Britain seeks Guantánamo releases

Mark Tran
Tuesday August 7, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
 
The British government has requested the release of five former UK residents being held in Guantánamo bay, the Foreign Office said today.
The foreign secretary, David Miliband, has written to the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, asking that the men be freed from the US base in Cuba. They are not British nationals but had lived in the UK before they were detained, the Foreign Office said.
The decision by the prime minister, Gordon Brown, marks a break from his predecessor, Tony Blair, who generally held that the British government was not obliged to seek the release of Guantánamo inmates who had lived in Britain but did not hold citizenship.

The five - Shaker Aamer, Jamil el-Banna, Omar Deghayes, Binyam Mohamed and Abdennour Sameur - had been granted refugee status, indefinite leave or exceptional leave to remain before they were detained. Britain secured the release and return of all UK nationals held at Guantánamo by January 2005.
The Foreign Office said the new approach was aimed at speeding up the closure of the centre, and was in line with recent steps by the US to reduce the numbers of detainees.
The Foreign Office said: "The foreign secretary and home secretary have reviewed the government's approach to this group of individuals in light of these ongoing developments, our long-held policy aim of securing the closure of Guantánamo Bay, and the need to maintain national security.
"They have decided to request the release and return of the five detainees who have links to the UK as former residents, having been granted refugee status, indefinite leave or exceptional leave to remain prior to their detention.
"Our representations are limited to those with links to the United Kingdom as evidenced by their past lawful residence here."
The Foreign Office statement cautioned that the release and return of the men might take some time. "The government will, of course, continue to take all necessary measures to maintain national security. Should these men be returned to the UK, the same security considerations and actions will apply to them as would apply to any other foreign national in this country."
Civil liberties groups welcomed the government's new tack. James Welch, the legal director for Liberty, said: "This change of policy is extremely welcome, especially if it signals a bigger change of approach on both sides of the Atlantic. Surely US and UK governments need no further evidence that internment, kidnap and torture have been completely counterproductive in the struggle against terrorism."
Amnesty International said: "Guantánamo is a travesty of justice and it's important that the government starts speaking out about hundreds of men still held there - they must not become Guantánamo's forgotten prisoners. Meanwhile, the UK government should unequivocally condemn the practice of rendition and secret detention - both of which have fed the system at Guantánamo in the past five years."
Britain has strongly criticised the US policy of holding detainees at Guantánamo in legal limbo. Last year the former lord chancellor Lord Falconer described it as a "shocking affront to the principles of democracy".
In June, the former US secretary of state Colin Powell called for the immediate closure of the camp and the transfer of prisoners to the US.
About 380 detainees remain at the prison, which was opened by the US government in 2002 to hold foreign terror suspects, initially from the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. The inmates, given the status of "enemy combatants", are not granted the same rights as prisoners of war, and are tried by special military tribunals.
In a June letter to the US president, George Bush, the US-based group Human Rights Watch said the continued detentions at Guantánamo, without charge and without any meaningful review of the legal basis of detention, had directly undermined US efforts to fight terrorism. "The loss of moral high ground caused by the ongoing detentions at Guantánamo has been a boon to terrorist recruitment."
Last month the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, was told by the high court that she had until 4pm on August 9 to decide whether Jamil el-Banna would be allowed to return and live in the UK after his release.
Mr Justice Beatson made the order as he gave Mr Banna's solicitors permission to seek a judicial review of the government's failure to confirm that he would be allowed to return and live with his wife and five children - all British nationals - at their home in Dollis Hill, north-west London.
The lawyers argue he has been unlawfully detained by the Americans for more than four and a half years. Mr Banna, 45, was arrested on suspicion of having links to al-Qaida in November 2002 during a visit to Gambia, west Africa. He was taken by the Americans to Bagram air base in Afghanistan before being transferred to Guantánamo.