25/10/2005
When: Tuesday 25th October, 5pm
Where: Outside the US Embassy, London
Details 0207 353 4640 (Reprieve, www.reprieve.org.uk)
What: Dr David Nicholl and Dr Jenny Vaughan will be demonstrating how the US forces in Guantanamo Bay are force feeding the detainees currently hunger striking, before delivering a letter to both the US embassy and the Prime Minister, signed by members of the medical profession, urging the government to intervene in the light of recently unclassified material, which illustrates the true nature of the situation.
The demonstration will see Dr David Nicholl restrained, before Dr Jenny Vaughan inserts a nasogastric tube into his stomach through his nose.
Dr. Nicholl has written the letter, stating that it is fundamental to a doctor's responsibilities in dealing with a hunger strike that the detainee has the right, as any other patient would, to refuse treatment. However, the 'assisted feeding' that the US military is currently undertaking defies this clear ethical obligation. The detainees are restrained with shackles on their arms, legs, waist, chest, knees and head; are not anaesthetised or sedated; and, are subject to this practice as a further means of torture.
Asked why the doctors were planning their protest, consultant neurologist Dr. Nicholl replied: "Recent media reports have failed to demonstrate the true awfulness of force-feeding. We, as clinicians, feel the British public has a right to know what is involved. The Americans euphemistically describe this as 'tube feeding', which to me means having a sandwich on the Northern Line and not what it actually is, medicalised torture."
There have been up to 200 detainees on hunger strike, including at least 6 British Residents. The hunger strike, which is now entering its 11th week has seen at least 21 detainees hospitalised, with others being force fed in their cells. The plight of the British residents is desperate. Their simple demand is that they be charged with a crime or set free. Omar Deghayes is a British refugee from Libya who was given asylum in the UK in 1986 after his father was assassinated on the orders of Colonel Gaddafi. He trained to be a solicitor in Huddersfield, and has a four year old child. No charges have ever been brought against him, and following an assault by a US soldier, he has been left blind in one eye. A BBC Newsnight programme provided evidence suggesting that he is a victim of mistaken identity. However, the UK government has refused to intervene on his behalf, even though the Libyan security services have threatened to kill him if the US authorities ever 'render' him to Libya.
The stories of the other British residents are equally horrifying. Binyam Mohammed was rendered to Morocco by the CIA where his torturers took a razor blade to his penis. Shaker Aamer has a British wife and four young British children who have waited for his return for three years, all hope diminishing. Bisher Al Rawi and Jamil El Banna, far from being seized on the Afghan battlefield, were grabbed in the Gambia where they were setting up a peanut processing plant, and taken to Guantanamo. Ahmed Errachidi, 18 years a British resident, was working as a chef in London at the time the Americans allege he was training as a terrorist on the other side of the world.
Press conference at the location:
Dr David Nicholl
Media contact:
For further information please contact Reprieve Tel 0207 353 4640; Fax: 0207 353 4641; info@reprieve.org.uk
For local West Midlands media, contact David Nicholl 07831 877 622 or david.nicholl@blueyonder.co.uk
For photographs of the event, please contact Reprieve
SOURCE: Reprieve |
