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89 Guantanamo Detainees on Hunger Strike
ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
June 1, 2006
SAN JUAN , Puerto Rico (AP) -- MoreGuantanamoBay detainees protesting their indefinite confinement joined a hunger strike, raising the number to 89 from 75, the U.S. military said Thursday.
The military said the strike is an attempt to pressure the United States to release them, but a human rights attorney described it as a desperate appeal for justice.
Six of the hunger strikers at the isolated U.S. naval base in southeast Cuba were being force-fed, said Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand. That's two more than were being force-fed last weekend.
"All are being closely monitored by the ... medical staff and being counseled on the health effects of long-term hunger striking," Durand said in a statement from GuantanamoBay.
The hunger strike is now the biggest of the year at the base, where about 460 men are being held on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.
Military officials said the hunger strikers are trying to gain public sympathy to pressure the United States to release them. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and British Attorney General Lord Goldsmith are among those who have recently called on the United States to close Guantanamo.
Ben Wizner, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who has been to GuantanamoBay, said the growing hunger strike sounds like a call for help by detainees.
"The vast majority have never been charged with any crime, and have been prevented from communicating directly with the outside world," Wizner said in a telephone interview from New York. "So it may well be their attempt to ensure that the world is reminded of their unlawful detention."
A U.N. panel said May 19 that holding detainees indefinitely at GuantanamoBay violates the world's ban on torture. The panel said the United States should close the detention center. But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington cannot turn loose "people who have vowed to kill more Americans if they're released."
Only 10 detainees have been charged with crimes. The Supreme Court is expected to rule in June whether President Bush overstepped his authority in ordering the detainees to be tried by U.S. military tribunals.
The hunger strike comes amid increasing displays of defiance from the prisoners, who have been held for up to 4 1/2 years, with many claiming their innocence.
On May 18, a detainee pretended to commit suicide to lure guards into a cellblock, where they were attacked by prisoners armed with makeshift weapons, the military said. Earlier that day, two detainees overdosed on anti-depressant drugs they collected from other detainees and hoarded in their cells. The men have since regained consciousness.
The hunger strike began in August and peaked at 131 last fall, according to the military's count, before declining to three earlier this year as the military used more aggressive force-feeding methods, including use of a restraint chair. The force-feeding is done through tubes inserted into the nose.
But last weekend, the number of hunger striker suddenly ballooned to 75.
Physicians for Human Rights has called on the United States to halt the "brutal and inhumane force-feeding tactics."
"Attorneys for Guantanamo detainees have reported extreme suffering among their clients as a result of painful force-feeding methods via nasal tubes and prolonged shackling in the restraint chairs," the group said in March. U.S. officials said the measures are "safe and humane" and have been used in American civilian prisons.
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