SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – More Guantanamo Bay detainees have joined a hunger strike, raising the total to 89, and six of them were being force-fed, the U.S. military said Thursday. The strike - which last weekend jumped from three participants to 75 - is now the biggest of the year at the U.S. prison on Cuba, where about 460 men are being held on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban. The U.S. military said the detainees were trying to pressure the United States to release them, but a human rights attorney described the strike as a desperate appeal for justice. Six hunger strikers were being force-fed, said Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand - two more than last weekend. ‘All are being closely monitored by the … medical staff and being counseled on the health effects of long-term hunger striking,’ Durand said in a statement from Guantanamo Bay. Military officials said the hunger strikers are an attempt to gain public sympathy to pressure the United States to release them. Ben Wizner, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who has been to Guantanamo Bay, said the growing hunger strike appears more like a call […]
Monday, June 5th, 2006
More Gitmo Detainees Join Hunger Strike, Nearly 20 Per Cent of Prisoners
Author:
Source: The Associated Press
Publication Date: 9:40 a.m. ET June 2, 2006
Link: More Gitmo Detainees Join Hunger Strike, Nearly 20 Per Cent of Prisoners
Source: The Associated Press
Publication Date: 9:40 a.m. ET June 2, 2006
Link: More Gitmo Detainees Join Hunger Strike, Nearly 20 Per Cent of Prisoners
Stephan: This situation just becomes more and more humiliating and embarrassing for the United States.