SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, 18 July 2003 — A detainee tried to kill himself again in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where US authorities are preparing for military tribunals to try terror suspects, officials said Wednesday.

Tuesday’s attempt was the 29th since the detention mission began one and a half years ago, said spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson.

Most attempts occurred this year, a sign that the indefinite detentions are beginning to take their toll on detainees, who have not been formally charged or allowed to see attorneys.

“This was an individual who was receiving treatment for mental illness,” Johnson told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Guantanamo. “He has been returned to his cell with no injuries.”

The man, in his 20s, tried to hang himself during an exercise break, Johnson said. He is among 18 who have made repeated attempts.

US authorities are holding some 680 detainees from 42 countries at Guantanamo on suspicion of links to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network or Afghanistan’s fallen Taleban regime.

President Bush earlier this month designated six detainees who could be tried before military tribunals. The next step is for a chief prosecutor to draft charges.

Among the six who could be tried are Australian David Hicks and Britons Moazzam Begg, 35, and Feroz Abbasi, 23.

Hicks, a Muslim who fought with the Kosovo Liberation Army, called his parents 17 days after the Sept. 11 attacks to say he was with the Taleban, British officials said. He also allegedly threatened to kill an American upon his arrival at Guantanamo, US officials said.

Moazzam Begg, 35, has been held at Guantanamo Bay for nearly five months and was previously detained in Afghanistan for a year, according to the London-based pressure group Fair Trials Abroad. It said the father of four was seized in Pakistan in February 2002 and may be the victim of mistaken identity.

Abbasi has been in US custody since January last year. A British court ruled last November that the British government could not intervene on his behalf though his imprisonment was “legally objectionable.”

US officials have refused to reveal the identities of the others eligible for military tribunals, which lawyers and human rights groups see as a red flag for the legitimacy of such proceedings.

The proceedings of military tribunals can be kept secret. The United States has not convened such a tribunal since World War II.