Guantanamo hunger strike widens

THE number of Guantanamo Bay prisoners taking part in a hunger strike that began nearly five months ago has surged to 84 since Christmas Day.

Forty-six detainees in the prison for foreign terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, joined the protest on Christendom’s most widely observed holy day, December 25, according to military spokesman, Lt Col Jeremy Martin.

The prisoner population, which the Pentagon says numbers about 500, is believed to be uniformly Muslim. Only nine have been charged.

“There’s been a significant increase in the number that have been added to the hunger strike,” Lt Col Martin said by telephone from Guantanamo.

Lawyers for some of the detainees said the strike is a protest at jail conditions and the prisoners’ lack of legal rights.

The military has denied torture allegations relating to Guantanamo Bay.

Medical personnel were force-feeding 32 of the hunger strikers via plastic tubes inserted into the stomach through the nose, the military said.

Asked what the purpose of the force-feeding was, Martin said: “Our policy is to preserve life.”

Detainees began the strike in early August after the military reneged on promises to bring the prison into compliance with the Geneva Conventions, their lawyers said.

Most of the detainees were captured in Afghanistan and have been held for nearly four years.

Amnesty International said this week’s surge in the number of hunger strikers illustrates the seriousness of the situation.

Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, a lawyer for three detainees including Bahraini striker Isa Almurbati, said, “Isa told me that he will end the hunger strike when he is sent home. His philosophy is that he should be sent home or allowed to die, because the idea of spending the rest of his life at Guantanamo without due process is simply unbearable.”

In a statement, the military said the hunger strike was “consistent with al Qaeda training” and prisoner attempts to use the media to “bring pressure on the United States government to release them”.