Guantanamo prisoners stage hunger strike

More than 50 prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay are on hunger strike, US military officials said. The protest is against inhuman conditions, indefinite detention and the lack of legal representa... (photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)


Guantanamo detainees give demands to end hunger strike

More details are emerging from lawyers in New York, about a hunger strike by detainees at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The US military has confirmed that a number of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have refused nine consecutive meals.

The Centre for Constitutional Rights said the lawyers first heard of the strike from prisoners frustrated by their indefinite detention and what they described as the inhuman conditions at Guantanamo, specifically in a facility known as camp five.

According to the lawyers, prisoners had said that as well as a hunger strike, they were planning to boycott showers and recreation time.

They had listed nine demands which they said they were planning to put before the Guantanamo command.

The demands called for respect for their religion, including an end to what they described as desecration of the Koran and religious discrimination, and fair trials with proper legal representation.

They also said they needed adequate supplies of food and clean water, and needed direct sunlight and not to be forced to go for months without seeing daylight.

It is not known if Australian terror suspect David Hicks is among those participating in the hunger strike.

- BBC

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200507/s1420814.htm