JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES
THE HUNGER GAMES
AT GUANTANAMO
trol of the facility again. But they
soon discovered that, out of sight
behind the disabled camera lenses,
the detainees’ lawyers had been
right — the situation was far worse
than they had acknowledged. The
military’s medical personnel later
acknowledged that 100 detainees
have been participating in the hunger strike since before the raid. In
one cell, officials found a detainee
near death from hunger and thirst.
Thirty-nine detainees are currently being force-fed. At least
twice a day, guards in riot gear tie
each detainee to a chair or bed, and
medical personnel force a tube up
his nose and down his throat, and
HUFFINGTON
06.09.13
pump a can of Ensure or other dietary supplement into his stomach.
There are so many detainees being
force-fed that Guantanamo’s medical personnel were at one point
working around the clock to keep
up with the demand, and approximately 40 additional medical personnel were sent in Guantanamo to
help deal with the growing crisis.
“There will be more than one
death,” predicted the military’s
Muslim adviser, who would identify
himself only by his first name, Zak.
The night after the raid, a detainee
in Camp Six tried to commit suicide, choking himself with his own
shirt. The night before, a Camp Five
detainee tried to do the same.
“I can’t find the words to describe the suffering I am going
Guards forcefeed some
detainees
by pumping
dietary
supplements
like Ensure
into their
stomachs
through
tubes
inserted
down their
throats.