano of the Medical Union of Uruguay said Dhiab was extremely dehydrated after 11 days without water, but said his vital signs were generally good, despite kidney problems.
She said paramedics found him unconscious when they arrived at the apartment where the 45-year-old Syrian has been staying in Montevideo. He remained at the apartment for treatment, in keeping with his wishes not to be hospitalized during his protest.
A supporters’ group known as Vigil for Jihad Dhiab said he began to regain consciousness after treatment with a saline solution. But it said that after regaining lucidity, he decided to remove the intravenous line.
Dhiab drew international attention through hunger strikes during his 12 years of occasionally confrontational confinement at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Released in December 2014, he could not return to his war-torn homeland and was taken in as a refugee by Uruguay along with five other freed detainees.
While the others mostly stayed out of the spotlight, Dhiab grew increasingly disgruntled in this South American country.
Less than two months after his arrival, he turned up in neighboring Argentina, and denounced the US failure to close Guantanamo. US officials said the trip violated an understanding he not leave the country but Uruguay has said there was no such agreement.
He also publicly complained about life in Uruguay, to the increasing irritation of the government, and he protested outside the US Embassy. 
At some point, he began the hunger strike seeking to pressure Uruguay’s government into allowing him to join his wife and children in Turkey or another nation.

Source: Arab News