Guantanamo: 28 on hunger strike

2005-10-07 19:21

Washington - Twenty-eight detainees at a United States military prison for "war-on-terror" suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba were refusing food on Thursday as part of a rolling hunger strike that has lasted nearly two months, Pentagon officials said.

A Pentagon spokesperson said 22 of the hunger strikers had been hospitalised and were being fed through tubes.

"It's being closely monitored," said Lawrence DiRita, the chief Pentagon spokesperson. "The evidence of medical attention as a result of providing them with sustenance is an indication that it is being very closely monitored."

DiRita described the action as a rolling hunger strike in which groups of detainees refuse food in rotations.

Lawyers have estimated that as many as 200 detainees have taken part since the hunger strikes began on August 8 to protest against their indefinite detention. About 505 detainees are held at Guantanamo.

The Guantanamo camp was set up in 2002 soon after the US-led offensive against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in the fall of 2001.

With detainees held indefinitely without trials, the prison has drawn severe criticism from human rights groups and foreign governments. Human rights activists have accused the US of violating the Geneva conventions and expressed concern that some detainees have been transferred to countries known to practise torture.

- AFP