US reports increase in Guantanamo hunger strike

[Judi Lynn]

Thursday, Dec 29, 2005
US reports increase in Guantanamo hunger strike

30.12.05 1.00pm


The US military today reported a major surge since Christmas Day in the number of Guantanamo Bay prisoners taking part in a nearly 5-month-old hunger strike, with 84 currently refusing food.

Army Lt Col Jeremy Martin, a military spokesman, said 46 detainees at the prison for foreign terrorism suspects at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, joined the hunger strike last Sunday. The military defines a hunger striker as someone who has refused nine straight meals.

The detainees launched their strike in early August after the military reneged on promises to bring the prison into compliance with the Geneva Conventions, according to lawyers representing them. Detainees are willing to die to demand humane treatment and a fair hearing on whether they must stay at the prison, the lawyers said.

The United States currently holds approximately 500 detainees at Guantanamo, most captured in Afghanistan and many held for nearly four years without charges.
(snip/)

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10361937

[NanceGreggs]

1. A will to die ...

"Detainees are willing to die to demand humane treatment and a fair hearing ..."

Ever wonder how many 'patriots' like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al, would be willing to DIE for anything even remotely close to 'humane treatment and a fair hearing'? I doubt any of them would be willing to die to save their own children.

[Desertrose]

2. and reason to die....

...being held indefinitely in the horrendous conditions of Gitmo.....

Sad what our country has come to, isn't it?

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

3. Everytime I hear or read anything about this story, my mind returns to

the Irish hunger strikers and 1981.

The American media was willing, at least, to show the American public what was going on in Long Kesh, even though their coverage of it didn't please Reagan or that bitch, Maggie Thatcher.

But then again, Bobby Sands, Ray McCreesh, et al were the "terrorists" then when basically they died for their human rights.

[mom cat]

4. Remember when Americans were appalled that people were sent to Siberia?

How is what we are doing any different? We called it tyrany when "they" were doing it. We screamed about human rights violations in Chinese prisons. We have sunk to the level of everything we were taught to fear and hate. So much for "values".

[Supersedeas]

7. Maybe the so-called values crowd has a short memory

[Judi Lynn]

5. 84 prisoners now on hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay

84 prisoners now on hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay

30/12/2005 - 08:45:55

The number of detainees involved in a hunger strike at the US internment camp in Cuba's Guantanamo Bay has more than doubled in the past week.

The US authorities say 84 prisoners are now refusing food, with 46 more joining the protest on Christmas Day.

The US military is believed to be force-feeding some of the inmates, who are protesting against the conditions in which they are being held and their continued detention without trial.
(snip/)

http://www.eecho.ie/news/bstory.asp?j=167485086&p=y6748579z&n=167485846

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Guantanamo Prisoners Still Suffer

Washington, Dec 29 (Prensa Latina) Between 550 and 750 prisoners, including minors, continue to be held illegally and given inhumane treatment at the US Naval Base in Guantanamo, Cuba.

"Men and children are detained in conditions you would describe as cruel if it were done to a dog or a cat," Judi K-Turkel and Franklynn Peterson wrote for the Madison Capital Times daily.

The reporters criticized the government that, with the tacit consent of elected congress people, arrested these people and sent them to the concentration camp in Guantanamo.

They also criticized the media for echoing everything the Bush Administration told them without checking for veracity.
(snip/...)

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7BA5EEFDF3-C551-4D96-AD0A-BB1640C94F21%7D&language=EN

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Number Of Guantanamo Prisoners On Hunger Strike Doubles

POSTED: 11:03 pm EST December 29, 2005

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- More detainees have joined a hunger strike at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

An official there says 46 detainees joined 38 already on strike last week. The latest protesters started their strike on Dec. 25. The number of participants is said to fluctuate.

Thirty-two fasting detainees are being fed through tubes, either through their noses or intravenously. Most have alleged inhumane and cruel treatment. The U.S. denies the accusations.
(snip/...)

http://www.wpxi.com/news/5721878/detail.html

[Judi Lynn]

6. Camp X-Ray hunger strikes dismissed as publicity stunt

Times Online December 30, 2005

Camp X-Ray hunger strikes dismissed as publicity stunt
By Simon Freeman and agencies

~snip~
Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Martin, a spokesman at the base, said that 32 of the longer-term strikers - some of whom began refusing meals five months ago - were being force-fed through plastic nasal tubes in hospital. He said that the remainder were under close medical observation.
(snip)

In a statement, he described the strike as a classic al-Qaeda publicity stunt: "This is consistent with al-Qaeda training and reflects detainee attempts to elicit media attention and bring pressure on the United States government."
(snip)

A detainee must refuse nine consecutive meals for the military to consider him on a hunger strike. Jumana Musa, a spokesman for Amnesty International, told the Reuters news agency that this week’s surge in the number of participants in the strike was an indication of the increasing desperation of the inmates.

"You are talking about a prison population of hundreds who have decided that with no conceivable change in their future that they just don’t care to live anymore, or they are going to make a statement in dying," he said.

Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, a lawyer for three detainees including Bahraini striker Isa Almurbati, said: "Isa has 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 any due process is simply unbearable.
(snip/...)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1963642,00.html