Fifty-two inmates at the US military's Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba have begun a hunger strike to protest their detention.
The detainees, among some 500 al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects held at the US Navy base, have refused at least nine consecutive meals, the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo said last night.
Attorneys for some detainees said Guantanamo prisoners had planned in late June to begin a hunger strike to express frustration over "their indefinite detention and the inhuman conditions at Guantanamo," according to a statement from the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR).
Human rights groups have repeatedly criticised the United States for indefinitely detaining suspects at the Guantanamo prison camp, which was opened on the base in January 2002.
Former prisoners have said they were tortured there. Many of the prisoners at Guantanamo, accused of having ties to al-Qaeda or the ousted Taliban regime in Afghanistan, have been held for more than three years. Only a handful have been charged.
CCR, citing recently declassified notes taken by attorneys who visited inmates, said the hunger strike is a "peaceful, nonviolent strike until demands are met" and calls for "starvation until death".
The prisoners are demanding clean food and water, better medical care, more access to sunlight, contact with relatives, greater respect for their religion - including an end to desecration of the Koran - and fair trials with proper legal representation, the CCR statement said.
US military officials said detainees who refuse food are given medical treatment including intravenous hydration, water, a sports energy drink, and a nutritional supplement, and are admitted to hospital if needed.