#GTMO200

25 August marks day 200 of the current hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay. A protest that started in February 2013 against worsening conditions of detention and perpetual indefinite detention without charge or trial that has already lasted almost 12 years for almost all the prisoners, the response was first denial, followed by repression and torture, through the use of solitary confinement, the removal of personal items from cells, beatings, physical searches tantamount to rape, the use of plastic bullets, force feeding by nasal tube and other forms of disproportionate pressure against debilitated prisoners.

While the number of prisoners reported to be on hunger strike more than six months later has fallen to around 40, with several dozen being force fed, this does not mean that the hunger strike is any closer to ending. Promises made by President Obama to look into the issue and the detention of prisoners again have yet to produce any concrete results three months later. Although he recently appointed an official within the State Department to look into the release of prisoners, he had fired the person he had previously chosen to do this job in 2009 a week before this year's hunger strike started.

Many people are still unaware of this hunger strike and the mainstream media has played down its importance, focusing mainly on the process of force feeding and the use of force and less on the reasons for the hunger strike and the prisoners' legitimate demand to know why they are still held there after almost 12 years without any charges against them or prospects of release. Hunger strikes can be fatal and cause long-term serious health problems.