New hunger strike begins at Guantanamo Bay
Legal World
A new hunger strike is underway at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with more than a dozen detainees subjecting themselves to daily force-feeding to protest their treatment, The Boston Globe reported Monday.
According to the online edition of the newspaper, lawyers for the hunger-strikers were quoted as saying that their clients' actions are driven by harsh conditions in a new maximum-security complex at Guantanamo to which about 160 prisoners have been moved since December 2006.
The 13 detainees now on hunger strike is the highest number to endure the force-feeding regime on an extended basis since early 2006, when the U.S. military broke a long-running strike with a new policy of strapping prisoners into "restraint chairs" while they are fed by plastic tubes inserted through their nostrils.
Yet their persistence underscores how the struggle between detainees and guards at Guantanamo has continued even as the military has tightened its control.
"We don't have any rights here, even after your Supreme Court said we had rights," one hunger-striker, Majid al-Joudi, told a military physician, according to medical records released recently under a federal court order.
"If the policy does not change, you will see a big increase in fasting," he said.
Guantanamo spokesman Robert Durand played down the significance of the current hunger strike, describing the prisoners' complaints as "propaganda."
The United States opened the detention facility at its naval base in Guantanamo in January 2002 to hold terror suspects and Taliban members mainly captured during the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
More than 390 detainees have been transferred abroad from Guantanamo, and currently about 385 prisoners are still being held there.
Related listings
-
Elias Antonio hails controvercial US-Brazil biofuel plan
Legal World 04/09/2007El Salvadorian President Elias Antonio Saca on Sunday hailed the U.S.- Brazil plan to set up an ethanol plant in El Salvador, despite criticism of the scheme in the region. The plan was a piece of "excellent news" for El Salvador's national developme...
-
Iran Celebrates Uranium Enrichment Progress
Legal World 04/09/2007Iran on Monday celebrated the one-year anniversary of the country‘s first success in enriching uranium, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prepared to announce new progress in the key process that the United Nations has demanded Iran halt. The U.N. has...
-
Poor countries to be worst hit by climate change
Legal World 04/08/2007[##_1L|1216340618.jpg|width="120" height="100" alt=""|_##]Poor countries will be the worst hit by climate change, top experts from the United Nations on global warming said. "Poor people are the most vulnerable and will be the worst hit by the ...
Is Now the Time to Really Call a Special Education Lawyer?
IDEA, FAPE, CHILD FIND and IEPs: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) guarantees all children with disabilities to a free appropriate public education (FAPE). FAPE starts with a school’s responsibility to identify that a child has a disability (Child Find) and create an Individualized Education Program (IEP) to suit the needs of the child.
Forte Law Group is one of only a very few law firms within the state of Connecticut that is dedicated to exclusively representing families and children with special needs.
Parents need to be persistent, dedicated and above all else aware of the many services and accommodations that their child is entitled to under the law. As early as this point within your child’s special education, many parents will often find themselves in the situation asking, “is now the time to really call a special education lawyer?” Here are a few things to consider when asking yourself that question.