'forced feedings' @npr ?

prisoner at guantanamo






http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5285718

Military Grows More Defensive About Guantanamo Prison

Listen to this story... by Jackie Northam (*click the above link to listen to the npr story --the portion--no pun intended --concerning forced feedings is about 5 minutes in )

Morning Edition, March 17, 2006 · In the four years since the United States prison in Guantanamo first opened, operations at the remote military detention center have continually evolved. And the clamor over treatment of the Guantanamo prisoners continues to grow stronger, pushing military officials into a defensive crouch.

*ok , so as mentioned a few times before , we are regular listeners to national public radio , aka , NPR .

recently , we heard this npr story aired one morning while getting dressed for work . this section below , about forced feedings of inmates at guantanamo , in particular caused questions to pop up in our mind because it directly conflicted with articles we had been reading on the net --one of them posted here for comparison...

you judge for yourself...also note that the bush administration --already deeply lost in a moral abyss --is expanding the facility , as if in expectation of throwing more captives into the illegal dungeon-hole down there.

"the officer in charge of the detainee hospital , who did not want his name used for security reasons says , first the medical staff numbs the detainee's nose , 'and then we will take a small tube , it's flexible as you can see , we will gently place that through the nostril down into the stomach . we will insure it 's in the stomach and then we will feed them over about a 20 minute period ...our position is that as medical providers our job is ...i have told the detainees multiple times ... is to preserve their health and their lives ' ".

US Force-Feeding Prisoners in Torture Camp
By Marjorie Cohn
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022006J.shtml

Monday 19 February 2006

Last week, the United Nations Human Rights Commission reported that the violent force-feeding of detainees by the US military at its Guantanamo prison camp amounts to torture.

More than a third of the prisoners held there have refused food to protest being held incommunicado for years with no hope of release. They have concluded that death could not be worse than the living hell they are enduring. Attorney Julia Tarver's client Abdul-Rahman told her "of his determination to die and said that, 'now, after four years in captivity, life and death are the same,'" Tarver wrote in a sworn declaration filed in federal district court.

Yousef Al Shehri, another of Tarver's clients, was taken prisoner by the US military while he was still a juvenile. Both clients described being force-fed by the guards. Tarver wrote in her declaration: "Yousef was the second detainee to have an NG [nasal gastric] tube inserted into his nose and pushed all the way down his throat and into his stomach, a procedure which caused him great pain. Yousef was given no anesthesia or sedative for the procedure; instead, two soldiers restrained him - one holding his chin while the other held him back by his hair, and a medical staff member forcefully inserted the tube in his nose and down his throat. Much blood came out of his nose. Yousef said he could not speak for two days after the procedure; he said he felt like a piece of metal was inside of him. He said he could not sleep because of the severe pain."

When Yousef and others "vomited up blood, the soldiers mocked and cursed at them, and taunted them with statements like 'look what your religion has brought you,'" Tarver wrote.

After two weeks of this treatment, the forced feeding stopped for five days. Then, guards began to insert larger, thicker tubes into the detainees' noses. "These large tubes," Tarver wrote, "the thickness of a finger, [Yousef] estimated - were viewed by the detainees as objects of torture. They were forcibly shoved up the detainees' noses and down into their stomachs. Again, no anesthesia or sedative was provided to alleviate the obvious trauma of the procedure. When the tube was removed, it was even more painful, and blood came gushing out of him. He fainted, and several of the other detainees also lost consciousness . They were told that this tube would be inserted and removed twice a day every day until the hunger strike ended. Yousef described the pain as 'unbearable.'"

Both of Tarver's clients independently identified physicians as participants in this procedure. "The guards took NG tubes from one detainee, and with no sanitization whatsoever, re-inserted it into the nose of a different detainee. When these tubes were re-inserted, the detainees could see the blood and stomach bile from other detainees remaining on the tubes," Tarver wrote in her declaration.

The UN commission confirmed that "doctors and other health professionals are participating in force-feeding detainees." It cites the Declarations of Tokyo and Malta, the World Medical Association, and the American Medical Association, which prohibit doctors from participating in force-feeding a detainee, provided the detainee is capable of understanding the consequences of refusing food.

International Committee of the Red Cross guidelines state: "Doctors should never be party to actual coercive feeding. Such actions can be considered a form of torture and under no circumstances should doctors participate in them on the pretext of saving the hunger striker's life."

The Bush administration is force-feeding the hunger strikers for political reasons. If any of the Guantanamo prisoners dies as a result of the hunger strike, it would be embarrassing to the Bush administration, which claims it treats the detainees "humanely."

The Human Rights Commission called on the US government to ensure that the authorities at Guantanamo Bay do not force-feed any detainee who is capable of forming a rational judgement and is aware of the consequences of refusing food. "The United States Government should invite independent health professionals to monitor hunger strikers, in a manner consistent with international ethical standards, throughout the hunger strike," the commission recommended.

In its report, the commission also recommended that the US government "close the Guantanamo Bay detention facilities without further delay. Until the closure, and possible transfer of detainees to pre-trial detention facilities on United States territory, the Government should refrain from any practice amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment ."

The commission further said that "the United States Government should ensure that all allegations of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment are thoroughly investigated by an independent authority, and that all persons found to have perpetrated, ordered, tolerated or condoned such practices, up to the highest level of military and political command, are brought to justice."

Not surprisingly, the Bush administration rejected the commission's report, saying that the rapporteurs who prepared it did not interview people at the prison camp. The commission relied on interviews with former detainees, public documents, media repots, lawyers and questions answered by the US government. The Bush administration invited the rapporteurs to visit the Guantanamo camp, but refused to allow them to speak with the prisoners.

The overwhelming majority of the prisoners our government is holding at Guantanamo are not terrorists or jihadists. Many were picked up in Afghanistan and other countries and sold to the US military by bounty hunters. Of the roughly 500 men there, only 9 have been designated for trial on criminal charges.

The US government's treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo is an international travesty and a national disgrace.

Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, President-elect of the National Lawyers Guild, and the US representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists. She writes a weekly column for t r u t h o u t.

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