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Guantanamo Hunger Strikers Say Feeding Tubes
Employed as Punishment
By Ben Fox
Associated Press Writer
10/20/05 -- -- SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)
- Prisoners on hunger strike at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay
say troops force-fed them with dirty feeding tubes that have been
violently inserted and withdrawn as punishment, according to
declassified notes released by defense attorneys Wednesday.
The repeated removal and insertion of the tubes has caused striking
prisoners to vomit "substantial amounts of blood," and to experience
intense pain that they have equated with torture, the lawyers
reported to a federal judge after visiting their clients at the U.S.
base in eastern Cuba.
Prisoners said they were taunted by troops who said the treatment
was intended to persuade them to end the hunger strike that began
Aug. 9, the lawyers wrote in affidavits filed as part of a lawsuit
seeking greater access to inmates at the high-security jail for
terror suspects.
Yousef al Shehri, 21, of Saudi Arabia, told his lawyers that guards
removed a nasal feeding tube from one prisoner and reinserted it
into another without cleaning it first.
"These large tubes ... were viewed by the detainees as objects of
torture," attorney Julia Tarver, whose firm represents 10 Saudi
detainees, said in an affidavit. "They were forcibly shoved up the
detainees' noses and down into their stomachs."
Lt. Col. Jeremy Martin, a military spokesman for the Guantanamo
detention center, said all detainees in the hunger strike are
closely monitored by medical personnel and mistreatment is not
tolerated, though he did not know the specific procedures for
handling of feeding tubes.
"Detainees ... are treated humanely," Martin said. "Claims to the
contrary are wholly inaccurate and blatantly misrepresent the
excellent work being done here by honorable military and civilian
professionals."
At Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. military holds about 500 detainees
suspected of terrorist activities. Martin said there are 25
detainees on hunger strike, including 22 who are being force-fed.
The number participating in the strike reached a high of 131 in
mid-September when there was a spike as detainees refused meals to
commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States,
Martin said.
Most detainees on strike are not confined to hospital beds and are
permitted to exercise, take showers, send and receive mail, visit
the detainee library and practice their religion, he said.
Defense lawyers who have visited the prison in recent weeks say
their clients have lost substantial weight, appeared listless and
depressed - and have insisted they will maintain the protest until
conditions improve or they are released. A judge has not yet ruled
on their request for increased access to the detainees and their
medical records.
Joshua Colangelo-Ryan, a lawyer for six men from Bahrain, said one
of his clients, Isa al Murbati, has lost about 50 pounds (22
kilograms) as a result of the hunger strike.
"He's gaunt. He looks exhausted and has a feeding tube shoved up his
nose," said Colangelo-Ryan, who returned from Guantanamo on Monday.
"There's nothing in my mind that he intends to stop the hunger
strike."
Tarver, who returned from the base on Oct. 2, said two of her
clients were being force-fed and were unable to walk. "It's quite a
drastic situation," she said.
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