Fawzi Khalid Abdullah Fahad Al Odah
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Fawzi Khalid Abdullah Fahad Al Odah is a Kuwaiti detained in Camp Delta, in the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
According to an interview Fawzi's father gave to Amnesty International Fawzi had traveled to the Pakistan/Afghanistan border area, to do charitable outreach work. He crossed the border, following the attacks of September 11th, 2001, in order to aid refugees trying to flee Afghanistan. Following the US attack, Fawzi had to flee Afghanistan because Afghanis associated all foreigners with al Qaeda, and he risked kidnap or murder, due to mistaken identity. Fawzi succeeded in crossing back into Pakistan, where he was captured by Pakistani authorities.
Pakistani authorities handed Fawzi and eleven other Kuwaitis to American authorities, who transported them to Cuba.
Fawzi participated in the hunger strike that started on August 8, 2005. His health deteriorated to the point that he was one of the detainees the camp authorities started to force-feed.
Human Rights critics argue that the detainees retain the right to give or withhold consent to all medical procedures.
According to Fawzi's lawyer, Tom Wilner, Fawzi wants him to file a legal request ordering the removal of his feeding tube. Wilner hasn't yet done so, because Fawzi's family were "frantic", and opposed the motion.
Wilner says Fawzi "looks like a skeleton".
American spokesmen have given a fluctuating number of how many detainees were being force-fed. As of October 27, 2005, they say there are twenty-six detainees being force-fed. American spokesmen describe the medical treatment being administered compassionately -- by qualified medical personnel.
Zachary Katznelson, a spokesman for the British human rights group Reprieve, says:
- the force-feeding is sometimes administered by guards;
- oversize feeding tubes are used, and inserted in a painful manner;
- that the detainees are overstuffed, until they vomit;
- that tubes extracted from one detainee, are then re-used on other detainees, while covered with blood and vomit.