France/US: Guantanamo Detainee Resettlement a Welcome Step

More European Countries Should Step Forward to Accept Detainees

May 15, 2009

(Paris) - The French government's decision to accept Algerian detainee Lakhdar Boumediene for resettlement in France marks a welcome step toward closing Guantanamo, Human Rights Watch said today. Because some 50 to 60 detainees cannot be returned to their home countries for fear of torture, they will need to be resettled elsewhere for Guantanamo to close.

Boumediene has been reported to be on a plane en route to France, and official French government spokesmen have confirmed that he was offered French residency.

"European countries have long called on the United States to close Guantanamo," said Joanne Mariner, terrorism and counterterrorism director at Human Rights Watch. "It is extremely encouraging to see France now making a positive contribution toward helping shut Guantanamo down by accepting a detainee for resettlement."

Of the approximately 240 prisoners still being held at Guantanamo, an estimated 50 to 60 - from countries such as Algeria, China, Libya, Tunisia, and Uzbekistan - have told their lawyers that they fear torture in their home countries and do not want to be returned there. Several have been cleared for years to leave Guantanamo, and none of them faces criminal charges, but they remain imprisoned because neither the United States nor any third country has been willing to resettle them.

Human Rights Watch called on the French authorities to ensure that Boumediene receives appropriate reintegration support and said that the authorities should not place unwarranted restrictions on his liberty.

Boumediene, whose family is now in France, was arrested in Bosnia among a group of detainees who were flown to Guantanamo in early 2001. Most of these men were released to Bosnia in December 2008, after a US federal court found their detention to be unjustified.

In June 2008, Boumediene was the a lead plaintiff in a landmark US Supreme Court ruling that recognized the right of Guantanamo detainees to challenge their detention in civilian courts. Human Rights Watch filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief in Boumediene v. Bush.

To date, some 27 former detainees who were citizens or former residents of European Union member states have been returned to Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Thirteen detainees who were citizens or former residents were released to other European countries. None are known to have engaged in militant or other violent activity.

During the Bush administration, the US government approached scores of countries to ask them to take in detainees at Guantanamo, with little success. In 2006, Albania agreed to accept five Uighurs, but it later refused to take in any more. Since President Obama took office, however, several European governments have expressed a willingness to resettle other detainees.

"We hope that Boumediene will be the first of many detainees that France and other European countries will agree to welcome," Mariner said.

US: Obama Should Reconsider New Position on Guantanamo Detainees

The Obama administration's newly issued position on Guantanamo detainees is a disappointment, Human Rights Watch said today. Rather than rejecting the Bush administration's ill-conceived notion of a "war on terror," the Obama administration's position on detainees has merely tinkered with its form.

The administration's position was disclosed on March 13, 2009 in a court filing in response to a federal judge's order seeking a definition of the term "enemy combatant."

While the filing avoided using the phrase "enemy combatant," it did not jettison the idea that persons alleged to be involved in international terrorist activities were participating in a war. The filing instead relied on closely related phrases like "members of enemy forces" and "members of an opposing armed force."

"The Obama administration's take on detainees is essentially the Bush standard with a new name," said Joanne Mariner, director of the terrorism and counterterrorism program at Human Rights Watch. "At least for now, the Obama administration is claiming the power to pick up people anywhere in the world on the grounds of support for or association with al Qaeda or the Taliban, and to hold them in military detention for what might be the rest of their lives."

The only substantive difference from the position previously asserted by the Bush administration is that if the person's link to al Qaeda or the Taliban is support, that support must be "substantial." But membership is any of those organizations remains grounds for detention.

Human Rights Watch said that the only good news in the court filing is its emphasis that the administration's position is subject to change, as its comprehensive review of detention policy takes shape. It said that any detainees at Guantanamo who are implicated in terrorist acts should be prosecuted in federal court, which have proved capable of handling even the most sensitive and complicated such prosecutions.

"We urge the Obama administration to reconsider its views," Mariner said. "The administration should be prosecuting terror suspects in the federal courts, not looking for ways to circumvent the criminal justice system."