GERMANS UNWILLING TO TAKE GUANTANAMO DETAINEES

By Manik Mehta

BERLIN, May 22 (Bernama) -- The United States's efforts to persuade Germany to accept detainees held at the notorious Guantanamo detention centre seem to be facing what German observers describe as a "roadblock".

US President Barack Obama, who had vowed to close down the Guantanamo Bay
detention centre where detainees were reportedly subjected to subtle and
not-so-subtle forms of torture, had requested German Chancellor Angela Merkel
during a visit to Germany in March to accept some of the detainees.

However, the proposal has met with an unexpected hostile reaction from the
governments of a number of German states.

While the US government has maintained a stoic silence on the initial German
reaction, interior ministers of a number of German states representing the
entire German political spectrum questioned why the United States was not itself
taking the Guantanamo detainees instead of asking Germany to accept them.

Although German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had been positively
inclined to accepting the Guantanamo detainees, the proposal is not quite
popular with other German politicians, particularly with those belonging to the
conservative camp that includes Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and
its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).

In her initial response to Obama's request, Merkel had been cautious and
said that she was "in principle" not against accepting the detainees.

A spokesman of the German foreign office in Berlin declined to confirm or
deny the opposition among German politicians against the American move to
transfer the detainees to Germany, when contacted by Bernama.

But it is evident that the biggest opposition to the US proposal comes from
the CDU and CSU, as well as from the interior ministers of a number of German
states. The CSU even suggested that Germany was not obliged "legally or
politically" to accept these detainees.

Since the problem was created by the United States, it should also resolve
the problem on its own soil. Indeed, the head of the CSU's parliamentary party,
Peter Ramsauer, admonished Washington that it was in its own interest and
responsibility to "restore credibility in its human rights policy by accepting
innocent detainees".

Such views were also echoed by Bavarian interior minister Joachim Hermann
who said that it was not clear if the detainees would pose a danger for the
interior security of Germany. The interior minister of Hesse, Volker Bouffier,
said that if the detainees were not dangerous, then "I don't see any problems,
but if they are dangerous, then there are other questions to be resolved".


Lower Saxony's interior minister Uwe Schuenemann said that it had not been
adequately justified why the Guantanamo detainees could not return to their
native countries. Security should have priority over diplomacy, he emphasised.

But there are also some in foreign minister Steinmeier's Social Democratic
Party who do not agree with the views of the foreign minister. Saxony-Anhalt's
interior minister Holger Hoevelmann, a social democrat, said that it was
"extremely peculiar" that a country the size of the United States was not in a
position to accept a "couple of dozens" of people.

The interior ministry of Rhineland-Palatinate stated that the acceptance of
the detainees was "firstly a thing for the United States to resolve, thereafter
by the German Government, though not yet by Rhineland-Palatinate".

The Federal German Government had announced that individual cases would be
would be examined thoroughly and concurred with the interior ministers of the
states as well as with other European governments, before any final decision was
taken.

-- BERNAMA