A total of 84 detainees at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba are now on hunger strikes according to published reports. The number of inmates who refuse to eat has more than doubled in the past week according to U.S. officials.
The dramatic increase took place on December 25 when 46 new detainees joined the 38 already on a hunger strike.
Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Martin told CNN that the number of detainees who refuse to eat 'routinely fluctuates.'
'On the anniversary of September 11, the number of strikers spiked to 131,' Martin said. 'They steadily decreased over the weeks and months until December 25, and then they spiked again.'
Presently, there are 32 inmates being force-fed through tubes. Any detainee who refuses food for nine straight meals is considered on a hunger strike by American authorities running the prison.
Many of the people kept at Gitmo have been held for as long as 3 1/2 years without being charged with any specific crime. Since President Bush designated many of these people as 'enemy combatants,' they have not had regular access to lawyers and have not been given the rights of either prisoners of war or of typical criminals in the American justice system. Many of the detainees are suspected of aiding al-Qaeda or the Taliban in Iraq and Afghanistan.
