Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-05-31-Speech-3-086"
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"en.20060531.12.3-086"2
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".
Madam President, although the Council is against Guantanamo, it has also noticed some improvement. The Commission may have sound principles, to which I subscribe, but it really believes that we can take President Bush at his word when he says that the United States intends to close down Guantanamo Bay. Something you both seem to overlook is that a fresh development is underway, namely the need for new prisons to be built, including in Guantanamo Bay, which Mr Brok visited – and he may expand on this himself – but that strikes me as a development to which we must respond. What do you intend to do about it? Will you only enter into fresh dialogue with the United States or will you start making demands for once, at a time when the United States wants something from us, such as passenger data, for example? Will you make real demands?
We can also offer the United States a helping hand, for example, on behalf of the people who are now incarcerated and who will not be brought before a court. Indeed, even the American authorities have admitted that some of those behind bars are innocent. What will we do about this now? Although the European Union is, of course, not responsible for Guantanamo, it could offer those people a solution, out of human compassion. I should like to quote you the example of the Uighurs, some of whom were detained and about whom even Mr Bush admitted that they were innocent, but they could not stay in the US, nor could they return to China where they would face torture. What should happen to those people? The EU failed to offer a helping hand on that occasion. They are now in Albania and will probably still be extradited to China. This begs the question whether this exercise has been all that helpful for them. What are you prepared to do for a large group of people who are still held in Guantanamo Bay and who, apparently, cannot be brought before a court because there is no proof that they are guilty. Could the European Union not offer those people a helping hand, and possibly offer them asylum?
Finally, it is very easy to focus on Guantanamo Bay, which is a well-organised location with a limited number of prisoners, but people lacking any rights is, of course, also a common phenomenon in the rest of the world, because prisoners are increasingly being transported, also to other parts of Europe – as someone mentioned a moment ago – and I hope that the governments are prepared to consider what their own part, albeit passive, has been in this."@en1
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