Tag: gitmo

President dismisses outcry over Gitmo inmate resettlement

President Mohamed Nasheed has dismissed public outcry over the resettlement of a two Guantanamo Bay inmates in the Maldives as “political waves through misty clouds.”

“I don’t really think there is much of an outcry. I first mentioned this sometime last year in December, and this has been public knowledge since then – not a single person has said anything about it all this time,” he said.

The agreement, in which the United States will fund the transfer of two Muslim inmates to the Maldives on humanitarian grounds, has met with consternation from opposition parties who argue the move will make the Maldives look like “a terrorist paradise rather than a tourist paradise.”

“I will say again, they are not terrorists,” Nasheed said during a press conference today. “It was very clear back then that people were arrested [and put] in Guantanamo without proper checks. People were just taken from all over and incarcerated. Today, when the jail is being dismantled, and the Maldives is among the few 100 percent Muslim countries in the world, if we can’t care about them, where is the example we are showing to the international community and other people of the book [Jews and Christians]?”

Nasheed said the Maldives and the US State Department had “looked into who [he] is, and who his relatives are.”

“Just think, these people have been kept in a small cell in handcuffs and chains for six or seven years when they’ve not done anything at all [to deserve it]. Do you know how they kept? We’ve seen the photos. So when we help one of them and people talk about it [negatively], I don’t really want to listen to it at all.”

Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan meanwhile told newspaper Miadhu that “overreacting” to the resettlement of the Guantanamo Bay detainees risked “losing the focus on more realistic issues.”

Parliament’s National Security Committee had arranged a meeting on the issue on Wednesday to identify potential legal problems with the resettlement, however Minivan News understands this has been rescheduled.

Nasheed meanwhile said there were no obstacles in Maldivian law, constitution or customs preventing the Maldives from resettling the inmate.

“I don’t think that the people of this country is against such a humanitarian assistance or deed,” he said.

Speaking to Miadhu, Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed derided opposition criticism of the move as politically motivated, noting that the same party that had led a no confidence motion against him for strengthening the country’s diplomatic relationship with Israel now disproved of the Maldives helping Muslims.

The inmate was a Palestinian man who was arrested and taken to Guantanamo while preaching in Pakistan, Shaheed said.

“According to the information I have, his home was demolished by Israeli troops and that many of his family members are being intimidated by Israel,” Dr Shaheed told Miadhu.

The only Maldivian held in Guantanamo Bay, Ibrahim Fauzee, was flown to Male in May 2005. Fauzee was arrested in May 2002 in Karachi, where he was studying.

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Parliamentary committee to investigate “resettlement” of Gitmo detainees in Maldives

Opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Ali Waheed has filed a motion without notice at the parliamentary national security committee to investigate the government’s decision to allegedly “resettle” inmates from the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba that houses terror suspects.

Speaking to press after filing the motion, Ali Waheed said that based on his information, the released prisoners would not necessarily be held in custody, but could be resettled in the Maldives.

“They are to be released among Maldivians and kept under watch in whatever way,” he said. “So while we don’t even have a proper jail and the society is drowning in gang violence and crime, the Maldivian government has reached the point where they are forming agreements with another country and creating a legal framework to bring in people from the jail that has the world’s dangerous terrorists and citizens aren’t aware of what’s happening. The People’s Majlis elected by the Maldivian people aren’t aware of it.”

He added that the government’s actions was “a bit too much”.

“Even if the Majlis is on recess, I ask that the committee look into this and take action against those culpable in this matter,” he said.

The DRP vice-president, who is also the deputy chairman of the national security committee, said the case should be investigated as a matter of urgent concern.

He called on the national security forces, Maldives Police Service and the Human Rights Commission to “stop this from happening.”

“And the Maldivian people should come out and stop this,” he said, adding that the government’s failure to seek the parliament’s opinion showed that personal interest was involved.

Moreover, it was regrettable that the government was planning to bring in “convicts” at a time when the social fabric “has been destroyed”.

“We can’t even properly control the convicts in this country,” he said.

Ali Waheed told Minivan News today that the DRP “fully supported” the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison, but bringing inmates to the Maldives poses dangers to the country.

Nobel Peace Prize

In December last year, President Mohamed Nasheed said the Maldives will receive prisoners released from the jail.

“If a Muslim does not have a place to live in freedom, we will help in whatever way we can. We don’t want anyone to suffer any harm. We know that the Maldives, in helping just three people from Guantanamo Bay, does not mean that either the Maldives or the world would be free of inhumane treatment,” he said. “However this jail, Guantanamo jail, is very symbolic.”

US President Barack Obama pledged to close down the jail in the first year of his presidency. However, the American government now foresees that the prison will be closed at the end of the year.

In his radio address in December, President Nasheed said investigations have cleared most of the detainees of any involvement in terrorist activities, while the others will be taken to trial.

He said most of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay were innocent people caught up in the war in Afghanistan, and that offering assistance to other nations in whatever capacity was “a national duty.”

DRP MP Ahmed Nihan told Minivan News today that Saudi Arabia, Philippines and many other countries have refused to take in any Gitmo prisoners.

President Nasheed was trying to “win the Nobel peace prize” and secure American financial assistance, Nihan suggested.

He further warned that the move could leave the country open to attack by terrorist groups.

Nihan said Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed was the one who came up with the plan.

Shaheed said today that it was important to remember that not everyone incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay prison was a terrorist or a criminal.

“There was once a Maldivian taken there,” he explained. “He is living here and nobody has attacked us.”

Shaheed claimed that DRP’s motion was driven by personal animosity towards him.

Last year, the DRP failed to pass a vote of no-confidence against Shaheed for his part in deciding to establish diplomatic ties with Israel.

On whether he advised President Nasheed on accepting the detainees, Shaheed said he did not have to answer that question.

The president said investigations have cleared most of the detainees of any involvement in terrorist activities, while the others will be taken to trial.

He said most of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay were innocent people caught up in the war in Afghanistan, and that offering assistance to other nations in whatever capacity was “a national duty.”

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