Punishment or remedy? Guantanamo force feeding sparks debate

A six-month mass hunger strike by detainees at Guantanamo this year has forced prison authorities to repeatedly resort to the practice to prevent inmates starving to death.

One Yemeni prisoner at Guantanamo Bay says it is an agonizing, cruel punishment that he would not wish on anyone.

US federal Judge Gladys Kessler describes it as a "painful, humiliating and degrading process."

But for staff at the controversial US military jail, the criticisms of feeding by tubes -- force-feeding or enteral feeding depending on where you stand -- are overblown.

A six-month mass hunger strike by detainees at Guantanamo this year has forced prison authorities to repeatedly resort to the practice to prevent inmates starving to death.

But while it has been decried by a legion of rights groups as inhumane, Guantanamo officials insist it is merely "uncomfortable."

In a tour arranged for reporters last week, journalists were given a glimpse of the protocols governing feeding by tube.

Reporters were shown where hunger-strikers are restrained before a tube delivering essential nutrients is inserted into their body for "feeding."

File photo: In this May 14, 2009 file photo, reviewed by the US military, Guantanamo detainees pray before dawn near a fence of razor-wire, inside Camp 4 detention facility at Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base, Cuba. AP Photo