OVER 5 MONTHS INTO HUNGER STRIKE, GUANTANAMO PRISONERS OBSERVE FASTING IN RAMADHAN

Washington, 12 Ramadhan 1434/19 Juli 2013 (MINA) – Prisoners at the notorious US-run Guantanamo prison who have been on a hunger strike for five and a half months observe fasting in the holy month of Ramadan as US officials conduct the force-feedings after dark.

The US government has refused to stop force-feeding hunger strikers during the holy month of Ramadan, saying force-feeding would not create any problem for the Muslim prisoners.

The force-feeding is supposedly intended to prevent prisoners from starving to death. However, human rights groups have condemned the practice, saying it amounts to torture, according to Press Tv report monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).

Images from the Guantanamo prison published last month showed how hunger-striking prisoners are force-fed, being strapped to a metal restraint chair and fed through the nose with plastic tubing.

In an interview with Press TV’s US Desk earlier this month, Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK, a social justice movement working to end US-funded wars, said the force-feeding of Guantanamo prisoners was a violation of their human rights and continuing the practice during the holy month of Ramadan was “an extra violation”.

Meanwhile, a federal appeals court on Wednesday suspended a lower court’s vote last week in favor of the prisoners’ lawyers which called for a halt to searching prisoners’ genitals when they leave their cells to meet with their attorneys.

The prison complex was established by the Bush administration and has been used by the US military since 2002.

The majority of Guantanamo prisoners have been held for over a decade without a charge.

Shutting down the Guantanamo detention camp was a central theme of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008 as he acknowledged that the prison was a symbol of the US government’s violation of human rights.

Nevertheless, a Guantanamo prisoner, Abdelhadi Faraj, who was cleared for release in 2010, has said in a letter that the situation at the prison complex has worsened under Obama compared to the time of his predecessor George W. Bush.(T/P012/P04)

Mi’raj New s Agency (MINA)