Die Zeit, Germany

Germany Must Accept U.S. Request on Guantanamo Prisoners



"Reason and humanity demand that we comply with the request of the United States. Barack Obama was in office not 48 hours when he ordered the prison camp at Guantánamo closed within a year. For this he is deserving of the highest recognition - and all the help we can give."



By Mattias Nass





Translated By Jonathan Lobsien



May 21, 2009



Germany - Die Zeit - Original Article (German)

Detainees await processing at Guantanamo: Closing the facility is turning out to be a lot harder than opening it, with allies hesitant to accept those who will be released, and U.S. states unwilling to accept them, either - even if deemed 'not dangerous.'



BBC NEWS VIDEO: U.S. Congress blocks funding for closure of Guantanamo Bay, May 21, 00:01:32RealVideo

The names of nine Uyghurs are on the list that Barack Obama’s special envoy, Daniel Fried, recently handed over to the German government. They currently sit along with some 250 other detainees in the U.S. prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Germany, according to the request of the Obama government, may take in the Uyghurs in order to make the closure of the camp easier. According to a U.S. court, the nine pose no danger, but in their homeland of China, they would be threatened again with imprisonment and torture. Should Germany grant the men asylum? A fierce debate has erupted within the grand [ruling] coalition in Berlin concerning this matter. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Social Democratic Party) is for hosting them, while Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble (Christian Democratic Union), as well as a few SDP insiders, object.



But of course! Reason and humanity demand that we comply with the request of the United States. Barack Obama was in office not 48 hours when he ordered the prison camp at Guantánamo closed within a year. For this he is deserving of the highest recognition - and all the help we can give.



Finally, after Europeans pushed George W. Bush for years, this institutionalized breach of the law will end. Angela Merkel put it this way: “The use of such prisons is incompatible with my understanding of the rule of law.” Now, at last, this shameful chapter is to be concluded.



Therefore, our answer to the request of the Americans can only be: Whoever's innocence is proven; whoever survived torture and understandably doesn't want to make America his new home but cannot return to his original country because they would be threatened with further persecution, they should find acceptance among us.

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US



Now however, hypocritical guardians of domestic and external security have been unleashed, as if the Americans wanted to see our security unhinged! As if they're being crafty to protect themselves from lawsuits seeking compensation (which, by the way, are just as easily conducted from Munich). As if they wanted to deflect the wrath of Beijing, which sees the Uyghurs at Guantánamo as East Turkestan terrorists, toward the naive Germans (who nevertheless renewed good business ties with China even after the chancellor received the Dalai Lama).



U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has stated: “These people are truly innocent. We're ready with all of our power to support them so that they integrate quickly [translated quote].” Naturally, the Chinese are more believable than Biden. One can and should investigate possible connections between the Uyghurs and the East Turkestan Islamic separatist movement.



The only thing one hears above the cries for “more information” is excuses, excuses, excuses! It is the same couldn’t-care-less morality exhibited by head of the Chancellery Frank-Walter Steinmeier in the case of Murat Kurnaz. There may even be something to these allegations! Incidentally: what's it to us?