3/30/09: Yemeni Detainees Pose Problem in Closing Gitmo

[babylonsister]

Just so you know, Yemen has been an ongoing problem, and I have no idea about how this will shake out or solutions.


Yemeni Detainees Pose Problem in Closing Gitmo
Obama's Pledge to Eliminate Prison at Guantanamo Bay Tested by Diplomacy Problems With Yemen
By Daphne Eviatar 3/30/09 12:04 AM



Human rights advocates are warning that unless the United States resolves some particularly thorny problems posed by almost 100 prisoners from Yemen stuck at Guantanamo Bay, President Obama will have serious problems keeping his pledge to shut down the prison camp anytime soon. The advocates are calling on the administration to prosecute in U.S. federal courts any Yemenis who pose a real threat, and to work harder to develop a plan with the Yemeni government to let the rest of them go home. Those who face a credible threat of persecution in Yemen could be resettled in another country.

The problem, described in a new report by Human Rights Watch released Sunday, involves about 99 prisoners from Yemen, many of whom have been imprisoned without charge for more than eight years. Of some 550 prisoners released from Guantanamo by the Bush administration, only 14 were from Yemen. Except for Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s driver convicted by a U.S. military commission and sent home last November, no Guantanamo prisoners have been returned to Yemen in the past year and a half.

Although detainees from Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia far outnumbered Yemeni detainees in the Guantanamo Bay prison’s early years, about 90 percent of detainees from those two countries have been sent home. Yemenis are now the largest single group at Guantanamo, making up about forty percent of the prison population.

The reason is not that the Yemeni prisoners are any more dangerous, say human rights advocates and lawyers. In fact, about a dozen prisoners from Yemen have been cleared for release since 2005. Yet the United States has been unable to reach an agreement with Yemen on how to repatriate these prisoners and ensure they don’t join Al Qaeda or otherwise pose a threat to the United States in the future.

more...

http://washingtonindependent.com/36232/yemeni-detainees-pose-problem-in-closing-gitmo

[Cha]

1. Yes, we have real problems that need

real solutions..and, I'm just glad we have President Obama and all the men and women on his team working on it.