Force-feeding sparks outrage
UNITED STATES
THE force-feeding of hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay, as the Pentagon struggles to control the detainees’ escalating protests, has been labelled a breach of international law.
The Pentagon admits 100 inmates are now on a hunger strike, with 23 being fed through nasal tubes. Lawyers say some have lost up to 18 kilograms since the protest began in February.
The Pentagon moved to send 40 nurses and other specialists to Guantanamo this week to help with the care of the hunger strikers, as conditions at the US camp come under renewed scrutiny.
One prisoner, who spoke by telephone to his lawyer, said he was restrained by officers in riot gear and tied hand-and-foot before having a drip forcibly inserted in his hand.
Cuba waded into the controversy yesterday, demanding that Guantanamo Bay be returned to Havana’s control.
‘‘We are deeply concerned about the legal limbo that supports the permanent and atrocious violation of human rights at the illegal naval base in Guantanamo, a Cuban territory that was usurped by the United States,’’ Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla told the United Nations Human Rights Council.
‘‘That prison and military base should be shut down and that territory should be returned to Cuba,’’ he said.
Rupert Coville, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, said yesterday: ‘‘If it’s perceived as torture or inhuman treatment, and it’s the case it’s painful, then it is prohibited by international law.’’
The UN bases its stance on the World Medical Association watchdog, which declared in 1991 that forcible feeding was ‘‘never ethically acceptable’’.
Artificial feeding can be used only where the prisoner agrees, or if the detainee is ruled unable to make a competent decision and gave no advance instructions refusing the treatment.
Cori Crider, the legal director of Reprieve, the prison rights organisation, said one of her clients had described being strapped into a chair in his cell and force-fed while he was shackled.
The client said he was fed at 11pm, leading him to believe the staff were so stretched they could not cope. ‘‘Either they could not cope or they are being gratuitously cruel,’’ Crider said.
Conditions at Guantanamo are back in the spotlight after President Barack Obama made it clear that he still wanted to shut the camp, promising to try again to work with the US Congress to close the prison, which he says is expensive, unnecessary and a recruitment tool for extremists.
The White House confirmed that it was looking at ways to further reduce the population of 166 detainees, who have been held there for up to 11 years without charge or trial.
One of the sticking points is a self-imposed ban on repatriating people to Yemen, where al Qaeda is still active. Of the 86 inmates considered low-risk, 56 are Yemeni.
Caitlin Hayden, a National Security Council spokeswoman, said the president was ‘‘considering a range of options for ways that we can reduce the population there’’, including a renewed focus on repatriating lower risk detainees.
But critics of the administration say the White House has all but given up on trying to reduce numbers. The State Department’s special envoy on Guantanamo, Daniel Fried, was moved to a new job in January and has not been replaced.
Peter Jan Honigsberg, a San Francisco University law professor who runs the Witness to Guantanamo project, archiving events at the camp, said: ‘‘They shuttered the State Department office in January that would look for ways to repatriate people.
‘‘They clearly gave up on that. I spoke to Ambassador Fried about the reason why it was closed – it’s simple, there’s no movement from the White House.’’
On Obama’s new pledge, Professor Honigsberg said: ‘‘Words don’t work any more for me, not after 11 years of people being held without trial. There’s no will any more.’’
The number of detainees has fallen from 242, when Obama took office, to 166.
Crider said one immediate solution was for Obama to lift his blanket ban on transfers to Yemen. ‘‘Several of my clients have said, ‘Once he lifts the ban on transfers and someone goes home, then we will start to eat, not be- fore’. This could go on for quite a while.’’
The Pentagon’s LieutenantColonel Todd Breasseale denied claims of inhumane treatment. Some detainees chose what to be fed, and others refused and had to be force-fed, he said.