Tag: guantanamo bay

Claims of citizenship for Guantánamo detainees are “total lies”, says Attorney General

Attorney General Husnu Suood has described a claim by the Opposition Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) that Guantánamo Bay detainees will get Maldivian citizenship as  “a total lie.”

After a meeting with the US Ambassador in Colombo last week, DQP has said the agreement between the US and Maldivian government involves granting citizenship to any detainees resettled in the country.

AG Suood said negotiations were still at a very “early stage” and added that claims of the government giving citizenship to foreign detainees were fabricated.

“We are not obliged to give citizenship to foreigners,” he said, noting the same guidelines would apply to a foreign detainee as to any other foreign national wishing to acquire Maldivian citizenship.

He said “we are still in the preliminary stages of negotiation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the US Embassy and the governments,” and currently there is only “a basic text, a draft proposal” of the regulations and procedures for resettling Gitmo detainees in the country.

The AG’s office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will then make comments on the draft. “Based on that,” Suood said, “the ministry will negotiate.”

One of the conditions proposed by the US states that the Maldivian government shall “conduct surveillance on the prisoners while they are in the country, including monitoring their phone calls, letters and other communications.”

Additionally, they must “prevent them from leaving the country.”

Suood said “that’s what we’re seeking to clarify, how we deal with [the former inmates]”, and added that their comments and concerns would all be sent to the US Embassy before the transfer was formally accepted.

“There is no concrete agreement between the two countries as of yet,” he noted.

Press Secretary for the President’s Office, Mohamed Zuhair, said “the government of Maldives supports President Obama’s plans to close Guantanamo,” adding that “a Palestinian gentleman is due to be transferred from Guantanamo to the Maldives.”

He said “the United States has cleared this Palestinian man of any association with terrorism or any violent activities,” and have also confirmed “he has no criminal charges pending against him.”

He noted the man could not return to the Middle East due to his association with Guantánamo, and it is feared his life will be in danger if he is sent back.

“We should support innocent Palestinians. As a people, they have suffered so much injustice,” Zuhair said. “I hope when he arrives in the Maldives, we will treat him as he should be treated: as a victim who has been jailed for many years even though he has committed no crime.”

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Ahmed Shaheed, said the identity of the prisoner “has not been confirmed yet,” and added it will only be confirmed once the National Security Committee has concluded its meetings and have cleared the detainee of any charges.

He said “it will take some time” until the committee concludes its inquiries, as they have to “look at files and go through the process they require.” Dr Shaheed said after the legal framework is looked at, they can start assessing individual detainees.

Dr Shaheed did not attend a committee meeting held today.

He said although the Palestinian man Zuhair referred to was “one of the candidates” to be transferred to the Maldives, “it is not confirmed.”

Citizenship for detainees was not something the government was discussing yet, he said.

“I’m not saying we will do it or not,” he said, adding it would only be raised after the legalities of the transfer were cleared.

He added the transfer of detainees to the country was being looked at as “temporary,” like a “half-way stop” for the detainees, and not something permanent.

MPs meet US High Commissioner

A number of MPs met with the US High Commissioner today, said Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Ahmed Nihan.

Besides Nihan, Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Abdul Gafoor, Jumhoory Party MP Gasim ‘Buruma’ Ibrahim, DQP MP Riyaz Rasheed and Independent MP Mohamed Nasheed participated in the meeting.

Nihan said “very important doubts about the Gitmo issue were clarified by the American High Commissioner.”

“We exchanged information between the High Commissioner and MPs,” he said, noting “the High Commissioner gathered us to see our opinion on the issue.”

Nihan said in the meeting he highlighted how poor the communication is between people and the government, adding “the administrative decision was made inside the ‘smoking room’ of the president and not in the Cabinet.”

He said President Mohamed Nasheed never discussed the detainee issue with either Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed or the Cabinet.

“He always presents decisions in the cabinet meetings,” Nihan said, “but he did not discuss it with anyone before deciding.”

National security committee meeting

Parliament’s National Security Committee held their first meeting on the resettlement of Guantánamo Bay prisoners in the Maldives on Sunday, after it was postponed last week by Speaker of Parliament, Abdulla Shahid.

There are still more meetings to be held on the issue, as they need to hear from more government officials and police.

AG Suood said he was meant to attend a meeting tomorrow, but it has now been cancelled. He said he was asking the Majlis to look at Article 5 of their rules of procedure, which says “any summons should be in writing and signed by the Speaker.”

