ENDANGERING their lives by committing themselves to a persistent hunger strike would seem to be the only way for prisoners on the illegal U.S. naval base in Guantánamo, Cuba, to expose their unjustified imprisonment and the precarious conditions of life to which they have been subjected.

After two very difficult months of protest, U.S. military authorities continue to keep an iron grip on information as to the health of participating prisoners. But in the last few weeks, the situation has taken a turn for the worse with 18 prisoners at the point of starvation and 13 were intravenously or nasally force fed.

The delicate state of health of the prisoners and legal pressure brought to bear by their lawyers have forced the military authorities to provide information on the events, always in a very "controlled" way and lacking detail.

According to Base spokesman Major Jeffrey J. Weir, only 36 are still on hunger strike, and the forced feeding is a measure "to prevent other prisoners from joining this form of collective suicide or falling into a deplorable condition. We are assuring their lives."

However, lawyers who have had access to prison areas affirm that the number of striking prisoners is closer to 200, and that the reason for the protest is to demand a trial with due legal protection or immediate release.

Many of the almost 500 prisoners that the United States is holding on the Guantánamo Naval Base have been there for more than three years without being formally charged and without any legal procedure being initiated. The majority of them were arrested during the U.S. war on Afghanistan and are accused of having contact with the Al Qaeda terrorist ring or with being members of the deposed Taliban government, which was attacked after the events of September 11, 2001.

Last week, lawyer Tom Wilner, who represents 11 Kuwaiti prisoners in Guantánamo, urgently requested a hearing on the hunger strike, which began more than five weeks ago, affirming that the physical condition of those involved was "extremely calamitous."

According to a recently declassified file, Wilner is demanding that Federal District Court Judge Collen Collar-Kotelly of Washington order the government to regularly provide information on the health of his clients and allow direct communication between the prisoners and their families.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, an NGO based in New York, reports that contacts with family members have been cut back, and the U.S. Defense Department is doing everything it can to prevent lawyers from meeting with their clients involved in the protest.

In recent months, the hunger strike has officially become the most effective instrument among the Guantánamo prisoners for attracting international attention to the inhumane treatment and torture to which they are subjected during interrogation by soldiers.

Previously, another hunger strike in June and July was controlled by officials who promised to improve prison conditions, but the inmates decided to renew their protest in August because no substantial changes were made.

What sparked the hunger strike on this occasion was the beating given to a Tunisian during an interrogation session, during which he was struck with an iron chair and an empty thermos, according to other prisoners. One Algerian inmate says that he saw the state of the Tunisian after the interrogation and affirms that one of his eyes was swollen and bleeding.

There is a lot of skepticism regarding the issue of the prisoners at the Guantánamo Naval Base. The U.S. government is rigidly maintaining its position of keeping the close to 500 people from 40 countries imprisoned without charges. Attempts by lawyers have been fruitless, and the incarceration is simply another example of U.S. military extrajudicial proceedings. The Pentagon’s direct influence on the issue is making possible solutions even more difficult.

When a prisoner refuses to accept nine consecutive meals, the authorities acknowledge a hunger strike. During the current protest, according to lawyers who visited the prison, several inmates have become so ill that they are collapsing and vomiting blood.

Prisoners, former prisoners, family members and attorneys are accusing the U.S. military of torture, religious persecution, sexual humiliation and the use of drugs in order to obtain information during interrogations.

Attorney Tom Wilner affirms that one of his clients, Fawzi Al-Odah of Kuwait, had visible marks of torture on his body after an interrogation session for which he was violently removed from his cell.

"I didn’t want to go to that interrogation, because during a previous one, they chained me up and forced me to urinate on my own body," Odah told his attorney, according to a U.S. media report.

International organizations defending the rights of political prisoners and prisoners of war agree that torture has not be eradicated and that direct physical aggression is still frequently used at the Guantánamo prison.