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