The AG said he and the foreign minister received letters of summons from Parliament, but “they were signed by a legal council” and not the Speaker. “We are seeking clarification,” he said.

The US Embassy in Colombo said they could not confirm or deny whether DQP members met with the ambassador last week, and could not say whether they spoke about the transfer of detainees or the issue of citizenship.

Leader of the DQP, Hassan Saeed, did not respond to Minivan News at time of press.

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US thanks Maldives while DRP continues opposition to Gitmo decision

The US State Department has thanked the Maldivian government for agreeing to accept detainees from Guantánamo Bay, but opposition parties are still saying they were not informed of the government’s decision.

Spokesman for the US State Department, Philip Crowley, said yesterday: “The United States welcomes the Government of Maldives reaffirmation that it intends to accept detainees from Guantánamo Bay. The United States is grateful to all countries that have accepted detainees [and] for their willingness to support US efforts to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility.”

Jeffery Anderson at the US Embassy to the Maldives in Colombo said they embassy could provide no further information on the detainees being transferred to the Maldives.

President Mohamed Nasheed said yesterday: “It was very clear back then that people were arrested [and put] in Guantánamo 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]?”

Press Secretary for the President’s Office, Mohamed Zuhair, said he believed the detainee being transferred was a Palestinian man from the West Bank.

“According to the US Department of State, he is not capable of planning or executing a crime,” Zuhair noted.

He said the man belongs to the Tabligh sect of Islam, and added, “that is not criminal behaviour.”

Zuhair said the man was chosen because he was “the least controversial” prisoner and had not been charged with a crime. “This man will have complete records with him,” he said, adding all consultations about his past were held by the US government.

“He did not have a fair trail,” Zuhair noted. “Actually, he did not have a trial.”

He said the Maldives had chosen to take a former prisoner of the detention centre because the Maldives is “one of many interested in closing Guantánamo Bay and the repatriation of the remaining prisoners.”

Zuhair said bringing a Guantánamo detainee to the Maldives would give the country “prestige” and “honour.”

“The [Maldivian] population is devoutly Muslim and this will translate to more prestige and honour and better sentiment towards the Maldives,” he said. “It will have a positive effect all the way.”

Humanitarian action

State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Naseem, said it was still premature to talk about how many detainees will be sent from the controversial prison, who they are or when they will be brought to the Maldives.

“It has not come to that stage yet,” he said, “but we have certain ideas of who [will be brought].”

He added that the prisoners still have to be interviewed and many legalities are still being examined.

“We also need to know why these people were arrested,” Naseem noted, emphasising that “we are not bringing any terrorists to the Maldives.”

“Not everyone who was arrested is a terrorist or a criminal,” he said, referring to the Maldivian national Ibrahim Fauzee, who was taken to Guantánamo in 2002 and brought back to the Maldives in 2005.

“His apartment happened to be formerly occupied by Palestinian terrorists and he was taken by police,” Naseem said, noting that Fauzee was later released with no charges.

Fauzee, who is president of the Maldivian religious NGO the Islamic Foundation, said he did not wish to comment on the issue.

Naseem noted that “everybody knows” there were many wrongful detentions made by the USA after the 9/11 attacks, “similar to arrests during Gayoom’s regime.”

He said the nationality of the detainees did not matter, since this is “a humanitarian issue.”

“A lot of Muslims have been affected by this,” he said, adding that as long as the resettlement was within the Constitution and laws of the country, there should be no problem in resettling former Guantánamo Bay prisoners.

Naseem said the US State Department had carefully chosen several countries around the world and had asked them to take in prisoners who were cleared of charges in their bid to close down the detention centre.

“They [USA] has confidence in the Maldives, in our human rights record, and know the [detainees] will have their rights [here].”

He noted the US “will have an obligation” to take into consideration the living expenses for any detainees sent to the Maldives.

“But those details still have to be worked out,” he added.

Naseem said this is “purely based on human rights” and the only reason it was becoming such a big issue locally was because the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) had obtained official papers “and are having a field day with this.”

He added that the decision to resettle the detainees been public knowledge since December last year when President Nasheed announced his intention to bring in detainees during his radio address.

Opposition

The Dhivehi Qaumy Party (DQP) has been especially vocal in its opposition to the resettlement of Guantánamo prisoners.

