US guards clash with prisoners at Guantanamo Bay prison: statement

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 13, 2013 8:43PM GMT

US guards have clashed with hunger striker prisoners held in the United States' infamous Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, an official statement says.

The clashes broke out as US military forces were attempting to move the prisoners out of a communal section of the prison, said a statement from the Miami-based US Southern Command, which oversees the prison.

The commander had decided to move the prisoners into solitary confinement.

The statement added that the inmates had covered surveillance cameras, windows and partitions to prevent authorities from observing them.

Lawyers of the prisoners condemned the action saying the prison commander should have negotiated to bring an end to the hunger strike.

'This is exactly the opposite of what they should be doing,' said Carlos Warner, a public defender representing 11 Guantanamo prisoners in Ohio. 'Instead, the military is escalating the conflict.'

On Thursday, rights activists staged wide-scale protests across the US, calling for the closure of the prison.

The protests were held in more than 26 cities and 19 states to mark the "Day of Action to Close Guantanamo & End Indefinite Detention."

Guantanamo hunger strikers stopped eating to protest their indefinite imprisonment without charges. They are also demanding an end to the intrusive search of their cells and personal belongings.

US holds about 166 men at the prison. A mass hunger strike involved many of the prisoners in the summer of 2005 but the protest dwindled after the military began tying people down and force-feeding them liquid nutrients through tubes to prevent them from starving to death.

NT/AS