World

Chancellor Merkel's US Visit Heats Up Guantanamo Prisoner Issue

by Barbara McPherson | April 12, 2010 at 09:55 am

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Chancellor Merke's visit to the U.S. is resulting in a heating up of the matter of accepting prisoners from Guantanamo prison. The opposition parties have come out in favor of accepting some of the detainees while the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union have taken a negative stance.

The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported last month that a delegation from Berlin visited Guantanamo recently to meet with several inmates, including a Palestinian, a Jordanian and a Syrian who are likely candidates for resettlement.

The report also said that the inmates had been interviewed by German intelligence and police officials to determine their suitability and whether they would pose any risks if they were taken in.

US president Obama has pledged to close the infamous prison on Cuba but has run into major difficulties in trying to place the detainees. The American public generally is unwilling to allow them on US soil and other countries have been slow to accept the detainees as well.

Notably, the Canadian government has been slow to act on the Supreme Court of Canada's declaration that Omar Khadr's human rights had been violated. He remains the last western detainee still in Gitmo Prison.

Only 15-years-old at the time of his capture by US forces in Afghanistan in the summer of 2002, Omar Khadr was transferred to Guantánamo Bay shortly afterwards. He is one of the detainees currently designated for transfer to military detention on the US mainland.

Many of the prisoners in Guantanamo prison suspected of terrorist activities, although they have not been formally charged and tried for crimes.

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stejeb

at 13:32 on April 12th, 2010

It was always a bad idea to set up the camp in the first place, how this will be resolved is becoming a big problem for both the US and the rest of the international community, if they are innocent, they should be repatriated to their country of origin, if not, try them and be done with it, but they can't be kept incarcerated in limbo indefinitely.