Forced Feeding Outside Senate Office Building

 Activists on Long-term Hunger Strike to Close US Prison at Guantanamo

Will Simulate Forced-Feeding Outside Senate Office Building

Washington, DC --  At noon on July 30, 2013 several American activists who have been on a long-term hunger strike in solidarity with the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay prison will hold a press conference and a creative demonstration outside of the Hart Senate building on Capitol Hill.

The action will begin with a simulated force-feeding session that shows the brutality of this process of strapping down the prisoner, shoving a feeding tube down his nose and pouring Ensure into his writhing body. There will be doctors present to explain the grueling physical repercussions of the hunger strike and force-feeding.

Over 30 of the 100 hunger strikers at Guantanamo are currently being force-fed, a practice which the American Medical Association says constitutes torture. Activists will highlight the egregious nature of this practice and demand that the Congress and President Obama address the demands of the hunger strikers for justice instead of force-feeding them.

The action will be followed by a press conference featuring activists on long-term solidarity hunger strikes:

Vietnam veteran Elliott Adams, former President of Veterans For Peace, on day 70 of his strike, and

Tarak Kauff, a Board member of Veterans For Peace, who will be on day 53.

These activists have put their bodies on the line to draw attention to the plight of the prisoners at Guantanamo who face indefinite detention without charge or trial.

“I am on hunger strike in solidarity with prisoners in Guantanamo,” said Tarak Kauff.  “Eighty-six of them have been cleared for release for years now, but remain in prison because Congress and President Obama lack the political will to act.  So it’s up to us, as Americans of conscience, to draw attention to their plight and demand that our elected officials take action immediately.”

The long fasting veterans will also express their solidarity with hundreds of prisoners in California who have been hunger striking for over three weeks, calling for an end to indefinite solitary confinement and other prison abuses.

For more information, visit www.CloseGitmo.net