New prisoners at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay have joined the hunger strike. The strikers have lost hope of ever being freed, the lawyers claim.
By Tuesday evening, 24 inmates were on strike, eight of whom had lost so much weight that doctors had to force-feed them through tubes inserted into their nostrils, said prison spokesman Navy Capt. Robert Durand.
There are 166 men detained in anti-terrorism operations in the prison camp at the US naval base Guantanamo in the east of Cuba, almost all of whom have been held there without charge for 11 years, Reuters reported.
The number of hunger strikers increased by 14 on Friday. According to military regulations, prisoners are on hunger strike if they refuse at least nine consecutive meals.
Two of the strikers were hospitalized for dehydration, Durand said.
US President Barack Obama's administration has approved the release or transfer of more than half of the Guantanamo detainees, but Congress has blocked efforts to close the prison camp and made it difficult to move detainees.
Intermittent hunger strikes began to erupt at Guantanamo right after the prison opened in January 2012.
More than 50 lawyers representing prisoners at Guantanamo last week sent a letter to US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, urging him to help end the current strike, given the alarming deterioration in the prisoners' health.
Lawyers have indicated that there is little hope that the Obama administration will keep its promise to close the detention center.
They recalled that more than 100 prisoners went on hunger strike early last month to protest the confiscation of their letters and photographs and the rough treatment of Koran books during a search of their cells, but Durand dismissed the accusations as untrue.
"We have been extremely careful to show respect for the Koran and I categorically reject all claims of abuse and desecration," Durand said.
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