Friday, September 9, 2005

Gitmo prisoners are promising to die unless conditions in the camp become compliant with the Geneva Conventions...
They have been on hunger strike for 5 weeks..
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From declassified statements inside:

He said: "The administration promised that if we gave them 10 days, they would bring the prison into compliance with the Geneva conventions. They said this had been approved by Donald Rumsfeld himself in Washington DC. As a result of these promises, we agreed to end the strike on July 28.

"It is now August 11. They have betrayed our trust (again). Hisham from Tunisia was savagely beaten in his interrogation and they publicly desecrated the Qur'an (again). Saad from Kuwait was ERF'd [visited by the Extreme Reaction Force] for refusing to go (again) to interrogation because the female interrogator had sexually humiliated him (again) for 5 hours _ Therefore, the strike must begin again." Guardian

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One of the most famous instances of prisoner hunger strikes is the 1981 Irish Hunger strike ..The Republican prisoners were striking to have the British government give them "political status", to call them political prisoners and give them the same treatment as prisoners of war..separate treatment from criminals..There has been a film made about the strikes called Some Mother's Son ..

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Read Bobby Sands' Diary while on hunger strike, he was the most prominent figure in the Irish hunger strikes..

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Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons have gone on hunger strike, like the one last year where thousands went on hunger strike for reasons documented here...Israeli officials considered barbecues and other smells to try to break their will..

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Gandhi was one of the most famous people to go on hunger strike for a cause

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The English Suffragettes in the early 20th century went on prison hunger strike...Some died as a result of being force fed by the authorities..

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Recently in Iran Akbar Ganji a journalist went on strike to protest his imprisonment..

Books:

3 comments:

Shurouq said...

Kwtia,
I just love your blog :*

Thanks for the Bobby Sands link.. That movie brings back memories

Shurouq said...

Good memories :)

kwtia said...

Right back at ya Shurouq :*
I have good memories of when I saw that movie too..and also of reading the Ellmann book..The Ten Men Dead book on the other hand was one of those things that people on the subway probably wished they didn't have to watch me cry about.