They wrote in their website: “There is no reason that a small country like the Maldives with limited resources should accept such convicts when a country like America won’t accept them.”

DQP believes the president does not have the Constitutional authority to “transfer convicts” into the country, adding that such an actions would “make expatriates working in the country as well as visiting tourists more unsettled.”

They are planning on filing a case at court and a bill at the next session of Parliament prohibiting the transfer of foreign prisoners to the Maldives.

The party added the government was “not making any effort” to repatriate Maldivians in foreign jails.

DRP MP Ahmed Nihan said he thought the move would be dangerous to the country, claiming, “I do not believe this will make any betterment to the country. It is putting our country in danger.”

He said DRP MP Ali Waheed had sent a letter to the Majlis’ National Security Committee on the issue, but the sitting has been postponed. He said it would hopefully take place in the “coming weeks.”

“We are asking to get more details. No one knows what the government is trying to do,” Nihan said. “We’re totally in a dark place.”

He said his party had an issue with the lack of transparency, noting that they knew nothing about it until “some papers between the President’s Office and some ministries were leaked.”

“The government has already made a binding agreement. Members of the Majlis hope to know about serious matters like this.”

He said resettling Guantánamo convicts in the country is “a serious issue” and could have “serious consequences. If anything happens in the wrong direction, we’re in a serious situation,” he said, referring to the geographic location of the Maldives and the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

“If the government is genuine about this,” he said, “we would already have had negotiations between the government and the Majlis.”

Nihan added that President Nasheed’s remarks to the media yesterday, particularly his dismissal of the opposition’s outcry, was “total rudeness. It was like a comment from George Bush.”

He said he could not speak for his entire party, but said that regardless of whether the government was careful about who they were bringing into the country, “I cannot agree on this.”

History of Guantánamo

Land in Cuba’s Guantánamo Bay in the Oriente Province, the south-east of the island, was rented out by the United States in 1903 to set up a naval base. It was originally used for monitoring illegal migrants trying to enter the United States through Florida and other ports in the Caribbean.

Starting in 2002, prisoners accused of terrorism were sent to a detention centre in the base, after George W. Bush’s administration began capturing “enemy combatants” from around the world following the September 11 2001 attacks.

From its inception the detention centre has been surrounded by accusations of torture and of withholding the rights of prisoners under the Geneva Convention, which would guarantee them a fair trial.

Since 2002, many detainees have been released without charge after years of imprisonment, like Britain’s “Tipton Three,” who were repatriated to England in 2004 after two years of wrongful imprisonment.

In 2009 the White House reported that since 2002, approximately 800 individuals were imprisoned as ‘enemy combatants’ and detained at Guantánamo. Around 500 of those prisoners were either transferred or released, whether to their home countries or to a third country.

Additionally, they note “the Department of Defense has determined that a number of the individuals currently detained at Guantánamo are eligible for such transfer or release.”

In January 2009, US President Barack Obama ordered the closing of the Guantánamo detention centre within a year, and assigned a special task force to “consider policy options for apprehension, detention, trial, transfer or release of detainees.” He also banned the use of “harsh interrogations”.

The order states that all prisoners not eligible for transfer must be prosecuted, or the state must “select lawful means…for the disposition of such individuals.”

On the transfer of prisoners, the president’s order reads: “[The Special Task Force] will also look at rendition and other policies for transferring individuals to third countries to be sure that our policies and practices comply with all obligations and are sufficient to ensure that individuals do not face torture and cruel treatment if transferred.”

Crowley added yesterday that “since 2009, the United States has transferred 59 detainees to 24 different destinations; 35 of these have been transfers to third countries.”

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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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Maldives to resettle two Gitmo inmates

Two inmates of the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention camp that houses terror suspects will be transferred to the Maldives for resettlement, President Mohamed Nasheed has announced.

Addressing growing opposition to the move in his weekly radio address, President Nasheed said the resettlement of the two former prisoners would not “change anything or cause any loss to the country.”

“On the contrary, it will be good for the country,” he said. “[The country] will get a good name, honour and prestige. We will be noted as people who help in whatever capacity we can to help solve others’ problems.”

He added that not helping when the opportunity presented itself was, in his view, was not in keeping with either the constitution, Islam or the Maldivian national character.

“There are more than 150,000 expatriates living in our country. We are benefiting from their work. There is no danger in two more people coming to the Maldives,” he said, stressing that the government would not violate any laws in the process of transferring the inmates.

