Hunger strike

Hunger Strike is also the name of a song by Temple of the Dog.

A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest or to achieve a goal such as a policy change.

Early history

Fasting was used as a method of protest and receiving justice in pre-Christian Ireland, where it was known as Troscad or Cealachan. It was detailed in the contemporary civic codes, and had specific rules by which it had to be used. The fast was often carried out on the doorstep of the home of the offender; scholars speculate this was due to the high importance the culture placed on hospitality. Allowing a person to die at your home, for a wrong you were accused of, was considered a great dishonor. The fast's uses were primarily to recover debts or get justice for a perceived wrong. There are legends of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, using the hunger strike as well. David Beresford. Ten Men Dead, (New York: Atlantic Press, 1987), 7. ISBN 0-87113-702-X

In India, the practice of dharna, a form of hunger protest where the protestor fasts at the door of an offending party (typically a debtor) in a public call for justice, was abolished by the government in 1861 (although the term is still used in South Asia today); this indicates the prevalence of the practice prior to that date, or at least a public awareness of it. Ibid., 8.

Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned in 1922, 1930, 1933 and 1942. Because of Gandhi's stature around the world, it is widely viewed that British authorities did not wish to allow him to die in custody. It is likely Britain's reputation would have suffered as a result of such an event. However, many also claim that Gandhi would not martyr himself without good reason.

Gandhi engaged in two famous hunger strikes. The first protested British rule of India, and the second protested autocratic rule in the newly independent India.

British suffragettes

In the early 20th century suffragettes frequently endured hunger strikes in British prisons. Marion Dunlop was the first in 1909. She was released as the authorities did not want her to become a martyr. Other suffragettes in prison also undertook hunger strikes. The prison authorities subjected them to force-feeding, which they categorised as a form of torture. Mary Clarke and several others died as a result of force-feeding.

In 1913 the Prisoner's Temporary Discharge of Ill Health Act (nicknamed the "Cat and Mouse Act") changed policy. Hunger strikes were tolerated but prisoners were released when they became sick. When they had recovered, the suffragettes were taken back to prison to finish their sentences.

Irish republicans

Main Article: 1981 Irish Hunger Strike

The tactic was used by Irish republicans from 1917,and subsequently, during the Anglo-Irish War, in the 1920s. Early use of hunger strikes by republicans had been countered by the British with force-feeding, which culminated in 1917 in the death of Thomas Ashe in Mountjoy Prison. In October 1920, the Lord Mayor of Cork Terence MacSwiney, died on hunger strike in Brixton prison. Two other Cork IRA men, Joeseph Murray and Michael Fitzgerald also died on hunger strike in this protest. The Guinness Book of Records lists the world record in hunger strike (without forced feeding) as 94 days, which was set from August 11 to November 12, 1920 by John and Peter Crowley, Thomas Donovan, Michael Burke, Michael O'Reilly, Christopher Upton, John Power, Joseph Kenny and Seán Hennessy at the prison of Cork. Arthur Griffith called off the strikes after the deaths of MacSwiney, Murray and Fitzgerald. After the end of the Irish Civil War in 1923, up to 8000 IRA prisoners went on hunger strike to protest at their continued detention. The strike however, was called off before any deaths occurred.

The tactic was revived by the Provisional IRA and INLA in the early 1980s. Bobby Sands was the first of ten Irish republican paramilitary prisoners to die during a hunger strike in 1981. This hunger strike was a protest against the revocation by the British government of a prisoner-of-war-like Special Category Status for paramilitary prisoners in Northern Ireland. There was widespread support for the hunger strikers from Irish republicans and the broader nationalist community on both sides of the Irish border. Some of the hunger strikers were elected to both the Irish and British parliaments by an electorate who wished to register their disgust at the intransigent attitude of the British government. The ten men survived without food for 46 to 73 days ^*, taking only water and salt. After the deaths of the men and following severe public disorder, the British government granted politically motivated prisoners Special Category Status. The hunger strikes gave a huge propaganda boost to a severely demoralised Provisional IRA.

