Over 100 Gitmo inmates join hunger strike protesting indefinite detention

Over 100 inmates at the notorious US Guantanamo military prison and torture camp have joined a hunger strike, protesting their indefinite detention and worsening conditions there.

The hunger strike at the maximum-security prison reportedly involves nearly all of the 130 ‘terror’ suspects imprisoned in military base’s Camp 6 in an apparent last-resort effort to highlight their imprisonment without being legally charged and with absolutely no prospect for release, RT reports Wednesday, citing an interview with anti-war activist Sara Flouners.

The treatment of the camp’s inmates “from the very first moment that the prisoners were kidnapped from the other side of the world and brought to Guantanamo has been horrendous,” said Flounders. Their hunger strikes are the only way of even making themselves heard over years and years without any hope of release, without any real charges.”

She further cited a study by the Center for Constitutional Rights to confirm that “92 percent of all the prisoners held in Guantanamo really had no connection at all to Al-Qaeda.”

“They were sort of bought and sold and brought to Guantanamo as part of the US war on terror, justified as part of that war and with no real standing.”

She also insisted that the Muslim inmates held at the US military installation in Cuba are “really just part of the thousands of prisoners held around the world in US secret prisons or in prison ships, secret bases.”

“It is an enormous problem and they are also a part of the hundreds of Muslim prisoners in the US, who have been held, who have been framed on charges, who are held in solitary confinement and special management units,” Flounders added.

A number of state-appointed military lawyers for the inmates have complained of deteriorating health conditions of their clients and what they describe as a worsening humanitarian crisis.

A number of the attorneys have further notified the commander of Guantanamo prison about inmates coughing up blood and losing consciousness.

Several human rights advocates have so far testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, challenging the American government’s failure to shut down the notorious prison and torture camp.

They have further testified about serious psychological consequences of indefinite detention and the deaths of some Guantanamo inmates.