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Hunger strike at Guantanamo

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Times Staff Writer

Terrorism suspects at a maximum-security prison at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have resumed a mass hunger strike to protest the conditions of their confinement, detainees’ lawyers said Sunday.

The on-again, off-again action involving at least 20 prisoners over the last few months started after more than 170 of the 385 men currently detained at Guantanamo were moved to the newest and harshest facility, Camp 6.

Many of the prisoners previously had been living in 10-bunk barracks or metal-mesh cages in open rows from which they could communicate with each other, play board games across adjoining cells and exercise in a communal sports court.

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Once the majority of the detainees were moved into the tougher Camps 5 and 6, some resumed a hunger strike that had lasted from late 2005 through January 2006 “in protest of their near-complete isolation,” said Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, a pro bono attorney for Bahraini prisoner Isa Murbati.

The lawyer said Murbati told him on a recent visit that a score of prisoners had resumed the strike, even though medical personnel force-feed any prisoner who has refused food for three days or more.

That force-feeding regimen, conducted while the prisoner is in a “restraint chair,” broke the previous hunger strike that at its peak involved more than 100 Guantanamo prisoners.

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Colangelo-Bryan and human rights monitors, who learned of the resumed protest from attorneys who had recently visited, said the new strike was to protest the harsher conditions.

Kuwaiti prisoner Fayiz Kandari told his attorney, David Cynamon, during a visit two months ago that at least 42 prisoners were on a hunger strike, 12 of them being force-fed.

“Lights are on in the cell all the time; it’s very noisy,” Cynamon notes in a report of the exchange, recently cleared by Pentagon censors for disclosure. “Guards bang on the door regularly, and your face has to be turned toward the guard.”

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Camp 6, a $38-million facility completed last fall, was designed to be a medium-security prison with communal eating and recreation rooms.

But after a May riot at Camp 4, a barracks-like facility for the most compliant prisoners, the commander of the prison and interrogation network, Navy Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., ordered Camp 6 retrofitted to confine each man behind cement walls and steel doors. Sound-dispersing moldings were recently added to thwart shouted conversation.

A Pentagon spokeswoman reached late Sunday said Guantanamo medics followed established ethical procedures when dealing with hunger strikers.

“We are committed to preserving the health and lives of all detainees,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Tracy O’Grady, without confirming that any of the prisoners were being force-fed.

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carol.williams@latimes.com

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