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“I will never forget the first time they passed the feeding tube up my nose. I can’t describe how painful it is to be force-fed this way. As it was thrust in, it made me feel like throwing up,” writes Guantanamo detainee Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel in a New York Times op-ed, “Gitmo Is Killing Me.”
“I’ve been on a hunger strike since Feb. 10 and have lost well over 30 pounds. I will not eat until they restore my dignity. I’ve been detained at Guantanamo for 11 years and three months. I have never been charged with any crime. I have never received a trial.”
Moqbel is joined by several others, although there are no definitive account indicating the exact number of protesters engaged in the hunger strike. On March 19, Robert Durand, director of public affairs for the Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO), announced that 24 out of the 166 still held at the facility are on hunger strike, protesting what detainees say are inhumane conditions.
The hunger strike began when authorities confiscated detainee’s personal items, family photos and religious texts. The bigger issues are what detainees say are poor conditions at the prison, including torture.
Shaker Aamer, the last British resident still held at the camp, claimed Sunday that he is subjected to harsh treatment from guards and denied water, despite being in a weakened state due to severe weight loss, according to a written declaration filed by his lawyer.
He also alleges that the U.S. base will soon be dealing with fatalities as a result of the current action, “I might die this time,” he is quoted by his lawyer as saying, adding, “I cannot give you numbers and names, but people are dying here.”
With fatalities imminent, and some hunger strikers weighing less than 100 pounds, authorities have taken to force feeding detainees who are at risk of serious injury or death as a result of the protest.
“Last month, on March 15, I was sick in the prison hospital and refused to be fed. A team from the E.R.F. (Extreme Reaction Force), a squad of eight military police officers in riot gear, burst in,” writes Moqbel. “They tied my hands and feet to the bed. They forcibly inserted an IV into my hand. I spent 26 hours in this state, tied to the bed. During this time I was not permitted to go to the toilet. They inserted a catheter, which was painful, degrading and unnecessary. I was not even permitted to pray.”
Since opening in 2002, roughly 774 detainees have been held at Guantanamo Bay prison without charge, trial or due process of law. Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have claimed that the detentions are illegal and that prison authorities have used waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other methods of torture against the detainees.
Despite promising to close Guantanamo in 2008, Barack Obama has not fulfilled one of the key promises he made while running for president.
Most U.S. citizens still believe that the prison should remain open, but an increasing number support new policies at the facility. According to a World Opinion public survey released Monday, two in three Americans say the United States should change the way it treats detainees at Guantanamo Bay as prescribed by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.