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Scandal of force-fed prisoners
Hunger strikers are tied down and fed through nasal tubes, admits
Guantánamo Bay doctor
By David Rose
01/08/06 "The
Observer" -- -- New details have emerged of how the
growing number of prisoners on hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay are
being tied down and force-fed through tubes pushed down their nasal
passages into their stomachs to keep them alive. They routinely
experience bleeding and nausea, according to a sworn statement by
the camp's chief doctor, seen by The Observer.
'Experience teaches us' that such symptoms must be expected
'whenever nasogastric tubes are used,' says the affidavit of Captain
John S Edmondson, commander of Guantánamo's hospital. The procedure
- now standard practice at Guantánamo - 'requires that a foreign
body be inserted into the body and, ideally, remain in it.' But
staff always use a lubricant, and 'a nasogastric tube is never
inserted and moved up and down. It is inserted down into the stomach
slowly and directly, and it would be impossible to insert the wrong
end of the tube.' Medical personnel do not insert nasogastric tubes
in a manner 'intentionally designed to inflict pain.'
It is painful, Edmonson admits. Although 'non-narcotic pain
relievers such as ibuprofen are usually sufficient, sometimes
stronger drugs,' including opiates such as morphine, have had to be
administered.
Thick, 4.8mm diameter tubes tried previously to allow quicker
feeding, so permitting guards to keep prisoners in their cells for
more hours each day, have been abandoned, the affidavit says. The
new 3mm tubes are 'soft and flexible'.
The London solicitors Allen and Overy, who represent some of the
hunger strikers, have lodged a court action to be heard next week in
California, where Edmondson is registered to practise. They are
asking for an order that the state medical ethics board investigate
him for 'unprofessional conduct' for agreeing to the force-feeding.
Edmonson's affidavit, in response to a lawsuit on behalf of
detainees on hunger strike since last August, was obtained last week
by The Observer, as a Guantánamo spokesman confirmed that the number
of hunger strikers has almost doubled since Christmas, to 81 of the
550 detainees. Many have been held since the camp opened four years
ago this month, although they not been charged with any crime, nor
been allowed to see any evidence justifying their detention.
This and other Guantánamo lawsuits now face extinction. Last week,
President Bush signed into law a measure removing detainees' right
to file habeas corpus petitions in the US federal courts. On Friday,
the administration asked the Supreme Court to make this retroactive,
so nullifying about 220 cases in which prisoners have contested the
basis of their detention and the legality of pending trials by
military commission.
Although some prisoners have had to be tied down while being
force-fed, 'only one patient' has had to be immobilised with a
six-point restraint, and 'only one' passed out. 'In less than 10
cases have trained medical personnel had to use four-point restraint
in order to achieve insertion.' Edmondson claims the actual feeding
is voluntary. During Ramadan, tube-feeding takes place before dawn.
Article 5 of the 1975 World Medical Association Tokyo Declaration,
which US doctors are legally bound to observe through their
membership of the American Medical Association, states that doctors
must not undertake force-feeding under any circumstances. Dr David
Nicholl, a consultant neurologist at Queen Elizabeth's hospital in
Birmingham, is co-ordinating opposition to the Guantánamo doctors'
actions from the international medical community. 'If I were to do
what Edmondson describes in his statement, I would be referred to
the General Medical Council and charged with assault,' he said.
· Yesterday the new German Chancellor Angela Merkel became the
latest leader to condemn the United States for practices at the
prison. In a magazine interview days before her first visit as
premier to the US, Merkel said Washington should close Guantánamo
and find other ways of dealing with terror suspects.
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
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