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U.S. Forces Feed Hunger-Striking Detainees Intravenously
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Four detainees fed through IV |
WASHINGTON, March 2 (News Agencies) - Four hunger-striking prisoners at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba were back in their cells after receiving fluids intravenously for symptoms of dehydration, a military spokeswoman said late Friday.
"All four recovered, did not require follow-on medical care," said Major Rumi Nielson-Green, adding that the prisoners were later returned to their units.
However, some 75 al-Qaeda and Taliban detainees again declined dinner Friday in the two-day hunger strike, Nielson-Green said. She said it was unclear whether the protesters included the ones who boycotted lunch, in protest at treatment of a fellow inmate earlier this week.
The four prisoners who suffered dehydration had shown symptoms of lethargy and non-responsiveness prior to treatment, but not the most severe symptom -- fainting, she said.
Brigadier General Michael Lehnert, the commander of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, on Thursday relaxed rules on turban-wearing that sparked the hunger strike among the 300 prisoners at the base, they said.
A base spokesman said 73 detainees refused breakfast Friday morning, a sharp decline from Thursday but still a significant proportion of the population at "Camp X-Ray," the detention facility at the base. The number refusing food went up to 75 at lunch, he said.
"A total of four today received just basic IV treatment for being dehydrated," said Marine Major Steve Cox.
A spokesman had earlier said two were put on IVs overnight Thursday, but Cox said two were hooked up Friday morning and two others later in the day.
At the Pentagon, spokeswoman Victoria Clarke declined to say how far the military was prepared to go in intervening medically with hunger strikers.
"Our policy is to make sure they get very appropriate and adequate care," she said. "It's too far down the road right now to talk about medical intervention. The policy is to make sure they get very good care."
Tensions in the camp reached boiling point Wednesday after a confrontation between a guard and an inmate who was wearing a turban-like headdress fashioned from a bed sheet. Its use was against the camp's security rules, said AFP.
After the inmate ignored orders to remove it, the guard entered the cell and took it off. Authorities later learned that the inmate had not responded to the order because he was praying, military officials said.
Word of the incident apparently spread by word of mouth because by noon Wednesday 154 detainees refused lunch. The numbers not eating rose to 194 on Thursday at noon but have gone down since Lehnert relaxed the turban-wearing rule.
Speaking over the camp loudspeaker Thursday afternoon, Lehnert announced that detainees will be allowed to wear turbans fashioned from towels or bed sheets, but they will be subject to repeated and random inspection by guards, said Marine Captain Joe Kloppel, a base spokesman.
"The general's speech appears to have had a positive impact on the detainee population due to the fact that the two meals that have been served since he addressed them, the numbers have gone down with each meal," he said.
Military spokesmen say that underlying the friction over religious customs is tension fueled by the fact that they face an uncertain future.
Air Force Brigadier General John Rosa, deputy director of current operations of the Joint Staff said prisoners' shock following their arrival from Afghanistan to this remote base on the southeastern tip of Cuba was wearing off.
"Now that they are starting to settle in, the real issue is what's their fate, what is happening to them," he said.
The administration of President George W. Bush insists, despite international and human rights groups' complaints, that conditions for the prisoners are humane and in line with the Geneva Conventions, which dictate the treatment of wartime captives.
Those conditions include three "culturally neutral" meals a day for the prisoners, access to showers and medical treatment.
A French diplomatic source told AFP Friday that France has been told by the United States that five more prisoners held at a U.S. naval base in Cuba could be French nationals.
"We confirm that there are five more names, in addition to the two already identified," the source said, expecting Washington to agree to a formal identification at the base by French officials.
"We hope to be able to go there shortly," the diplomat added. A French foreign ministry mission last month confirmed that prisoners Mourad Benchellali, 20, and Brahim Yadel, 30, were French nationals of Algerian origin.
On Thursday, February 28, the British Foreign Affairs Committee said that the U.K. and U.S. governments may have allowed human rights concerns to "slip down their list of priorities" in an eagerness to build the post-September 11 coalition against terror, AFP reported.
The cross-party ministerial committee voiced concerns about the treatment of the detainees held by U.S. authorities at Camp X-Ray who include five Britons.
The U.S. must act "in accordance with international standards at all times, even if those standards might appear not to be deserved by those to whom they are being applied," their report on the Government's Human Rights Report 2001 said.
"It is both right, and it strengthens any representations we may make on behalf of our own nationals who may become prisoners in future.
"Furthermore, any conduct to the contrary would weaken the international coalition against terrorism."
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