'Some 211 detainees have
departed from Guantanamo Bay'
Pakistan Times
March 13, 2005
WASHINGTON (US): The US State Department Spokesman has said
that to date, 211 detainees have departed from Guantanamo Bay,
146 of those were transferred for release and 65 were transferred
to the control of host governments for further detention,
investigation, and/or prosecution as appropriate.
He gave the details in response to a question at the daily
press briefing on Friday.
Richard Boucher said of the 65 detainees, who had been
transferred to the control of host governments, 29 of those
people went to Pakistan, nine to the United Kingdom, seven to
Russia, five to Morocco, six to France, four to Saudi Arabia, and
one each to Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Kuwait, and Australia.
The Spokesman was asked about the position of the State
Department on reports of attempts to get some of the Guantanamo
detainees back to serve out sentences in their home
countries.
Boucher said the United States had done a lot to try to help
the Defence Department as they had identified detainees who no
longer needed to be detained or who could be transferred to some
other custody.
"We have worked with other governments to try to ensure the
smooth transfer of individuals or, in many cases, their release.
So, we are the ones who conduct the diplomatic discussions with
foreign governments whose nationals are detained at Guantanamo."
"We've negotiated the terms and the arrangements for
transfer."
He said: "We've encouraged countries to become involved in the
process, including helping us to assess who these people are and
what threat they might pose."
State Department Spokesman said the United States have had
continuing discussions with a number of governments.
Q. And are there any issues with this programme that are
troubling, sending them back for detention to the other places or
not?
Boucher: We do have a policy position that we maintain and
that we are very careful about, not to transfer a person to a
country if we determine that it's more likely than not the person
might be tortured. So, we're careful about that and we make
decisions accordingly, but no, we've worked most of these
agreements out with a number of governments and they seem to have
worked fairly well.
"The issue, I think, is always what potential danger might
they still pose and that's a judgment that we have to make in
releasing people from Guantanamo and that's a judgment that,
under their laws, other governments have to make in terms of
whether they're charged or put in custody when they get
home."
US army details Afghan prisoner abuse
Two Afghan prisoners who died in US custody in December 2002
were killed by US soldiers who chained them in standing positions
and beat them, Human Rights Watch said on Saturday, citing US
Army investigative reports.
The reports provide the first official account of events
leading to the deaths of the two detainees, which the US military
initially said were due to natural causes.
Among those implicated in the torture were members of the
519th Military Intelligence Battalion, which went on to establish
an interrogation unit at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the reports
said.
Twenty-eight soldiers and reservists have been recommended for
prosecution in connection with abuse of prisoners at a US
detention facility in Bagram, Afghanistan, but only two have been
charged so far, they said.
"This investigation doesn't show that these were
isolated incidents. It shows that prisoners were being beaten
regularly and it was a common thing and a common affair at the
time," said John Fiston of Human Rights Watch.
Details
The New York Times, quoting the army report, said Mullah
Habibullah died in an isolation cell on December-4, 2002, from a
pulmonary embolism "apparently caused by blood clots formed in
his legs from the beatings."
Another detainee identified as Dilawar died six days later in
another isolation cell from "blunt force trauma to the lower
extremities complicating coronary artery disease," the army
report was quoted as saying.
Private Willie Brand, charged with manslaughter in a
closed-door hearing in Texas last month, acknowledged striking
Dilawar 37 times.
He was accused of "having maimed and killed him over a
five-day period by ‘destroying his leg muscle tissue with
repeated unlawful knee strikes,'" the Times said.
Among those recommended for prosecution is an Army military
interrogator who is said to have "sexully absued" one of Afghan
detainee.
The Army reports cited "credible information" that four
military interrogators assaulted Dilawar and another Afghan
prisoner with "kicks to the groin and leg, shoving or slamming
him into walls/table, forcing the detainee to maintain painful,
contorted body positions during interview and forcing water into
his mouth until he could not breathe".
US military officials in Afghanistan initially said the deaths
of Habibullah, in an isolation cell on Dec. 4, 2002, and Dilawar,
in another such cell six days later, were from natural
causes.
But after an investigation, the Army acknowledged the deaths
were homicides, The New York Times said.?
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