More than two-dozen detainees are on a hunger strike at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, claiming unfair treatment.
According to reports, some men are angry with cell searches where, they say, their Qurans were handled insensitively by guards. Others note nonexistent trials since a handful have been imprisoned for upwards of a decade.
Since Monday morning, 28 out of 166 prisoners will not eat their meals, even covering surveillance cameras to make it difficult for prison guards to monitor their nourishment. The number is up from last week's 21, which includes three prisoners hospitalized for dehydration, Navy Capt. Rovert Durand told the Associated Press Monday.
Currently, the military must force-feed ten of the prisoners in order to assuage potentially life-threatening weight loss, Durand said.
Many of the prisoners have already lost significant weight, including a Syrian detainee named Abdehhadi Faraj, who has shed nearly 30 pounds since the beginning of the hunger strike in February. Law professor at the City University of New York, Ramzi Kassem informed the Associated Press on Faraj's behalf that the imprisoned man had experienced intense abdominal pain, dizziness, and even vomited blood.
In addition to what they claim was improper handling of their holy book, prisoners also feel forgotten by the government. President Barack Obama did not mention the detainees in his inaugural speech, nor his State of the Union speech, which has left them feeling listless and ultlimately led to strike.
Since beginning his second term, Obama has said he will try to make Guantanamo a more level, just prison, adhering to laws and keeping clear with the goings-on in Cuba. Still, the hunger strike paints a different picture; being a prisoner at Guantanamo is no different than it was, say, 20 years ago.
"There is a hopelessness now among the detainees," executive director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School, Karen Greenberg, told NPR. "In terms of being a [prisoner], not that much has changed."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
