Lawyers representing six detainees at the U.S.-run detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have said that military personnel at Gitmo are using harsh and violent methods to force-feed detainees and get them to end their hunger strikes.
Tom Wilner, the attorney, said that detainees have been tied down to a 'restraint chair' and had tubes forced into their bodies. Prisoners on hunger strikes were also deprived of simple 'comfort' items such as blankets in an effort to get them to abandon their hunger strikes. According to Wilner, the method has been successful and now only four detainees are on hunger strikes. The new method of force-feeding was introduced in early December. At that time, several dozen detainees were on hunger strikes to protest the conditions and their treatment at Gitmo.
'That's what stopped the hunger strike,' said Wilner. 'They purposely force-fed these people to end the strike.'
The military refused to comment directly on the situation but Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Martin, a spokesman for Gitmo did say, 'We haven't changed anything. Our processes and procedures are the same. But the numbers [of hunger strikers] have fluctuated.'
Martin also called the hunger strike an 'al-Qaeda tactic' designed to increase sympathy for the detainees and pressure the U.S. government.
Approximately 500 people are still being held as 'enemy combatants' by the Bush administration at Guantanamo Bay. Many of them have limited access to lawyers and have still not been charged with any crime after being held for more than three or even four years.
Attorneys for the detainees say the number of hunger strikers is actually higher than the Gitmo officials say because a hunger strike is defined as missing nine consecutive meals. Many inmates fall just short of that in order to prevent force-feeding.
Julia Tarver Mason, an attorney for 13 detainees told the Associated Press, 'It's not about the numbers. I don't think it's a situation in which some people have gone off the strike because they believe conditions have improved at Guantanamo.'
