US military doctors are accused today of contributing to the deaths of Guantanamo Bay prisoners through poor medical care in a scenario reminiscent of the scandal surrounding the death of black rights activist Steve Biko.

Nearly 30 years after Mr Biko died following a violent police interrogation, 260 doctors around the world voiced their fears that no lessons had been learnt.

Six doctors writing on behalf of the group in medical journal The Lancet said they were concerned no medical staff had been held accountable for the deaths at the US prison camp on Cuba.

Dr David Nicholl, consultant neurologist at City Hospital, Birmingham, said on behalf of the signatories: "No health-care worker has been charged or convicted of any significant offence, despite numerous instances documented, including fraudulent record-keeping on detainees who have died as a result of failed interrogations.

"We suspect that the doctors in Guantanamo and elsewhere have made the same mistake as Benjamin Tucker (who was involved in the Biko incident), who, in 1991, in expressing remorse and seeking reinstatement, said 'I had gradually lost the fearless independence and become too closely identified with the organs of the state, especially the police force. I have come to realise that a medical practitioner's first responsibility is the wellbeing of his patient, and that a medical practitioner cannot subordinate his patient's interest to extraneous considerations'."

He concluded: "The attitude of the US medical establishment appears to be one of see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."

The discussion in the journal focuses on accusations of force-feeding of hunger strikers in Guantanamo Bay.

It notes that despite the lack of action by US authorities, Britain's Royal College of Physicians had concluded: "In England, this would be a criminal act."