CUBA: Terrorism suspects at Guantánamo Bay, the US's maximum-security prison, have resumed a mass hunger strike to protest at the conditions of their detention, their lawyers have said.
The on-again/off-again action involving at least 20 prisoners over the past few months started in January when more than 170 of the 385 men detained at Guantánamo were moved to the newest and harshest facility, Camp 6.
Many of the prisoners had been living in 10-bunk barracks or metal-mesh cages in open rows from which they could communicate with each other, play boardgames across adjoining cells and exercise in a communal sports court. When the majority of the detainees were moved into the tougher Camp 5 and Camp 6, some resumed a hunger strike that had lasted from late 2005 to January 2006 "in protest of their near-complete isolation", said Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, the lawyer for Bahraini prisoner Isa al-Murbati.
Mr Murbati told him on a recent visit that a score of prisoners had resumed the strike, even though medical personnel force-feed any prisoner who has refused food for three days or more. The force-feeding regime, conducted while the prisoner is held in a "restraint chair", broke the previous hunger strike that at its peak involved more than 100 Guantánamo prisoners.
Mr Colangelo-Bryan and human rights monitors who learned of the resumed protest from recent visits by lawyers said the new strike was spurred by resentment of the harsher conditions.
Kuwaiti prisoner Fayiz al-Kandari told his lawyer during a visit two months ago that at least 42 prisoners were on hunger strike at the time, 12 of whom were being force-fed.
"Lights are on in the cell all the time, it's very noisy," Mr Kandari's lawyer, David Cynamon, notes in a report of the exchange only recently cleared by Pentagon censors for disclosure. "Guards bang on the door regularly, and your face has to be turned toward the guard."
Camp 6, a $38 million (€28 million) facility completed last autumn, was designed to be a medium-security prison with communal eating and recreation rooms. But after a May riot at Camp 4 (a barracks-like facility for the most compliant prisoners), the commander of the joint taskforce running the prison and interrogation network, Navy Rear Adm Harry Harris, ordered Camp 6 retrofitted to confine each man behind cement walls and steel doors. Sound-dispersing moldings to thwart even shouted conversation were recently added.
A Pentagon spokeswoman would only say that the Guantánamo medics follow established ethical procedures when dealing with hunger strikers.
"We are committed to preserving the health and lives of all detainees," said Lieut Col Tracy O'Grady, without confirming that any of the prisoners are currently being force-fed.