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Guantánamo Bay prisoners moved to one-man cells to end hunger strike Clashes break out as Guantánamo guards seek to break hunger strike
(about 1 hour later)
Guards swept through communal cellblocks at the Guantánamo detention camp on Saturday and moved the prisoners into one-man cells, in an attempt to end a hunger strike that began in February, a US military spokesman said. Guards clashed Saturday with prisoners at the Guantánamo Bay prison, as the military sought to move hunger strikers out of a communal section of the detention center on the US base in Cuba, officials said. The confrontation occurred after the commander decided to move prisoners into single, solid-walled cells so that prison authorities could monitor them more closely during the hunger strike, the military said.
"Some detainees resisted with improvised weapons, and in response, four less-than-lethal rounds were fired. There were no serious injuries to guards or detainees," Navy captain Robert Durand said in a news release. He said the action was taken because detainees had covered windows and surveillance cameras to block the guards' view into the cellblocks. When guards arrived in the communal to move the men, the prisoners fought back with makeshift weapons, prompting troops to fire four "less-than-lethal rounds" to quell the disturbance, according to a statement issued by Miami-based US Southern Command, which oversees the prison. There were no major injuries, military officials said.
"Round-the-clock monitoring is necessary to ensure security, order, and safety as detainees continued a prolonged hunger strike by refusing regular camp-provided meals," Durand said. He said medical personnel had examined each detainee afterward. "I know for sure that one detainee was hit but the injuries were minor, just some bruises," said Army colonel Greg Julian, a Southern Command spokesman. Guards used a modified shotgun shell that fires small rubber pellets as well as type of bean-bag projectile, Julian said.
The detention camp at the Guantánamo Bay US Naval Base in Cuba holds 166 men, most of them captured more than a decade ago in counter-terrorism operations. Saturday's early-morning sweep took place in Camp 6, a medium-security building in which 80 to 100 detainees lived in cells that open into communal bays where they can eat, pray and watch television together. As part of the hunger strike, prisoners had been refusing to let food carts enter some of the bays. The clash occurred in Camp 6, which the military converted to a mostly communal section for well-behaved prisoners, giving them access to satellite television, language and other classes and round-the-clock recreation time to make Guantánamo conform to international standards for a prisoner-of-war camp.
Earlier in the week, Durand said 43 prisoners were taking part in a hunger strike, including 11 who were being force-fed liquid nutrients through tubes inserted into their noses. "This is exactly the opposite of what they should be doing," said Carlos Warner, a federal public defender in Ohio who represents several prisoners held at Guantánamo. "The military is escalating the conflict."
The hunger strike began in February, to protest the seizure of personal items from detainees' cells. Some prisoners told their lawyers that their Korans had been mistreated during the cell searches, which the US military denied. Attorneys, military officials and human rights monitors have all said the hunger strike was partly an expression of frustration over the prisoners' unresolved fate. About half of them have been cleared for release or transfer, but Congress has made it increasingly difficult to move prisoners out of Guantánamo and president Barack Obama has failed to implement his 2009 order to shut down the detention camp. Tensions had been high for months in Camp 6 and the adjacent Camp 5, where all the prisoners are held in solid-walled, single cells. Lawyers for prisoners said a hunger strike broke out on 6 February, in protest over their indefinite confinement and what the men believed were tighter restrictions and intrusive searches of their Qurans for contraband.
Prisoners had offered to give up the Muslim holy book that each one is issued by the government but prison officials refused to accept them, which they considered a tacit admission of wrongdoing.
The prison at the US base in Cuba holds 166 detainees. The military said that as of Friday, 43 prisoners were classified as hunger strikers, including nearly a dozen being force fed to prevent them from starving to death. Lawyers for prisoners have insisted the strike is much more widespread and that almost all of the men are refusing to eat.
For several weeks, prisoners in the communal section had been covering up security cameras and windows used by the guards to monitor them, one of the reasons the commander decided to move them into single cells. Officials were also concerned that some men were surreptitiously starving themselves to avoid being classified as a hunger striker and force fed. The military said it was conducting individual assessments of all the prisoners.
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