Thoughts on the Gitmo detainees.
The issue surrounding the Gitmo detainees seems to be the biggest news in town these days. What's the fuss all about? President Nasheed wants to bring a few detainees to the Maldives and the opposition is hell bent on making sure this does not happen. The opposition is branding them terrorists whilst the government brands them 'Muslim brothers'. Interesting huh?
Up until now, we were all appalled at the US government for imprisoning our 'Muslim brothers', in Guantanamo bay, holding them there for years without charge or trial. How could a country such as the USA, a so called champion of freedom and individual rights do this to our brothers? Surely, this is George W Bush's plan to enslave us all Muslims! And then how relieved were were when President Obama promised to closed Guatanamo bay and release all those who have not been charged?
And now, when a few of them 'Muslim brothers' who have never been charged with a crime may land next door to us, we are enraged! How could President Nasheed bring terrorists to live in our Country! This is outrageous we say!
How bloody hypocritical are we?
Anyway, do I think it will happen? Actually no. Our laws (especially those on residency and citizenship) are crafted in a way that it will be virtually impossible for the Government to give them residency here. One of the reasons that they are not being taken to their 'home country' is probably because they are stateless - no country would accept them as theirs. To bring them here, would mean that they would probably need to be given citizenship - which as I said before, would be virtually impossible without a change in law.
Up until now, we were all appalled at the US government for imprisoning our 'Muslim brothers', in Guantanamo bay, holding them there for years without charge or trial. How could a country such as the USA, a so called champion of freedom and individual rights do this to our brothers? Surely, this is George W Bush's plan to enslave us all Muslims! And then how relieved were were when President Obama promised to closed Guatanamo bay and release all those who have not been charged?
And now, when a few of them 'Muslim brothers' who have never been charged with a crime may land next door to us, we are enraged! How could President Nasheed bring terrorists to live in our Country! This is outrageous we say!
How bloody hypocritical are we?
Anyway, do I think it will happen? Actually no. Our laws (especially those on residency and citizenship) are crafted in a way that it will be virtually impossible for the Government to give them residency here. One of the reasons that they are not being taken to their 'home country' is probably because they are stateless - no country would accept them as theirs. To bring them here, would mean that they would probably need to be given citizenship - which as I said before, would be virtually impossible without a change in law.
posted by boadhaabas at
4:41 AM
4 Comments:
Exactly. Here is a similar article in our blog
http://maldivesresortworkers.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/gitmo-resettlement-will-not-damage-maldives%E2%80%99-reputation/
If we want to help the muslims in that prison, we should insist they be allowed to go to courts and have their cases presented and made public. The idea that we are doing this to help muslims is ridiculous. we are helping americans get away with torture and unlawful detention, which we plan on continuing as the person won’t be allowed to leave the country, and we are helping ourselves to the benefits that we will receive in exchange. the prisoners will still not be free, they will be kept under watch, forced to stay in this country. The way the govt. took the decision was not right, there was no discussion, we had no knowledge that it took place and nobody could examine and question the legality of it either, we have a right to do these things in a democracy.
the fact is we do not have such kind of leverage to turn around american diplomacy the way we see fit. America is too powerful to be advised upon, urged upon or called upon to do anything. What is maldives compared to America? Nothing.. zilch.. so this talk of insisting on America to do this or that is BIG time ridiculous. If America wants they can keep these detainees forever in their jails and nobody can do anything about it. So we better help out the unfortunate victims if we really are considerate of their plight. Like Anni said, we shall be ashamed to call us muslims if we allow others (christians and jews) to precede us in charity..
we may not be able to affect them but we can take a stand and say that we do not approve of how these people were stripped of their rights and tortured and forced to confess for crimes they were not guilty of and so on and more importantly, refuse to continue to keep them under surveillance and forcefully hold them in our tiny county, which we might not be legally justified in doing. The transfer of detainees may bring serious legal and human rights concerns and problems to our govt as well. the american govt is still suppressing information about the prisoners and human rights organisations are still concerned about what is happening. i feel like the prisoners are being dumped to other countries and they will still be denied justice or freedom or an opportunity to clear their name or go back to their home countries. in any case, the decision has already been made.
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