Hunger strikes have deep roots in Irish society and in the Irish psyche. Fasting in order to bring attention to an injustice which one felt under his lord, and thus embarrass him into a solution, was a common feature of society in Early Irish society and this tactic was fully incorporated into the Brehon legal system. The tradition is ultimately most likely part of the still older Indo-European tradition of which the Irish were part.

Political prisoners in Turkey

Inspired by the Irish Republicans, Turkish political prisoners developed a tradition of hunger strikes, which continues to this day. After the suppression of rising civil socialist movements by a military coup in 1980, many militants as well as civil activists were imprisoned under highly inhumane conditions. In response to torture and mistreatment of political prisoners, the first hunger strike was launched in 1984, taking the lives of 4 Dev-Sol militants, Abdullah Meral, Haydar Başbağ, Fatih Öktülmüş and Hasan Telci.

In the following years, socialist movements have been increasingly marginalized and moved underground. However, many militant Marxist/Leninist groups have survived. For this reason, the number of political prisoners has always been high. In 1996, when the nationalist minister of the Islamist/conservative government launched a policy on segregation of political prisoners from each other, another hunger strike broke down, with the participation of several leftist militant groups. The strike lasted 69 days, took 12 lives, and the indifferent attitude of the government provoked a strong public protest. As a result, with the initiative of intellectuals including Yaşar Kemal, Zülfü Livaneli, and Orhan Pamuk, a deal was achieved between the government and prisoners. The prisoners took most of their rights back, which they recall as a victory.

The last wave of hunger strikes in Turkey, which has become chronical in recent years, was started against F-type prisons, which were designed for efficient segregation of political prisoners. The project was developed starting in 1997, and the strike was started on October 20, 2000, demanding F-type prisons not to be opened, by a large coalition of militant groups, this time including the Kurdish-separatist militants of PKK. The result was tragic, on December 19, 2000, the now democratic left-extreme nationalist coalition decided to break the strike using force, which was named "Back to life" operation. The operation was faced by a well-organized resistance of prisoners, resulting in the death of 28 prisoners and 2 soldiers. Since then, both F-type prisons and related hunger strikes has become an issue of daily life. According to the organization of prisoner relatives, 101 prisoners have died and above 400 hundred have suffered from unrecoverable disease, particularly Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. The governments have been consistently denying claims about mistreatment of prisoners, and president Ahmet Necdet Sezer has been pardoning diseased prisoners, only to be criticized by extreme-right, since many of the released militants have been caught or killed in clashes with security forces. The government maintains that 189 hunger strikers received presidential pardons since 2000.

Gwynfor Evans

In 1980, the Welsh nationalist politician Gwynfor Evans threatened to go on hunger strike in order to hold the newly-elected Conservative government to its election promise to set up a Welsh-language TV channel. The government capitulated and the channel was on air by the end of the year.

Animal rights

British animal-rights activist, Barry Horne, died on November 5, 2001 after a series of four hunger strikes, the longest of which lasted 68 days from October 6 to December 13, 1998, leaving him partially blind with kidney damage.

Akbar Ganji

Akbar Ganji is an Iranian journalist imprisoned in Evin prison since April 22,2000. Ganji was on a hunger strike between May 19, 2005 and early August, 2005, except for a 12-day period of leave he was granted on May 30, 2005 ahead of the ninth presidential elections on June 17, 2005. He is represented by a group of lawyers, including the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Shirin Ebadi. While on hunger strike Ganji wrote two letters to the free people of the world: [http://freeganji.blogspot.com/2005/07/letter-to-free-people-of-world.html 1 2. On July 12, 2005 the White House press secretary Scott McClellan said in a statement that the US president, George W. Bush, called on Iran to release Ganji "immediately and unconditionally." "Mr. Ganji is sadly only one victim of a wave of repression and human rights violations engaged in by the Iranian regime," "His calls for freedom deserve to be heard. His valiant efforts should not go in vain. The president calls on all supporters of human rights and freedom, and the United Nations, to take up Ganji's case and the overall human rights situation in Iran." "Mr. Ganji, please know that as you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you," the statement said.

