Untitled Document
 |
|
There are 460 detainees at the US facility in Guantanamo Bay
|
Almost 100 prisoners are on hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay and several
detainees are being force-fed, the American military said yesterday.
The protest at the detention centre on the US naval base in eastern Cuba has swelled
in recent weeks.
Military officials said that the hunger strikers are trying to gain public
sympathy to pressure the United States to release them. But Ben Wizner, a lawyer
with the American Civil Liberties Union, said: "The vast majority have
never been charged with any crime and have been prevented from communicating
directly with the outside world.
"So it may well be their attempt to ensure that the world is reminded
of their unlawful detention."
Cmdr Robert Durand of the US navy said that 89 prisoners among the 460 suspected
al-Qa'eda and Taliban supporters held at Guantanamo were participating in the
hunger strike.
"All are being closely monitored by… medical staff and being counselled
on the health effects of long-term hunger striking," he said.
But Clive Stafford Smith, a British-born lawyer working for several detained
men, said he believed that the military was under-reporting the number of hunger
strikers.
