17 Guantánamo Bay prisoners are still participating in the hunger strike that became publicly known this spring. 16 of these prisoners are being force fed, using methods that can only be described as torture. Two others are treated in the prison hospital. In this video animation actors David Morrissey and Peter Capaldi tell the story of the hunger strikers of Guantánamo Bay.
The film describes the methods of force feeding prisoners through the nose, twice per day without notice, sometimes in the middle of the night. When asked to be gentle, the guards would instead try to speed up the flow of food into the prisoner’s body, causing bad physical reactions. The narrators also describe attempts to cover up the prisoner’s poor state, for example by weighing them in shackles.
“It’s extremely important to highlight the truth about Guantánamo Bay – the fact that men who’ve not been charged with any crime and have been scheduled for release are still being held and that nothing is happening,” David Morrissey said to the The Observer. “It’s about throwing those facts to the public and saying: ‘This is happening in your name. Are you happy about it?'”
Despite the recent attention given to this topic in the past months, it is not a new occurrence at Guantánamo. Hunger strike protests have been recorded from 2002, sometimes involving up to 200 prisoners. The three men, Ali al-Salami, Mani al-Utaybi and Yasser al-Zahrani, who passed away in the prison in 2006 were being force fed at the time. The same is true of Abdul Rahman al-Amri who died in 2007 and Muhammad Salih who died in 2009.
“I hope the politicians will understand that this is not about food,” a prisoner testimony states in the video. “I cannot stand being here any further. I am done, so I’m sacrificing myself.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmquIsGON80
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