Sollock: Testimony

Captain Ron Sollock holds feeding tubes
used on Guantanamo detainees.

(S1) But in January [2006], say lawyers for the prisoners and other critics of conditions there, camp overseers finally got fed up with protesters undermining camp discipline and overtaxing the medical staff, who often had to spend 15 hours a day feeding obstreperous inmates. Dr. Ronald Sollock, the camp's chief physician, told TIME bluntly that gentler force-feeding techniques of the past were a "failure." He says that without being strapped down, some inmates would try to pull out their nasal tubes, and even strike medical personnel. Worse, some continued to lose weight, by forcing themselves to vomit after being force-fed. "We had to take steps to prevent that, but we only do what is medically necessary in a humane and compassionate manner," says Sollock (At Guantanamo, dying is not permitted).