Sunday, April 28, 2013
Miami Herald
MIAMI
International Red Cross delegates began inspecting conditions at the Guantanamo prison camps Saturday, as the U.S. military said the number of hunger strikers had reached 100.
One-fifth of the hunger strikers were being force-fed nutritional supplements through feeding tubes, said Army Lt. Col. Samuel House, a prison-camps spokesman.
Five of the 20 men being force-fed were hospitalized, although none “currently have any life- threatening conditions,” House said by email from the remote base in southeast Cuba.
In Washington, International Red Cross spokesman Simon Schorno said five delegates arrived Friday at the Navy base for a “an ad-hoc assessment visit” now that the majority of captives are in single-cell lockdown.
One delegate is a physician, he said, declining to identify the nationalities of any of the team members.
It’s the organization’s 93rd visit since the prison camps opened in 2002. Schorno said the goal was “to assess the immediate aftermath of that transfer and to monitor the current conditions of detention and treatment there” in light of the lockdown.
“As always, the ICRC will address its findings confidentially and with U.S. authorities only,” he said.
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