Cool reaction to Bush Guantánamo pledge

Date: 22/06/06

The controversy over Guantánamo Bay looks set to continue as Europeans gave a cool reaction to US President George W. Bush's admission on Wednesday (21 June) that he would like to see the prison closed.

Despite observers hailing Bush's remarks as a step towards closing the base, some members of the European Parliament criticised his remarks for failing to set out a deadline for closing the base.

During a press conference following the EU-US summit in Vienna, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel said that the EU had received assurances from Bush that there would be no torture at Guantánamo.

In a nod to the recent resolution from the European Parliament condemning Guantánamo, Schüssel seemed to back calls from MEPs, including Elmar Brok, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, to use an international criminal tribunal to try the detainees who could not be returned.

The EU will "have to help with a way out strategy", said Schüssel adding that some international organisations could help.

Brok said it was positive that the EU and US were now working together to solve the problem: "After all our common credibility is at stake."

But he added that Bush's plans to send home as many detainees as possible could be problematic given that many of the countries involved supported the death penalty.

Bush indicated that he would wait for a Supreme Court ruling, expected at the end of this month, before deciding where the remaining 400 detainees could be tried.

He said that the US would try to "send people back to their home countries", but he added that some were "cold-blooded killers, they will murder somebody if they are let out on the street".

So far 200 detainees have been returned to their home countries.

Article reports that the controversy over Guantánamo Bay looked set to continue as Europeans gave a cool reaction to US President George W. Bush's admission on 21 June 2006 that he would like to see the prison closed.

• Primary Source