PRISONER HUNGER STRIKE: Seventy-five prisoners at Guantánamo Bay have been on hunger strike for almost a fortnight, joining three others who have been force-fed through nasal tubes since last August, according to US military officials.
The latest protest follows prisoner unrest earlier this month when two detainees tried to commit suicide and a number of prison guards were attacked.
Guantánamo spokesman Cdr Robert Durand claimed that the hunger strike was a stunt to gain international media attention and to put pressure on the US to close the camp.
"This new hunger strike is likely a co-ordinated but short-term effort designed to coincide with the military commissions hearings scheduled for the next several weeks, as defence attorneys and media normally travel to Guantánamo to observe this process," he told the Washington Post.
Bill Goodman, legal director for the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, which represents many of the detainees, said the protest reflected increasing frustration among the prisoners.
"I think it is escalating because the people down there are getting more and more desperate," he said. "Obviously, things have reached a crisis point."
There are 460 prisoners at Guantánamo, although US authorities say they are negotiating to return 100 to their home countries. Some 287 prisoners have been freed since the detention centre opened in 2002.
British human rights group Reprieve claimed this week that more than 60 children, some as young as 14 or 15, have been held at Guantánamo since 2002.
"They include at least 10 detainees still held at the US base in Cuba who were 14 or 15 when they were seized - including child soldiers who were held in solitary confinement, repeatedly interrogated and allegedly tortured," the group said.
EU foreign ministers agreed last weekend to use an EU-US summit next month to urge President George Bush to close Guantánamo on the basis that its existence undermines the West's fight against terrorism and contravenes internationally accepted legal principles.