More than half of the men held at the Guantanamo detention camp have joined an escalating hunger strike to protest their open-ended detention, a camp spokesman said on Monday.<\/p>\n
The U.S. military counted 84 of the 166 prisoners as hunger strikers and was force-feeding 16 of them with liquid meals through tubes inserted in their noses and down into their stomachs.<\/p>\n
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Prisoners in Guantanamo Bay<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Six were hospitalised for observation, said Lt.-Col. Samuel House, a spokesman for the detention operation at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in southeastern Cuba.<\/p>\n
Asked if there were enough doctors and nurses to keep up with the twice-daily tube-feedings, House said, “We currently have enough medical personnel on site, and have identified additional medical personnel, should they become necessary in the future.”<\/p>\n
Hunger strikes have occurred at Guantanamo since shortly after the U.S.began detaining suspected al Qaeda and Taliban captives there in January 2002.<\/p>\n
The current hunger strike began in early February, after guards seized photos and other belongings during a cell search.<\/p>\n
Prisoners said the guards had also mistreated their Korans during the search, which the U.S. military denies.<\/p>\n
The military has declined to say what prompted the cell searches but similar searches<\/p>\n
have been conducted in the past.<\/p>\n
Though the cell search was the immediate trigger, military officials and lawyers for the prisoners have said the protest generally reflects frustration with the failure to resolve the prisoners’ fate.<\/p>\n
Most have been held for more than a decade without charge or trial and Congress has blocked Obama administration efforts to close the camp.<\/p>\n
“It’s escalated because the men are desperate and they’ve hit a breaking point,” said Carlos Warner, a federal public defender from Ohio who is part of a team representing 11 Guantanamo prisoners.<\/p>\n
“Really what is behind all this is that the president abandoned his promise to close Guantanamo. The men know that, they’re desperate.”<\/p>\n
Forty-three prisoners had joined the hunger strike by April 13, when guards in riot gear swept through a communal prison and forced the detainees into one-man cells where they could be better monitored.<\/p>\n
Camp officials said the detainees had covered the security cameras and windows, blocking guards’ view.<\/p>\n
The number refusing meals has grown steadily since then, and two prisoners tried to kill themselves by making nooses with their clothing, House said.<\/p>\n
Lawyers for the prisoners have said the hunger strike is more widespread than the military acknowledges, with between 100 and 130 detainees taking part.<\/p>\n
More than half of Guantanamo’s prisoners have been cleared for release but Congress has put stringent restrictions on transfers. About two-thirds of those cleared for release are Yemenis and the Obama administration has halted repatriations to their homeland because of instability there.<\/p>\n