Pacific Views

Guantanamo Hunger Strike

What the heck are they doing to these guys?

More than 200 detainees in Guantánamo Bay are in their fifth week of a hunger strike, the Guardian has been told.

Statements from prisoners in the camp which were declassified by the US government on Wednesday reveal that the men are starving themselves in protest at the conditions in the camp and at their alleged maltreatment - including desecration of the Qur'an - by American guards.

The statements, written on August 11, have just been given to the British human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith. They show that prisoners are determined to starve them selves to death. In one, Binyam Mohammed, a former London schoolboy, said: "I do not plan to stop until I either die or we are respected. ...

Having read a bit about the way normal American prisons are run, with rampant rape, drugs, gangs, guard brutality and disgraceful medical care, you've got to wonder what's going on when 200 detainees in Guantanamo would just rather die then continue to get treated as they are. For that matter, considering that only a handful of these detainees are from Europe, what are they doing to them in Guantanamo that's worse than prison in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia?