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Hunger strikers close to death
By Sarah Baxter
01/22/06 "The
Times" -- -- Washington -- DESPITE
force feeding
by the American military, several
hunger strikers at Guantanamo
Bay may be close to death, according to lawyers acting for the
detainees.
The condition of two emaciated Yemeni hunger strikers who have
been refusing solid food since August is causing particular
concern. There are also fears for the life of a hospitalised
Saudi prisoner.
The wife of a British resident and hunger striker, Shaker Aamer,
visited the Commons last week to appeal to MPs for help. Aamer’s
wife, 31, who lives in London with her four children and has
asked for her name to be withheld, said: “This is the time to do
something. My husband is not going to last.”
Aamer has been on hunger strike since November 2. Although he
has lost weight, he is stronger than some other prisoners taking
part in the protest at their detention without trial.
According to a report to be released tomorrow by the prisoners’
rights group Reprieve, the Yemenis, identified as Abu Bakah al-Shamrani
and Abu Anas, are said by detainees to be gravely weak. Shamrani
weighs only 70lb (5 stone).
Reprieve claims Camp Echo, which is comprised of isolation
cells, has been turned into a “force feeding institution” away
from other prisoners and its gravel path paved with concrete so
the hunger strikers can be moved around in wheelchairs.
The military said last week the number of hunger strikers had
declined to 22 after a peak at Christmas and that 17 were being
fed by “tube”.
Lieutenant-Colonel Jeremy Martin, spokesman for Joint Task Force
Guantanamo, declined to give the number of detainees in hospital
and said the hunger strikers were “malnourished” but “clinically
stable”. He denied their lives were at imminent risk.
The US law firm Paul Weiss, which represents three Saudi
detainees, has received increasingly alarming weekly medical
reports about the condition of one of them, who is in the camp
hospital.
On a trip to Guantanamo last month, Paul Weiss’s lawyers were
prevented from visiting the hospital and told their clients did
not wish to see them. “We are concerned they may be in a
life-threatening condition,” said one of the lawyers, Jana
Ramsay. “They are normally glad to see us.”
The prisoners being force fed have a permanent tube in the nose,
which descends to the stomach and is attached to another tube
for feeding. If they do not rip it out, the US military say they
are consenting to be fed even if the tube was inserted under
duress.
Aamer was visited this month by his lawyer, Clive Stafford
Smith, legal director of Reprieve. In “obvious pain”, he pulled
his tube out of his nose so it could be examined. According to
Stafford Smith, it was 43in long and was stained red from having
been in Aamer’s stomach.
Aamer has vowed to continue his hunger strike until he is given
a fair trial or released. He said in a statement: “The British
government refuses to help me. What is the use of my wife being
British?” He said he held the British government as well as the
Americans “responsible for my death”.
Stafford Smith said the “inevitable spectre of a Muslim prisoner
dying on Guantanamo soil will cause greater outrage than even
the desecration of the Koran”.
Copyright 2006 Times Newspapers Ltd.
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