Reports: Chelsea Manning ends hunger strike after military does "right thing"
KANSAS -- Chelsea Manning, a transgender soldier imprisoned in Kansas for leaking classified information to the WikiLeaks website, is no longer on a hunger strike, Reuters and Buzzfeed News reported citing the ACLU.
Manning previously said she began the hunger strike Friday because her pleas for better treatment at Fort Leavenworth have been ignored. She said she would not voluntarily consume anything except water and prescription medication.
According to Reuters, the American Civil Liberties Union said she ended her hunger strike after the Army said she will receive treatment for her gender dysphoria. Manning’s treatment will include a surgery that was recommended by her psychologist a few months ago, the ACLU said, Reuters reported.
“I am unendingly relieved that the military is finally doing the right thing. I applaud them for that. This is all that I wanted – for them to let me be me,” Manning said in a statement provided by her lawyers to Buzzfeed News.
Manning later tweeted Buzzfeed’s article on her ending the strike, saying, “Unending relief: .mil does right thing; just let me be me...(Still being charged w/ suicide attempt).”
In a statement supplied by her ACLU attorney, Manning previously said the hunger strike would continue until she received the “minimum standards of dignity, respect and humanity” and that she was prepared for the possibility of dying.
Manning, arrested as Bradley Manning, was convicted in 2013 in military court of leaking more than 700,000 secret military and State Department documents.