Six Guantanamo Bay Detainees Transferred to Uruguay, Where They Are Free to Leave Anytime
Six detainees, considered prisoners in the U.S. war on terror and held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for over 12 years, have been transferred to Uruguay under a resettlement deal, the Pentagon said Sunday.
The prisoners arrived early Sunday in Uruguay, which had agreed to accept the six men, including four Syrians, a Tunisian and a Palestinian, as a humanitarian gesture, according to The Associated Press.
This is the largest single group of detainees to be moved from Guantanamo Bay, as well as the first time that this military prison inmates have been resettled in South America.
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Uruguayan President Jose Mujica has said the men will be free to leave the country any time. The United Nations refugee agency will be responsible for returning the released prisoners to their homes, according to CNN. They will be helped in settling in a country with a small Muslim population.
"We have offered our hospitality for humans suffering a heinous kidnapping in Guantanamo," Mujica was quoted as saying on his presidential website. "The unavoidable reason is humanitarian."
Five of the six men were taken to a military hospital and the sixth who was said to be in serious condition was admitted to Maciel Hospital in Montevideo, the capital, according to Los Angeles Times.
The former detainees were identified as Ahmed Adnan Ahjam, Ali Hussain Shaabaan, Omar Mahmoud Faraj, and Jihad Diyab from Syria; Abdul Bin Mohammed Abis Ourgy from Tunisia; and Mohammed Tahanmatan, a Palestinian. All of them were suspected militants with ties to al Qaeda, but had never been charged.
Mujica said the Guantanamo base "isn't a jail," and called it "a kidnapping nest because a jail assumes it is subject to some sort of rule of law, with the presence of a judge with a judicial point of view."
However, U.S. State Department envoy Clifford Sloan thanked Uruguay for their gesture. "We are very grateful to Uruguay for this important humanitarian action, and to President Mujica for his strong leadership in providing a home for individuals who cannot return to their own countries," he was quoted as saying.
The release of the six men brings the total number of prisoners at the Guantanamo prison facility to 136, which is the lowest number since the first month of the prison's opening in January 2002.
The six men had been cleared for release about four years ago.
The Uruguayan president expressed his willingness to take the detainees early this year, but it is mandatory for the Pentagon to notify Congress of its intent to transfer the detainees, which was done only in July. And then, Uruguay had its presidential election in October followed by a runoff in November.
The United States has released 19 prisoners this year thus far, and several more are expected to be released before the end of the year.
"This is a decent-size transfer of prisoners, but when you're looking in the broader context, this is part of a trickle of people out of Gitmo," Seth G. Jones, director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at Rand Corp, told the Times.
The challenge is to find countries that will accept the prisoners. "All of these fighters who were captured, who wants them?" Jones said.
