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U.S.
Grants Bahrain, Kuwait Permission To Visit Detainees in Guantanamo
Bay
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Camp Delta at the U.S. Naval base in Cuba
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WASHINGTON
D.C., May 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.S. allowed a
Bahraini delegation Monday to visit Bahrainis detained in Guantanamo
Bay in Cuba as it also gave a green light for a Kuwaiti delegation to
visit with 10 Kuwaitis being held in connection with the U.S. led war
on Afghanistan.
The
Bahraini delegation arrived at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba to question Bahrainis detained there from the U.S.-led war in
Afghanistan, state-run BNA news agency said Monday.
"Bahrain
obtained the green light of the U.S. government for an official
Bahraini delegation to head to the base at Guantanamo," Bahrain's
foreign affairs secretary, Youssef Mahmoud, was quoted as saying.
No
further details were given.
In
March, Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad bin Mubarak
al-Khalifa asked the U.S. ambassador in Manama, Ronald Neumann, to
"facilitate the dispatch of a delegation" to Guantanamo to
repatriate the Bahrainis held there, BNA reported.
A
Bahraini foreign ministry official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) at
the time that three Bahrainis were among prisoners from the Afghan war
held at the U.S. naval base and that another three Bahrainis were
believed to be detained in Afghanistan.
Bahrain
hosts the U.S. Navy's fifth fleet and is considered a key ally by
Washington.
Meanwhile,
the U.S. government will allow an official Kuwaiti team to visit the
10 Kuwaitis being held at Guantanamo Bay, the emirate's state minister
for foreign affairs said Monday.
"Kuwait
has the approval of the U.S. government to allow an official Kuwaiti
delegation to visit the Guantanamo base and get informed about the
situation of (Kuwaiti) detainees there," Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah
said.
Sheikh
Mohammad, quoted by the official KUNA news agency, said the team was
yet to be formed, and the Kuwaiti government was still to discuss the
timing of the visit.
Washington
set "prerequisites" for the visit, the minister said, adding
that the government "will discuss the conditions later,"
without giving any details.
The
approval of the visit was a "positive step that reflects the
government's keenness on seeking to gain access to its citizens in
detention," he said.
Sheikh
Mohammad confirmed that there were only 10 Kuwaiti nationals detained
in Camp X-Ray, five of whom were arrested in Afghanistan before being
deported to Guantanamo.
Kuwait's
Al-Rai Al-Aam newspaper on Monday quoted senior security sources as
saying five Kuwaitis were among a batch of prisoners moved to the base
last week, joining the seven already detained there.
The
daily identified the five as: Adel al-Zamel, Fuad al-Rabia, Saad
al-Azemi, Mohammad al-Dihani and Fayez al-Kandari, the 25-year-old
nephew of a former Kuwaiti lawmaker.
The
families of Kuwaitis held by the U.S. military in Afghanistan and
Guantanamo Bay filed a complaint May 2 against the U.S. government for
detaining the men without official charges.
Several
international human rights organizations have also expressed concern
that the detainees are being treated in less than humane conditions.
Khaled
al-Ouda, the father of one of the prisoners, told AFP Sunday that the
relatives are demanding to know under which law the Kuwaitis are being
held.
He
said the complaint was filed at the U.S. Federal Court for the
District of Columbia in Washington D.C. after the families exhausted
all political channels for information on the prisoners.
Ouda
also said the families are seeking confirmation of how many Kuwaitis
are now detained by the U.S. military in both Afghanistan and
Guantanamo Bay.
Kuwait
has repeatedly said its primary concern is that any nationals at the
U.S. detention center be granted fair trials and that the Emirate
would request their repatriation if they are proven innocent.
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