Al-Hittar to dialog with returning Gitmo detainees
The regime refuses to keep even convicted terrorists in jail and al-Hitar’s dialog only requires a promise not to launch attacks within Yemen.
YemenOnline-July 2,2008- Judge. Hamoud Al-Hitar, Minister of Endowment and Guidance, confirmed to YemenOnline that Yemen intends to provide appropriate circumstances to receive the 106 Yemeni prisoners of Guantanamo who are expected to come back home soon.
He declared that Yemen Government, aiming at incorporating those prisoners into the community, plans to intellectually rehabilitate them and eliminate the extremist concepts influenced by Al-Qaeda.The British and American Governments intend to have Mr. Al-Hitar’s assistance in this regard as he had had previous successful experiences of intellectually rehabilitating over 420 persons influenced by the extremist ideas of Al-Qaeda during the period 2001 to 2005.
SANA’A, NewsYemen
The United States said it would not like to keep detainees in the US Guantanamo Bay, including Yemenis, anymore.
The official of Detainees File at the US Department of State Tony Rech, who is on a special visit to Yemen for the issue of Yemeni detainees in Gitmo along with other delegates, said in an interview with the independent al-Nida weekly published on Wednesday that detainees in Gitmo are being assessed individually as “some detainees are more dangerous than some others”.
We are serious about closing Guantanamo Bay, but what we are looking forward is to get warrantees that limit the danger some detainees may represent, said the US officials.
The visiting US official said the US delegation met with Yemeni officials on Yemeni detainees and discussed with them the Yemeni program for rehabilitating Gitmo returnees and that the US side will evaluate if the program can control the danger of returnees in future. He said that the US authorities are assessing how Yemen is dealing with previously extradited detainees.
The US official said the US does not ask the countries to re-imprison the detainees but demand that the countries limit their dangers, pointing that the existence of anti-terror laws will enable the governments to deal with those who may join terrorist acts in future.
The US official concluded his interview by hailing the role that the Judge Hamoud al-Hitar, Minister of Endowments and Religious Guidance and head of the Committee of Theological Dialogue with Militants, played to convince many militants to give up extremist ideas.
Minister al-Hitar discussed with the delegation of the US State Department and Department of Defense on Tuesday ongoing arrangements to transfer the Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo to Yemen.
The two sides also discussed Yemen’s dialogue program to rehabilitate the returnees.
