WASHINGTON, July 22: Fifty-two prisoners have launched a hunger strike at the US Guantanamo Bay terror suspects camp, apparently in protest at their detention, military authorities said on Thursday. The detainees have refused nine consecutive meals, said a statement issued by Joint Task Force Guantanamo, which is in charge of a facility opened in 2002 to hold captives from the US anti-terror campaign.

“Indications are that this is a temporary effort by some detainees to protest their continued detention,” the statement said.

Prisoners who refuse food are treated with intravenous drips, and oral rehydration solutions including Gatorade energy drinks, water and oral nutritional supplements, the statement said.

“All are monitored by medical professionals and have their vital signs checked daily. They continue to be offered food and water.”

The US military statement came a day after one of two Afghan men released from the camp after three years said after arriving back in Kabul that 105 prisoners had just staged a hunger strike.

Former Taliban soldier Habibul Rasoul said the protest was aimed at highlighting ‘inhuman’ conditions at the camp.

The US-based Center for Constitutional Rights, a non-profit legal foundation, meanwhile said it had established back in late June that prisoners, frustrated by ‘inhuman’ conditions at the camp, planned a hunger strike.

Inmates described the strike as ‘peaceful and nonviolent’ and promised ‘starvation until death’, CCR said, quoting what it said were recently declassified notes.

They were also demanding respect for their religion, free trials, and ‘proper, human food and clean water’, CCR said.

Confirmation of the hunger strike followed an attempt by US military authorities to move on from past controversies over the site, which included several trips to the facility for journalists and members of Congress.

A senior US diplomat meanwhile announced on Thursday that a US delegation would travel to Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, the nations with most nationals in the camp, to discuss sending more inmates home.

Pierre-Richard Prosper, ambassador-at-large, Office of War Crimes Issues, said Washington wanted to find out if home governments ‘can control the threat some may still pose’.

“We would prefer not to have these individuals in Guantanamo, and have their countries share the burden,” he said. Of the 510 prisoners of 36 nationalities now at Guantanamo, there are ‘over 100 Afghans’ and ‘over 100 Saudis’, Prosper added.

The Pentagon said on Wednesday that eight detainees had just been transferred from the prison.

As well as the two sent to Afghanistan, one detainee was released to Sudan, three to Saudi Arabia, one to Jordan and one whose extradition was sought by Spain, said a Pentagon statement.

The US Defense Department earlier this week announced plans to resume trials by military tribunals of four detainees and to bring charges against eight more.

But the others are being held without charge as enemy combatants.

Among those transferred from the prison, three were released after a tribunal determined that they were not enemy combatants.—AFP