Gitmo Prisoners Go On Hunger Strike

13 protest supermax conditions
By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 9, 2007 11:41 AM CDT
Gitmo Prisoners Go On Hunger Strike
A shackled detainee is escorted while being transported inside the detention center at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba, in this Dec. 6, 2006, file photo. Detainee David Hicks, an Australian held for five years at Guantanamo, pled guilty earlier in the week and was found guilty Friday of providing...   (Associated Press)

Thirteen detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention center are on hunger strike, protesting conditions at a maximum-security block known as Camp Six, where 160 inmates are locked in their 8-by-10-foot cells for at least 22 hours a day. It's the first major strike since early 2006, when Gitmo commanders started placing protesting detainees in restraint chairs to force feed them.

This latest strike is viewed as a sign of growing desperation among the 385 prisoners, only ten of whom have been charged with crimes. Sabin Willett, a lawyer representing detainees, tells the Times: “They’re just sitting on a powder keg down there. You’re going to have an insane asylum.” (More human rights stories.)

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