TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Six prisoners from Guantanamo Bay have been transferred to Uruguay under a resettlement deal that was delayed for months by security concerns in the Pentagon and political considerations in the South American country.
The six are the first prisoners transferred to South America from the US base in Cuba, part of a flurry of recent releases amid a renewed push by Barack Obama to close the prison.
Uruguay’s president, José Mujica, agreed to accept the six men – four Syrians, a Tunisian and a Palestinian – as a humanitarian gesture and said they would be given help getting established in a country with a small Muslim population.
All six were detained as suspected militants with ties to al-Qaida in 2002 but were never charged. They have been cleared for release since at least 2010 but they could not be sent home and have languished as the US struggled to find countries willing to accept them.
“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,” said the State Department envoy Clifford Sloan.
Mujica agreed in January to take the men. Obama administration officials have been frustrated that the transfer took so long and blame the outgoing defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, for not approving the move sooner. They said the deal sat for months on Hagel’s desk awaiting his signature, but the Pentagon did not send the notification of the transfer to Congress until July.
By then, the transfer had become an issue in Uruguay’s presidential election and Uruguayan officials decided to postpone it. Tabaré Vázquez, a member of Mujica’s ruling coalition and a former president, won a runoff election on 30 November.
The men’s release reduces the total number of prisoners at Guantánamo to 136, the lowest number since the first month the prison opened in January 2002. Obama pledged to close the prison upon taking office but was blocked by Congress, which banned sending prisoners to the US for any reason, including trial, and placed restrictions on sending them abroad.
The restrictions on sending them overseas have been eased and the US has released 19 prisoners so far this year. Officials say several more are expected by the end of the year. Prisoners have been sent to countries around the world but this is this largest transfer to the western Hemisphere. Four were sent to Bermuda in 2009 and two to El Salvador in 2012.
THE GUARDIAN | DWI ARJANTO