Guantánamo Bay hunger strikes

During the middle of 2005 the detainees the United States is holding at the Guantánamo Bay Naval base, initiated two hunger strikes.

The first hunger strike ended on July 28 2005, when prison authorities agreed to make concessions. According to some accounts half a dozen detainees were then close to death. According to some accounts so many detainees were being forced to receive intravenous rehydration that the prison's well-equipped infirmary was overwhelmed and detainees had to be transferred to the Naval hospital.

According to human rights workers, the prison authorities had a waiver form they called upon detainees to sign if they wanted to refuse intravenous rehydration. The detainees had all been advised, by their lawyers, not to sign anything their lawyers hadn't reviewed.

One concession the American authorities acknowledge making was to supply the detainees with a bottle of clean water to drink with each meal.

The detainees reported, to their lawyers, that the prison authorities had agreed that they would begin to treat them in a manner consistent with the Geneva Conventions. A week later, when they said that the prison authorities were not abiding by their commitment, they initiated a second hunger strike in early August.

One of the hunger strikers, eighteen year old Omar Khadr, has told his lawyer that other triggers for the hunger strike include the detainees ongoing concerns that the guards are showing disrespect for their religion, including turning on loud fans, playing loud music, and whistling, to disrupt the detainees' prayer meetings. Khadr reports that the prison authorities are not honoring their obligation by broadcasting the call to prayers four times a day rather than five. Khadr reports that many of the detainees resent that sometimes female GIs broadcast the call to prayer.

American Department of Defence (DoD) spokesman Lieutenant Commander Flex Plexico said on July 21 2005 that fifty detainees were involved in the first hunger strike, and spokesman Brad Blackner said on September 2 2005 that seventy six detainees were participating in the second hunger strike. Human-rights workers estimate that both hunger strikes have between 150 and 200 participants.

On October 26 2005, a federal judge ordered the Government to provide information about the condition of detainees to lawyers representing the hunger strikers. The Government has contested the detainees' claims of rough treatment during forced feeding. The court's decision reflects major changes from the early years of the camp's operation, when almost no information was obtainable by attorneys. The Government did not immediately announce whether it would appeal the judge's ruling.

On November 4 U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stated at a Pentagon news conference that he would not permit United Nations investigators to interview the striking detainees. He said the International Committee of the Red Cross would continue to have unlimited access to interview them.

On December 30 2005,the military reported that there are eighty-four strikers as of Christmas Day, forty-six having joined that day.

On 9 February 2006, the New York Times reported that hunger strikers were being strapped into restraining chairs for hours a day for force-feeding and to prevent vomiting up the food as attempts at suicide. An officer said the number of strikers peaked at 131 around 11 September. Reportedly there was concern over the international impact if a striker were to die. Detainees' lawyers called the methods brutal and inhumane, and said other coercive methods were used, such as being placed in cold air-conditioned isolation cells. The assistant secretary of defense for health affairs said it was a moral question: allow suicide, or take steps to preserve life. On 21 February 2006, the military commander at Guantánamo conceded that the authorities were using restraining chairs as reported earlier. (NY Times 22 February)

Legal situation

Article 5 of the 1975 World Medical Association Tokyo Declaration states that doctors must not undertake force-feeding under any circumstances:

"Where a prisoner refuses nourishment and is considered by the physician as capable of forming an unimpaired and rational judgment concerning the consequences of such a voluntary refusal of nourishment, he or she shall not be fed artificially. The decision as to the capacity of the prisoner to form such a judgment should be confirmed by at least one other independent physician. The consequences of the refusal of nourishment shall be explained by the physician to the prisoner."

The American Medical Association is a member of the World Medical Association, but the AMA's members are not bound by the WMA's decisions, and neither organization has formal legal powers.

References

External links

Infoshop News - Palestinian Strike
Women’s Suffrage
How Long Can You Go Without Food? Hunger strikes 101, Slate magazine, June 10, 2004
Scandal of force-fed prisoners Hunger strikers are tied down and fed through nasal tubes, admits Guantánamo Bay doctor (The Guardian, January 8, 2006)
Guantanamo and Medical Ethics, JURIST

Civil disobedience | Social justice

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