WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Miami Herald has reported that a federal court has given then Pentagon until noon today to issue a response to the force-feeding of Guantanamo prisoners who are on a hunger strike.
Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, U.S. Southern Command head, has said recently that the hunger strike “won’t end until inmates tire of it.”
According to the Herald, a motion filed by attorneys representing captives at the prison camp in Cuba seeks to end force-feeding, calling the action “grotesque”.
Earlier this month, it was reported that 103 detainees were participating in the hunger strike at the U.S. Navy base and 38 of the strikers were getting tube feedings from Navy medical workers.
As of Monday, 44 captives were on the force-feed list, Army Lt. Col. Samuel House, a Guantanamo spokesman, told the Herald.
The motion “cites the positions of international medical groups that a competent captive has the right to starve himself, and also a recent letter from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel opposing the Pentagon’s forced-feeding practices”, according to the story in the Herald.
