Guantanamo puts US on the spot
2006-05-21 22:34
Washington - The United States would be delighted to close Guantanamo Bay Prison, but can't until the fate of "hundreds of dangerous people" held there is setled, says secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.
She said on Sunday: "We can't be in a situation in which we are just turning loose on helpless populations or unprotected populations the people who have vowed to kill more Americans if they're released."
About 460 suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are incarcerated at the Cuban prison camp, most of whom have been held for more than four years without charges.
President George W Bush has said he is waiting for a supreme court ruling on whether inmates can face military tribunals before he considers whether or not to close the facility.
A United Nations panel said on Friday the indefinite detention of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo violated the world's ban on torture.
'Don't want to be the world's jailer'
In issuing its report, the Committee Against Torture said the United States should ensure that no prisoner was tortured.
Rice, who said the report's authors had not visited the detention centre, asked that people be "cognisant of the dilemma here".
"Obviously, we don't want to be the world's jailer. We will be delighted when we can close down Guantanamo," Rice said on Fox News Sunday.
"But I would ask this: if we do close down Guantanamo, what becomes of the hundreds of dangerous people, who were picked up on battlefields in Afghanistan, who were picked up because of their associations with al-Qaeda?"
Rice said the US works nearly every day to try to return detainees to their native lands if their governments would take them and guarantee that they would not be mistreated, but would be monitored for criminal behavior.
US military officials at Guantanamo said prisoners with makeshift weapons attacked guards during a phony suicide attempt on Friday. The attack left six prisoners wounded.
The commanding officer of the facility told reporters the attack was evidence of the "dangerous nature" of the prisoners.
Republican senator John McCain agreed the US should ensure that no prisoner at Guantanamo was subjected to torture.
Some sort of decision needed
But, he said, closing the prison was premature without a legal resolution to the prisoners' cases.
"I don't think they deserve a fair jury trial, but there should be some sort of adjudication" to decide whether detainees were held for life, executed or released rather than held indefinitely, said McCain.
"This administration has tried, and it's frustrating, to get some sort of process," McCain said. "I'm hoping we can come up with some methodology to resolve this."
- AP