Yemenis demand release of Gitmo detainees

SANAA: Around 250 Yemenis have held a protest outside the US Embassy in the capital Sanaa to demand the release of around 90 of their compatriots from Guantanamo Bay.
Yemenis make up the largest contingent of the 166 detainees held at the US naval base in Cuba.
Yemeni rights activist Abdel-Rahman Barman says conditions at the prison are “very poor” and that at least two of the men there are on hunger strike. A 32 -year-old Yemeni died in an apparent suicide last year. Yemen’s government has requested the prisoners be transferred to Sanaa. An embassy employee was seen accepting a letter from relatives of the detainees yesterday. The embassy could not immediately be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, one of the best known prisoners in Guantanamo says a hunger strike at the base has grown to include 130 men in a protest over their confinement. Shaker Aamer tells his lawyer that he has lost 32 pounds during the strike that began Feb. 6. Prison officials have been trying to break the strike without success.