UK not ready for prisoners
2004-07-06 20:19
London - Britain does not yet want to see its four nationals held at the Guantanamo Bay prison freed because it cannot guarantee they are not a security threat, Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday.
The "machinery" was not yet in place to ensure the British men held at the US detention centre in Cuba would pose no risk to security if they returned home, Blair said.
Giving testimony to senior members of the House of Commons, Blair said he had personally discussed the fate of the men - held for up to three years - with US President George W Bush several weeks ago.
However the prime minister said the United States was not being "unreasonable" in refusing to release the prisoners before Britain could assure them they were not a threat.
In March, five other Britons held at the detention centre for suspected supporters of the al-Qaeda terrorist group and Afghanistan's former Taliban regime were sent back to Britain.
"US not unreasonable"
Since then lawyers and family members speaking for Feroz Abbasi, Moazzam Begg, Martin Mubanga and Richard Belmar, all of whom were first arrested in Afghanistan or Pakistan, have insisted they be released as well.
"I hope we can resolve it reasonably soon but I do not think that the United States is being unreasonable in saying we need to make sure that there is security in place for these people," Blair said.
"There is an issue about these particular people in respect of the United States ... that we are not putting anyone at risk," he told the Commons liaison committee, which groups the chairs of various parliamentary committees.
"I am not yet satisfied that we have the necessary machinery in place but we are working on that.
"We all know that we are faced with a significant terrorism threat. These people were picked up in circumstances where we believe at the very least there are issues that need to be resolved, let us say, in respect of those individuals."
He added: "Certainly from what I have seen about those individual cases I would need to be very, very clear that there was in place in this country a sufficient infrastructure and machinery to be able to protect our own security."
The United States has announced that it will put some of the 600 or so prisoners at Guantanamo Bay before military tribunals, with the Britons mooted as possible early candidates.
However last week Blair warned that the planned tribunals did not meet acceptable standards of legal process.