The religiously conservative Adhaalath Party yesterday clarified its position on the matter, noting on its new English-language website that “if the two men in question are Muslims who have been detained unjustly, providing assistance to them from a Muslim country is not a problem on Islamic grounds.”

However, “if they are terrorists who have committed crimes against humanity, then it is not wise to give them sanctuary in Maldives,” the party said, expressing concern about the government’s “ambiguity” on the subject.

Nasheed meanwhile urged the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) not to make the issue a politically divisive one, calling on opposition parties to take up complaints with the government.

“We will clear up what the DRP wants to know,” he offered.

The president thanked the leader and deputy leader of the DRP as it was the opposition party’s responsibility to hold the government accountable and offered to hold discussions on the subject.

On Tuesday, DRP MP Ali Waheed filed a motion without notice at the parliamentary national security committee to investigate the government’s decision.

“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 most 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,” Ali Waheed told press on Tuesday.

Not confidential

Nasheed further said the issue has not been kept confidential by the government.

The president referred to his radio address on December 11 when he signaled that Gitmo prisoners cleared off terrorism charges could be transferred to the Maldives.

“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,” Nasheed had said. “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.”

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.”

On Friday, the president said it was “very clear” to the government that the Muslims detained in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba were not terrorists.

A Maldivian citizen kept in Gitmo was released by the government, said Nasheed, and Maldives police have concluded that he was not a terrorist.

Meanwhile, Independent MP Mohamed Nasheed wrote on his blog last week that official correspondence showed the government was in the final stages of “resettling” prisoners.

The former legal reform minister wrote that diplomatic correspondence has been exchanged between the Maldivian government and the American Embassy in Colombo to agree upon guidelines for the release and monitoring of the former terror suspects.

He noted that following initial discussions between the two governments, the American embassy sent a three-page diplomatic notice to the Maldives Foreign Ministry in February.

According to the diplomatic note, once the Maldivian government presents written confirmation, it will be agreed that the government shall:

  1. Agree to resettle Gitmo prisoners escorted to the country by the US military
  2. Determine a date and time for arrival after discussions between the relevant officials
  3. If the Maldivian government wishes to relocate or transfer the prisoners to another country, it will be done only after discussions with the US government.
  4. Maintain correspondence on the process of resettlement.
  5. Conduct surveillance on the prisoners while they are in the country, including monitoring their phone calls, letters and other communications.
  6. Prevent them from leaving the country.
  7. Regularly meet them and see how they are settling.

On March 28, writes Nasheed, the foreign ministry asked for legal advice from the attorney general on instituting a legal mechanism for the transfer.

Nasheed also noted possible legal complications concerning the issuance of visas as the immigration laws specify that people ‘considered to’ belong to a terrorist organization or ‘believed to’ pose a danger to national security shall not be given visas.

While the parliamentary committee has scheduled a meeting for Wednesday, Nasheed wrote that ministers would likely be summoned for questioning.

“If our beloved human rights-loving president so wishes, it would be much better for the country if he could implement even one recommendation of the Human Rights Commission,” he added.

DQP anger

Imad Solih, vice-president of the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP), had meanwhile announced the party’s intention to take the matter to court at last week’s “Red Notice” protest.

A statement on the party’s website claims that the President was not empowered to transfer “convicts such as those in Guantanamo by either the constitution or any law or regulation in the Maldives.”

“There is no reason that a small country like the Maldives with limited resources should accept such convicts when a country like America won’t accept them,” it continues.

“While any sense of security of person and property has been lost and people are being knifed in front of police officers, there is no doubt that bringing such serious criminals to the Maldives is only going to make expatriates working in the country as well as visiting tourists more unsettled.”

It adds that President Nasheed’s decision was going to turn the country “from a tourist paradise into a terrorist paradise.”

Moreover, the decision was motivated by the president’s “greed for a prize” as the government was “not making any effort” to repatriate the many Maldivians in foreign jails.

In addition to filing a case at court, the party will be submitting a bill to the next session of parliament on prohibiting the transfer of foreign convicts to the Maldives.

DQP will also communicate with the US State Department and the American embassy to “prevent this from happening”, the party said.

“The president was elected by the Maldivian people to fulfill duties specified in the constitution and the laws of the country,” it concludes, “Under no circumstances does the president have the power to violate the law to further his self-interest.”

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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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