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Video: Here's What Happens To Force-Fed Prisoners In Guantanamo Bay
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Jul 8, 2013
Modified Jul 8, 2013
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Jul 8, 2013
Modified Jul 8, 2013
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As of this weekend, all of the 106 prisoners at Guantanamo who are participating in a hunger strike continued to refuse food, and 45 of those prisoners are being forced to eat through a tube inserted into their nose, twice a day. The practice was previously recounted in The New York Times by a prisoner at Guantanamo, but Brooklyn native Yasiin Bey, whom you may know as Mos Def, subjected himself to the procedure on camera for the human rights organization Reprieve.
Bey makes it several minutes through the feeding before begging for the personnel to stop. The procedure usually takes two hours. It looks absolutely excruciating.
The hunger strike began in February of this year. Why are the prisoners refusing to eat? "Despair."
Reprieve has more on the prisoners and the strike, and occasional Gothamist freelancer John Knefel has been there several times—read his stories on the prison for Rolling Stone.
Tagged
brooklyn
guantanamo bay
hunger strike
president obama
torture
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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