Back to the worst days of Bush at Guantanamo

international | rights and freedoms | news report Wednesday March 20, 2013 15:52 by Justin Morahan

Large group of prisoners on hunger strike

A hunger strike in the infamous Camp Delta in Guantanamo has been ongoing for over four weeks by a large number of prisoners who are protesting their mistreatment and abuse by US military authorities and the Obama administration’s refusal to repatriate prisoners who have been cleared for release.

According to sources, the strike was occasioned by a change of Guard at the camp who, contrary to regulations, interfered with the Koran and other articles regarded as sacred by the prisoners.

Rubber bullets were also fired at a prisoner in January.

The prisoners have been in Guantanamo without hope for eleven years, many are being detained simply because the US says it cannot repatriate them to their own countries.

A lawyer for one of the prisoners reports that nearly a hundred are on hunger strike. The official estimate (Guantanamo and US) admits a figure of 21.

Concern has been expressed at UN level concerning the hunger strikers.

A few weeks ago more than a dozen lawyers for Guantanamo prisoners filed a protest with the detention center commander, Rear Adm. John Smith, describing some of the men who were "coughing up blood, being hospitalized, losing consciousness, becoming weak and fatigued".

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/03/18/guan-m18.html