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Detenus on hunger strike

SAN JUAN (PUERTO RICO): Scores of detenus have started a hunger strike at the U.S. prison for terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and some are threatening to starve to death unless they are put on trial or released, human rights lawyers have said. The New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights said prisoners rebelled because the Pentagon reneged on promises to bring the detention camp into compliance with Geneva Conventions if prisoners ended a June-July hunger strike that involved up to 200 of the 500-plus men from some 40 countries detained at the remote base. The military said only 52 prisoners were involved in the first strike, after a released prisoner and lawyers who spoke to detained clients published the news. ``The DOD is practising dangerous deception,'' an attorney with the centre, Gitanjali Gutierrez, said in a statement. ``It hid evidence of the hunger strike and prisoner abuse from visiting senators and the public.'' — AP

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