EU NATIONS DIVIDED ON TAKING GUANTÁNAMO DETAINEES

COMMENTARY ARCHIVES, 25 Jan 2009

Judy Dempsey and Stephen Castle

BERLIN: For years, Europe has been calling on the United States government to close the Guantánamo detention center that the Bush administration established after 9/11. But now that President Barack Obama actually intends to shut it down, European governments are divided over whether they should accept any of the detainees to help the United States empty the prison.

Foreign ministers of the 27-member European Union are scheduled to give their response Monday [Jan 26] to Obama’s decision to halt pending military trials for 120 days and to shut Guantánamo within a year. From all signs, they are not ready to present an EU-wide stance.

Instead, the EU is expected to play for time, arguing that, since it will take at least a year to close the camp, European countries have several months to produce a detailed response.

"The reality is that we are divided," said one of those close to the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. "There are a bunch of countries that want to offer something to the U.S., and there are countries that are careful and are not ready to jump."

The divisions show how difficult it will be for the Europeans to reach a united stance, said Karsten Voigt, the coordinator for German-American cooperation in the Foreign Ministry in Berlin.

"We have been criticizing the U.S. all along and demanding that Guantánamo be closed," Voigt said. "Now that the new administration wants to do it, we either simply say it is a U.S. problem and Washington must deal with it, or we help to solve the issue."

The 27 EU ambassadors agreed Thursday that there would be no immediate pledge from the bloc to accept all the detainees.

But that is not stopping some countries from moving on their own. Portugal was the first to offer to take inmates who have been cleared for release but who cannot be sent to their countries for security reasons.

The Portuguese foreign minister, Luis Amado, sent a letter last month to his EU counterparts asking them to do the same. He is still waiting for a reply, according to an EU diplomat dealing with the issue.

By contrast, Austria has said it does not want to take any detainees. France and Ireland have said they will consider doing so.

The Czechs, current holders of the EU’s rotating presidency, appear reluctant – but they may agree to accept some detainees to help underline their commitment to the trans-Atlantic relationship.

For some European countries it is constitutionally difficult to accept non-nationals, like Iraqis or Afghans who say they fear persecution or ill treatment if they return to their home countries.

Not only are there differences among countries; there are also divisions within European governments.

Generally, the interior ministries in many EU countries are opposed to accepting detainees because they are concerned primarily with security, preventing terrorist attacks and dealing with the complex legal questions over accepting the detainees.

Foreign ministries, on the other hand, are more interested in reaching out to the new U.S. administration. They want to show support for Obama’s decision to deal with one of the biggest thorns in the trans-Atlantic relationship during George W. Bush’s presidency. Europeans appreciate Obama’s decision, and its symbolic importance, one minister from a European government said Thursday.

Such differences are particularly sharp in Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly demanded that Washington close Guantánamo and end any actions that could be considered torture.

As soon as Obama announced Wednesday his decision to halt the military tribunals, Germany’s government of conservatives and Social Democrats openly disagreed over whether Berlin would accept any of the inmates.

Wolfgang Schäuble, the conservative interior minister, said Wednesday it was up to the United States to deal with the prisoners. "If they come from countries whose human rights record makes it impossible for them to be sent back there, then they will have to remain in the United States," Schäuble told the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper.

In a meeting with other EU interior ministers in Prague last week, Schäuble was even more pointed. None of the remaining Guantánamo inmates are Germans, he noted, nor did any of them grow up in Germany.

And Schäuble said it was up to the Interior Ministry and its counterparts in each of the 16 federal states – not the Foreign Ministry – to decide what measures to take.

Wolfgang Bosbach, deputy parliamentary leader of Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union party, also opposes the idea.

"The Americans held these people and America is responsible for them," Bosbach said in an interview Thursday.

But Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a Social Democrat, said the government should consider granting asylum to released detainees.

To some extent, Steinmeier’s current stance reflects his institutional position. As foreign minister, he wants to reach out to the new Obama administration.

But when he was chief of staff for former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Steinmeier opposed allowing Murat Kurnaz, a German-born Turkish citizen who had been imprisoned in Guantánamo, to return to Germany in 2002. Kurnaz spent a further three years in the camp. "It was the right decision," Steinmeier told a special parliamentary committee.

Kurnaz was allowed to return to Germany only after Merkel replaced Schröder in late 2005.

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