’Screaming is a constant’ amid Guantanamo force-feeding

Officials deny that the force-feeding of hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay breaks any human rights rules or is a form of torture, reports Shona Murray in Guantanamo Bay.

HUNGER striking prisoners are being force-fed at a ‘steady’ rate at Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) prison, according to a senior staff nurse who administer the procedure at the facility. The prison refuses to disclose exactly how many detainees are force-fed, because of the undesired media attention the mass protest received in recent times.

Last year, the UN high commissioner for human rights issued a statement, denouncing as ‘torture’ and a breach of international law, the process of force-feeding or ‘enterally feeding’ prisoners in the manner undertaken by prison medical staff at Guantanamo Bay.