10-year anniversary: Protests, hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay

A majority of detainees are ‘peacefully protesting’.

WASHINGTON: On the eve of the 10-year anniversary of the opening of the infamous detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, at least 12 detainees are on a hunger strike.

Joint Task Force Guantanamo Bay’s Director for Public Affairs Commander Tamsen Reese told The Express Tribune that detainees at Camp 6 informed the guard force that they would be peacefully protesting the 10-year anniversary of JTF GTMO through meal refusals, refusal to come in from recreation areas or displaying protest signs.

While there are no figures available on the exact numbers, a majority of the 171 detainees present in Guantanamo Bay live in Camp 6. Here, detainees are allowed to meet each other, eat, pray and attend classes together.

Approximately 85 per cent of the detainees who are compliant and reside in Camp 6 do not want to lose privileges of a communal setting (eating, praying, or recreating together), said Commander Reese. The officer added that the detainees may participate in these non-violent forms of protest and have the opportunity to reasonably express themselves without losing those privileges.

Debate over the future of Guantanamo Bay continues in the United States as it reaches its 10-year mark. Despite promises made by US President Barack Obama during his election campaign to close the facility within a year of taking office, the administration, facing opposition from Congress, has been unable to do so.

In December 2011, Congress approved the National Defense Authorisation Act 2011, which prohibits the use of funds to transfer detainees to another country.

Guantanamo Forever?

At an event organised by US think tank New America Foundation on the future of Guantanamo Bay, Congress­man Jim Moran dubbed it the United States’ most expensive prison on the planet. Citing figures reported first by US newspaper The Miami Herald, Congressman Homan said that 1,850 US troops and civilians maintain a compound that contains 171 captives – costing over $800,000 per year, per detainee.

Speaking to Express News, CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen said, “There’s no money to take people from Guantanamo to face a civil trial in the US. Congress has made it very hard for having an alternative and has made it almost impossible to close Guantanamo Bay right now.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2012.