The United Nations and World Medical Association require that Guantanamo detainees have access to independent medical advice and examinations. But they aren’t getting it.
In response to this violation and a public plea by detainees, a group of 150 doctors from around the world and including the U.S. have published an open letter to President Obama urging him to correct this injustice.
The plea comes from several detainees engaged in a hunger strike as their only means of attracting attention to their plight. In retaliation, military doctors are force-feeding them in a very painful and abusive manner, they reported last month in a letter to the Guardian.
The detainees are pleading for independent medical care because they say military doctors are compromising their duty to patients and putting loyalty to their superiors first. Detainees insist they cannot trust them, and without this trust, acceptable medical care is impossible.
Ask President Obama to provide independent medical examiners to Guantanamo detainees.
We, the undersigned, object to the on-going abuse of Guantanamo detainees, and ask for a resolution to the pleas now being made for independent medical care.
Clearly these detainees have few if any other options than to wage hunger strikes to protest their treatment and years of detention without a trial or due process.
For this valid protest, there should be no retaliation against them. But instead, their letter reports, they are being force-fed in an extremely painful and abusive manner.
The public cannot ascertain whether or not these allegations are correct unless and until there are independent medical examiners allowed to treat these detainees.
Furthermore, if detainees’ assertion that the force-feeding is condemned by the United Nations, then this practice must end immediately.
We ask President Obama to address these grievances and alleged violations and allow these detainees access to independent medical examiners.
Thank you for your time.
