NEW YORK (Dow Jones)-[off the wire, no link]-The Bush administration is negotiating the transfer of Saudi and Yemeni nationals held at the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with their respective governments, the Boston Globe reported on its Web site Friday.
Nationals from Saudi Arabia and Yemen make up a significant percentage of the population in the Guantanamo facility, the Globe said. U.S. and Afghan officials Thursday said they struck a deal to transfer most of its nationals to Kabul's control and custody. There are 110 Afghan detainees at Guantanamo - more than 20% of the prison's population - and their transfers could begin in the next six months.
The U.S. is negotiating the transfer of almost 70% of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, to share the burden of keeping suspected terrorists behind bars, the Globe reported.
The Globe cited Pierre-Richard Prosper, ambassador at large for war crimes, who led a US delegation this week to the Middle East.
Prosper held talks in Saudi Arabia on Sunday and Monday, but the negotiations were halted after King Fahd's death was announced, the newspaper said.
Senior US officials said the agreement Thursday was the first major step toward whittling down the Guantanamo population to a group of people whom the United States expects to hold indefinitely, the Globe said.
"This is not an effort to shut down Guantanamo," Matthew Waxman, deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, said after leaving Kabul with Prosper, the Globe reported. "Rather the arrangement we have reached with the government of Afghanistan is the latest step in what has long been our policy - that we need to keep dangerous enemy combatants off the battlefield.
"We, the US, don't want to be the world's jailer. We think a more prudent course is to shift that burden onto our coalition partners," Waxman said.
Copyright © 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.(AP-DJ)--08-05-05 0824EDT |
