US reports increase in Guantanamo hunger strike

The US military today reported a major surge since Christmas Day in the number of Guantanamo Bay prisoners taking part in a nearly 5-month-old hunger strike, with 84 currently refusing food.

Army Lt Col Jeremy Martin, a military spokesman, said 46 detainees at the prison for foreign terrorism suspects at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, joined the hunger strike last Sunday. The military defines a hunger striker as someone who has refused nine straight meals.

The detainees launched their strike in early August after the military reneged on promises to bring the prison into compliance with the Geneva Conventions, according to lawyers representing them. Detainees are willing to die to demand humane treatment and a fair hearing on whether they must stay at the prison, the lawyers said.

The United States currently holds approximately 500 detainees at Guantanamo, most captured in Afghanistan and many held for nearly four years without charges.

- REUTERS