By Michael Yoakum
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

HAVANA, Cuba – Negative press continues to mount for the Obama administration amidst details of the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.  The Lancet medical journal published a letter signed by more than 150 doctors that called upon President Obama to use doctors that Guantanamo inmates could trust.

The letter, published Wednesday, was a response by medical practitioners to new information that has come to light detailing the US military’s practice of force feeding prisoners.  The force feedings began three months ago when inmates began a hunger strike prompted by the implementation of tougher prison searches.

Ahmed Belbacha, an Algerian detainee, told BBC through his attorney that enduring the forced feedings “hurts a great deal.”  Belbacha was detained in 2001 and cleared to be released in 2007.  He remains in Guantanamo because Belbacha says he cannot return to Algeria and the US has been unable to find a country willing to accept him.

Belbacha states that he told the military doctors that force feeding him violated medical ethics but the doctors said they had no control in the matter.

The doctors who authored Lancet article said that detainees had “very good reason” not to trust the US military doctors because they must follow orders from their military superiors.  The doctors who signed the article offered a solution: allow them to travel to Guantanamo and treat the hunger-striking inmates.

The doctors’ request is likely in response to an open letter sent by 13 inmates to the UK-based newspaper, the Guardian, in May.  The letter begins “Dear Doctor, I do not wish to die, but I am prepared to run the risk . . .because I am protesting the fact that I have been locked up for more than a decade, without a trial, subjected to inhumane and degrading treatment and denied access to justice.”  The letter continues, “For this reason, I am respectfully requesting that independent medical professionals be allowed in to Guantanamo to treat me.”

President Obama campaigned in 2008 on a platform that promised to close Guantanamo.  Since the hunger strike began, President Obama has renewed efforts to permanently close Guantanamo but has been met with resistance from Congress.

For further information, please see:

BBC News – Guantanamo detainee describes ‘ordeal’ of force feeding – 19 June 2013

CNN – Doctors to Obama: Let us treat hunger-striking detainees at Guantanamo – 19 June 2013

Fox News – As hunger strike roils Guantanamo, ex-prisoner talks of his long protest and forced feeding – 15 June 2013

The Guardian – Guantánamo Bay prison detainees protest – open letter full text – 31 May 2013

Al Jazeera – Physician dismisses force-feeding concerns – 21 May 2013

Reuters – Analysis: In force-feeding detainees, Obama has courts on his side – 26 April 2013