More Guantanamo detainees join hunger strike
More Guantanamo Bay detainees protesting against their indefinite confinement joined a hunger strike, raising the number of those refusing food to 89 from 75, the US military said today.
Six of the hunger strikers at the isolated US naval base in south-east Cuba were being force-fed, said Navy Commander Robert Durand.
“All are being closely monitored by the … medical staff and being counselled on the health effects of long-term hunger striking,” Durand said in a statement from Guantanamo Bay.
The hunger strike is now the biggest of the year at the base, where about 460 men are being held on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.
It comes amid increasing displays of defiance from the prisoners, who have been held for more than four years with many claiming their innocence.
On May 18, a detainee pretended to commit suicide to lure guards into a cellblock, where they were attacked by prisoners armed with makeshift weapons, the military said.
Earlier that day, two detainees overdosed on antidepressant drugs they collected from other detainees and hoarded in their cells. The men have since regained consciousness.
