Yemeni protesters demand release of Guantanamo detainees

Yemeni activists and relatives of around 90 detainees held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp have staged a protest rally outside the US Embassy in the capital Sana’a to demand the release of the inmates after over a decade of detention.

On Monday, protester and human rights activist Abdel-Rahman Barman spoke of the conditions at the notorious detainment facility run by the US military as being “very poor” with two or more of the detainees on hunger strike, The Associated Press reported.

Those two are part of some 33 prisoners that the US military says went on hunger strike. Three had to be hospitalized due to dehydration.

Guantanamo prisoners say they have been denied drinking water, and air conditioning was being kept at frigid temperatures inside the cells as a form of punishment while they were on hunger strike.

US military sources disputed the claims, and said prisoners are always offered bottled water inside the detention center.

The largest group of detainees being held at the Guantanamo Bay lockup in Cuba is Yemenis. Most were arrested inside Afghanistan following the 2001 US-led invasion of the Asian country.

The largest hunger strike in Guantanamo started in the summer of 2005, and reached a peak of around 131 prisoners. The US military broke up the protest by strapping detainees down and forcing them to receive liquid nutrients so they would not die of starvation.

International Red Cross inspectors and released detainees alike have described various acts of torture, including extensive use of waterboarding, sleep deprivation, beatings and confinement in small, cold cells at the Guantanamo Bay military prison.

One of the allegations of abuse at the US camp is the abuse of the religion of the detainees.

Upon taking office, US President Barack Obama signed an executive order to stop military commissions in order to close down the facility by 2010. However, this has not happened yet.