• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
College Magazine logo

College Magazine

College Life, Dating, Career & Campus Advice

  • Colleges
    • College Guides
    • College Rankings
    • Campus Life
      • Academics
      • Dating
      • Freshman Year
      • Health
      • Social Change
      • Party
    • Find Your College
  • Majors
    • All Majors
    • Most Popular Majors
    • Choosing a Major
  • Intern
    • Internship Directory
    • How to Get an Internship
    • How to Write a Resume
    • How to Write a Cover Letter
    • How to Interview
    • How to Network
    • Career 101
    • Find Your Passion Career
  • Money
    • How to Make Money
    • How to Save Money
    • How to Get a Job
    • Credit Cards 101
    • FAFSA
    • Ramen Project
  • Travel
    • Study Abroad
    • College Spring Break
    • How to Travel Cheap
    • Things to Do
  • Shop
    • College Magazine Shop
    • Gift Guides
    • College Packing List
Home » Latest Posts » Hunger Strikes at Guantanamo Bay Continue to Grow
Life

Hunger Strikes at Guantanamo Bay Continue to Grow

FacebookTweet
Anna Novikova April 17, 2013

The hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has continued to grow to 45 strikers, even as the military got involved over the weekend.

On Saturday, the detention center decided to end communal living and ordered detainees to be placed back into single cells in an effort to stop the hunger strike, according to an article in the Washington Post. Some needed to be forced into their cells, as military guards fired four “non-lethal” rounds at detainees early Saturday morning.

Of the 45 detainees on strike, 13 are currently being force-fed through tubes in order to stay alive. Three have been hospitalized for dehydration. The hunger strike began in early February and prisoners are still refusing any meals provided by the camp. According to a statement by Navy Capt. Robert Durand, spokesman for Joint Task Guantanamo, the shots fired were in response to physical resistance by some detainees, including the use of improvised weapons.

The controversy sparking the hunger strike was the initiation of new, stricter searches of prisoners’ cells and belongings, including their Korans. The military said that the Korans were not handled by the guards but by interpreters, most of whom were Muslim, according to the Washington Post.

Many of the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay have been detained for a decade without trial or sentence.

Pardiss Kebriaei, an attorney for one of the detainees, spoke with the Huffington Post and said that the hunger strikes are part of a larger protest against the entire way the prison is run. “What’s going on now can’t be divorced from the broader context…men who’ve been held for 11 and a half years without charge, who see no end in sight…this is really a way of protesting the uncertainty of the end of their detention,” she said.


trending

114

How Graduation is Causing Me a (Good) Existential Crisis

Gretchen Rubin, author of Life in Five Sense
96

Awaken Your Five Senses with #1 NYTs Bestselling Author Gretchen Rubin

79

Adulting with Your Mom Is Fun


“The whole issue is one big gray area,” said Laura Rosales, a sophomore at Boston University studying computer science. “They are prisoners, many of whom actually have committed real crimes, and they’re doing this to themselves. But at the same time if this protest is so widespread, there must be some kind of mistreatment going on.”

These strikes are also a protest against the Obama administration’s halt on efforts to close Guantanamo Bay. The office charged with relocating detainees has been closed by the administration even though about a dozen prisoners were reviewed and cleared for transfer out of the detention facility, the Washington Post reports.

The military hopes that by moving the prisoners out of a communal room, the hunger strike will start to die down from the lack of group pressure. As of now, though, the protest seems to be going strong.

“People in prisons definitely have very innovative and improvised ways of communicating and transferring things and information…so it’s not really surprising that the prison guards would up their security and search measures,” Rosales said. “Maybe, though, they need to address the larger issue instead of just trying to stop the strike. I don’t know the answer, but this strike seems to show that the current policies on Guantanamo aren’t working.”

Photo from cbsnews.com

About Anna Novikova

Sophomore > Journalism/Environmental Analysis > Boston University

5 Ways to Survive Grueling Summer Classes 

What To Do Next When You Don’t Know What To Do

Q&A with ASCEND app Creators Sydney Campos and David Richeson

How a Last-Minute Gap Semester Changed My Life

Is Online Learning Right for You?

10 Things All International Students Understand

5 Pre-Finals Rituals to Follow for Optimum Study Time

Life Lessons I Learned in Fitness Classes

A Dream Deferred

Previous Post:5 Steps to Take Before Asking Someone Out
Next Post:Reflections on the Boston Marathon Explosions and the Aftermath

colleges

  • College Guides
  • College Rankings
  • Campus life
  • Academics
  • Dating
  • Freshmen Year
  • Health
  • Party

majors

  • All College Majors
  • Most Popular Majors
  • Choosing a Major

intern

  • Internships Directory
  • How to Write a Resume
  • How to Write a Cover Letter
  • How to Interview
  • How to Get an Internship
  • How to Network

money

  • How to Make Money
  • How to Save Money
  • How to Get a Job
  • Credit Cards 101
  • College Loans

travel

  • Study Abroad
  • College Spring Break
  • How to Travel Cheap
  • Things to Do

shop

  • College Packing List
  • Gift Guides
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS Feed
  • Twitter
  • About Us
  • Team
  • Write
  • Apply
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sign Up
  • Advertise
  • My Account
  • Cart

College Magazine logo

Copyright © 2023 Powered by BizBudding