Yemeni protesters outside the US embassy in Sana’a. The letter’s signatories say the force-feedings are ‘extremely painful.’
London: Thirteen Guantanamo Bay detainees on hunger strike have written an open letter to their military doctors insisting they receive independent, non-military medical treatment and appealing to the conscience of their physicians.
“I cannot trust your advice, because you are responsible to your superior military officers who require you to treat me by means unacceptable to me, and you put your duty to them above your duty to me as a doctor,” the detainees wrote.
“Your dual loyalties make trusting you impossible.”
The signatories, including former UK resident Shaker Aamer, protest that the force-feedings administered by military physicians are “extremely painful” and “in violation of the ethics of your profession.” The May 30 letter was co-ordinated by attorneys for 13 detainees, nine of whom signed it directly. Four signed through their lawyers.
Another nine lawyers, some of whom represent detainees, added their names to the letter.
The detainees expressed an “urgent request” that the Joint Task Force Guantanamo, the military command running the facility, allow “independent” doctors selected by their attorneys to treat them. Army Lt Col Todd Breasseale, a Pentagon spokesman, said there is “no precedent” for allowing civilian doctors to treat detainees.
Despite the impassioned tone of the letter, the detainees expressed “some sympathy” for their military doctors.
“Whether you continue in the military or return to civilian practice, you will have to live with what you have done and not done here at Guantanamo for the rest of your life,” they wrote. “You can make a difference. You can choose to stop actively contributing to the abusive conditions I am currently enduring.”
The hunger strike, a high-profile problem for the Obama administration, is approaching its fifth month. Of the 166 detainees at Guantanamo, 103 are refusing food.
Thirty-six of them are being forcibly fed through enteral feeds, five of whom are being observed at the camp hospital.
Breasseale said none “currently have any life-threatening conditions.”
The Guardian
