Concerns grow over health state of Guantanamo hunger strikers

Medical experts and attorneys warn that the health state of the striking prisoners, most of whom are involved in the do-or-die strike, is deteriorating.
 
    “By day 45, we understand from medical experts [that] there are serious health repercussions that start happening. [Some hunger strikers are suffering from] loss of hearing, [and] potential blindness,” Pardiss Kebriaei, the lawyer of Yemeni detainee Ghaleb Al-Bihanim said.
 
 
“The potential there is for death as well, if the hunger strike continues for [more] weeks,” she added.
 
Although the prison officials have confirmed the news about the mass hunger strike, they have sought to downplay the protest by claiming the move is not large in scale and does not threaten the prisoners’ health.
 
Meanwhile, the detainees’ lawyers and human rights activists argue that the few remarks by Guantanamo’s media spokesperson are not enough and have called on the US authorities to provide more meaningful responses about the ongoing developments in the detention center.
 
Lawyers for more than a dozen of the prisoners said they have sent a letter to the commander of Guantanamo, Rear Admiral John Smith, to denounce "a matter that appears to be rapidly deteriorating and reaching a potentially critical level."
 
The United States holds about 166 men at the prison. A mass hunger strike involved many of the prisoners in the summer of 2005 but the protest dwindled after the military began tying people down and force-feeding them with liquid nutrients through tubes to prevent them from starving to death.