The Maldivian government agreed to accept two Guantanamo Bay prisoners in exchange for US support to obtain IMF assistance, WikeLeaks revealed.
“The Maldives tied acceptance of prisoners to American help in obtaining International Monetary Fund assistance,” the New York Times reported quoting WikiLeaks.
“American diplomats went looking for countries that were not only willing to take in former prisoners but also could be trusted to keep them under close watch. In a global bazaar of sorts, the American officials sweet-talked and haggled with their foreign counterparts in an effort to resettle the detainees who had been cleared for release but could not be repatriated for fear of mistreatment, the cables show.”
Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed’s decision to accept the prisoners met with stiff domestic opposition in May.
Opposition critics blamed the president for “importing” unnecessary problems placing the country’s security at risk.
Even then the opposition accused Nasheed of seeking financial assistance from the Obama administration in exchange for taking the prisoners.
But Nasheed then put a humane face to the issue.
But Nasheed then put a humane face to the issue.
"In my view, it is not in line at all with our constitution, Islam, or 'Maldivianness' that we refuse to help -- especially Muslims, especially those wrongly imprisoned," Nasheed told a radio address then.
Cables prove that the US managed to persuade other countries as well to accept detainees from the notorious Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba, with pledges of financial help.
The Bush administration offered the Pacific nation of Kiribati “an incentive package” of $3 million to take 17 Chinese Muslim detainees, the cables show.”
In discussions about creating a rehabilitation program for its own citizens, the president of Yemen repeatedly asked Mr. Brennan, “How many dollars will the U.S. bring?”
“Slovenia, seeking a meeting with President Obama, was encouraged to “do more” on detainee resettlement if it wanted to “attract higher-level attention from Washington”; its prime minister later “linked acceptance of detainees to ‘a 20-minute meeting’ ” with the president, but the session — and the prisoner transfer — never happened,” NY Times reported quoting WikiLeaks.
“Mr. Obama won praise from around the world when, shortly after taking office in 2009, he ordered the Guantánamo Bay prison closed within a year, saying it was contrary to American values and a symbol for terrorist propaganda.”
“By then, the Bush administration already had transferred more than 500 of the detainees it had sent to Guantánamo, and the Obama administration has since winnowed the population to 174 from 240, with help from Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and other countries. But Mr. Obama missed his deadline, and the goal has faded as a priority, with domestic opposition to moving some detainees to a prison inside the United States and with other countries that condemned the Guantánamo prison reluctant to take in detainees.”
- Asian Tribune -
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