Czechs refuse ex-terror suspects
Security concerns halt U.S. asylum plans for Guantanamo prisoners
By Peter Kononczuk
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
November 09, 2005 The government says security fears prompted it to turn down a U.S. request to grant asylum to former terrorist suspects who are being released from jail in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But following a report Nov. 2 in The Washington Post that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has been running secret prisons in Eastern Europe, the Interior Ministry in Prague says it has never been asked to detain those still suspected of terrorism. In news reports last week, Czech and foreign media conflated the two issues: the U.S. asylum request and The Washington Post's story. "The United States did not ask the Czech Republic to host a facility to hold prisoners," said Interior Ministry spokeswoman Radka Kovár ová. Poland and Romania also deny they have secret CIA jails. A month ago the U.S. Embassy in Prague asked the Czech government to grant asylum to a number of Muslims of Chinese origin formerly suspected of being terrorists, said embassy spokesman Jan Krc . He did not say how large the group was. The men were not found to have any links to the al Qaeda network and were to be released from the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, where the United States detains hundreds of men captured during the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions. The group faces persecution if they return to China, according to Krc . The U.S. overture to the Czechs about asylum was "a humanitarian request because we clearly need to place these people somewhere," Krc said. He added the intention was that the ex-prisoners would have as much liberty as anyone else given asylum. However, Bublan turned down the Americans' request, as did 10 other European states approached by the United States, including Germany and the Netherlands, said Kovár ová. "Minister Bublan evaluated the whole issue and, bearing in mind potential security hazards, said he would not see offering asylum to these persons as appropriate." Meanwhile, The Washington Post's report that the CIA runs prisons in eight countries  which it did not name  with the aim of interrogating detainees outside the reach of the American justice system stirred concern from watchdogs, who said such jails would contravene European Union rules on human rights. Krc said that the U.S. Embassy's asylum request was unconnected with the news story on secret CIA jails.  Petr Kas par contributed to this report. Peter Kononczuk can be reached at pkononczuk@praguepost.com
Reader's Comments: [14/11/2005] : Many Americans who helped Eastern and Central European countries embrace the principles of the rule of law and transparency in government to join the nations of the world who reject torture are now horrified to find that we have met the enemy and it is us.
News reports about the Bush administration's policy of torture of prisoners in an unamed Eastern European country is highly disturbing to freedom loving Americans including our former President Jimmy Carter and Senator John McCain of Arizona, himself a former prisoner of war.
Even though the Eastern European nation has not been named all one has to do is turn to the list of countries on Bush's "Coalition of the Willing" for a big fat clue.
The Czech Republic was never duped into joining the list even though one of your foreign ministers was wined and dined and made pronouncements; your Parliament was said no to joining the Coalition. Remember the countries that courageously signed up to defend the US national security interest and possibly qualify for lucrative contracts?? Opps, big contracts didn't necessarily materialize (no surprise there).
But then there's those old abandoned Soviet military bases. It doesn't take a Soviet or US rocket scientist to figure out this one - but we'll just wait until more wining and dining on the next official state visit from the President of Poland for the official announcement.
Paulette Will
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Scott McClellan, White House spokesman, dismissed a United Nations report today dealing with the Guantánamo Bay facilities.  The UN report said that the United States government should "expeditiously bring all Guantánamo Bay detainees to trial" without further delay, and called upon the U.S. to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility.

McClellan responded, "These are dangerous terrorists that we're talking about that are there and I think we've talked about that issue before and nothing's changed in terms of our views." McClellan added, "We know that these are dangerous terrorists that are being kept at Guantanamo Bay. They are people that are determined to harm innocent civilians or harm innocent Americans. They were enemy combatants picked up on the battlefield in the war on terrorism." 

Three months ago, the US Ambassador to the Czech Republic, Jan Krc, asked that country to give asylum to a group of Guantanamo detainees which would have set them free in Europe. The U.S. request to the Czechs about asylum was "a humanitarian request because we clearly need to place these people somewhere," Krc said.

In a press encounter, Kofi Annan responded to a journalist, he didn't accept all the conclusions of the report but, "Sooner or later there will be a need to close Guantanamo, sooner or later". He said, "I cannot agree with everything in the report, but I did indicate that the basic premise, that we need to be careful to have a balance between effective action against terrorism and individual liberties and civil rights, I think is valid."

The United Nations report is based upon information from the United States Government, interviews conducted by the experts with former Guantanamo Bay detainees currently residing or detained in France, Spain and the United Kingdom.  The U.S. government's invitation for UN investigators to visit the prison was turned down because the United States would not allow the UN investigation team to conduct interviews with detainees. The report follows an 18 month study by 5 experts in various areas of human rights.