[Marxism] Force feeding at Guantánamo

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

The Observer, Sunday January 8, 2006
Scandal of force-fed prisoners

Hunger strikers are tied down and fed through nasal tubes, admits 
Guantánamo Bay doctor
David Rose

New details have emerged of how the growing number of prisoners on hunger 
strike at Guantánamo Bay are being tied down and force-fed through tubes 
pushed down their nasal passages into their stomachs to keep them alive.

They routinely experience bleeding and nausea, according to a sworn 
statement by the camp's chief doctor, seen by The Observer.

'Experience teaches us' that such symptoms must be expected 'whenever 
nasogastric tubes are used,' says the affidavit of Captain John S 
Edmondson, commander of Guantánamo's hospital. The procedure - now standard 
practice at Guantánamo - 'requires that a foreign body be inserted into the 
body and, ideally, remain in it.' But staff always use a lubricant, and 'a 
nasogastric tube is never inserted and moved up and down. It is inserted 
down into the stomach slowly and directly, and it would be impossible to 
insert the wrong end of the tube.' Medical personnel do not insert 
nasogastric tubes in a manner 'intentionally designed to inflict pain.'

It is painful, Edmonson admits. Although 'non-narcotic pain relievers such 
as ibuprofen are usually sufficient, sometimes stronger drugs,' including 
opiates such as morphine, have had to be administered.

Thick, 4.8mm diameter tubes tried previously to allow quicker feeding, so 
permitting guards to keep prisoners in their cells for more hours each day, 
have been abandoned, the affidavit says. The new 3mm tubes are 'soft and 
flexible'.

The London solicitors Allen and Overy, who represent some of the hunger 
strikers, have lodged a court action to be heard next week in California, 
where Edmondson is registered to practise. They are asking for an order 
that the state medical ethics board investigate him for 'unprofessional 
conduct' for agreeing to the force-feeding.

Edmonson's affidavit, in response to a lawsuit on behalf of detainees on 
hunger strike since last August, was obtained last week by The Observer, as 
a Guantánamo spokesman confirmed that the number of hunger strikers has 
almost doubled since Christmas, to 81 of the 550 detainees. Many have been 
held since the camp opened four years ago this month, although they not 
been charged with any crime, nor been allowed to see any evidence 
justifying their detention.

This and other Guantánamo lawsuits now face extinction. Last week, 
President Bush signed into law a measure removing detainees' right to file 
habeas corpus petitions in the US federal courts. On Friday, the 
administration asked the Supreme Court to make this retroactive, so 
nullifying about 220 cases in which prisoners have contested the basis of 
their detention and the legality of pending trials by military commission.

Although some prisoners have had to be tied down while being force-fed, 
'only one patient' has had to be immobilised with a six-point restraint, 
and 'only one' passed out. 'In less than 10 cases have trained medical 
personnel had to use four-point restraint in order to achieve insertion.' 
Edmondson claims the actual feeding is voluntary. During Ramadan, 
tube-feeding takes place before dawn.

Article 5 of the 1975 World Medical Association Tokyo Declaration, which US 
doctors are legally bound to observe through their membership of the 
American Medical Association, states that doctors must not undertake 
force-feeding under any circumstances. Dr David Nicholl, a consultant 
neurologist at Queen Elizabeth's hospital in Birmingham, is co-ordinating 
opposition to the Guantánamo doctors' actions from the international 
medical community. 'If I were to do what Edmondson describes in his 
statement, I would be referred to the General Medical Council and charged 
with assault,' he said.

Yesterday the new German Chancellor Angela Merkel became the latest leader 
to condemn the United States for practices at the prison. In a magazine 
interview days before her first visit as premier to the US, Merkel said 
Washington should close Guantánamo and find other ways of dealing with 
terror suspects. 


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