OUTREACH ON DETAINEE POLICY MAKES INROADS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 THE HAGUE 001628



SIPDIS



SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR S/WCI (S. HODGKINSON),L/FO (J. BELLINGER),DRL

(A/S B. LOWENKRON)



E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: PREL, KAWC, KJUS, KPAO, PHUM, NL

SUBJ: OUTREACH ON DETAINEE POLICY MAKES INROADS





THE HAGUE 00001628 001.2 OF 002





1. (U) Summary: At Embassy's request, Sandy Hodgkinson,

Deputy Director of State's Office of War Crimes Issues

(S/WCI),visited The Hague July 18-20 and joined Ambassador

Arnall in meetings with leading opinion makers,

parliamentarians and press. Discussions of U.S. detainee

policy, with a focus on Guantanamo, clearly satisfied an

outstanding need here for answers to some of the more

difficult issues we currently face. Our guests uniformly

expressed their desire to see additional public outreach on

this vital issue. End summary.



2. (SBU) Hodgkinson and Ambassador Arnall met with the chair

and director of external relations for Amnesty International

(Netherlands),top Foreign Ministry officials, parliamentary

foreign policy spokesmen (and leading MPs),newspaper

editors, columnists, journalists, elder statesmen and the

chairman of the Netherlands Council of the Judiciary.

Hodgkinson also held a town hall with embassy employees.

Except for one press event, the meetings were private.



Key Dutch concerns and misperceptions - and our answers

-------------- --------------



3. (SBU) Hodgkinson gave a comprehensive overview of

detainee policy, with particular focus on Guantanamo.

Guests' concern focused, generally, on four issues: the U.S.

legislative debate on military commissions, procedures to

ensure innocent individuals are not held in Guantanamo, and

suitable regimes for dealing both with long-term detainees

and with release of detainees no longer deemed a threat.



4. (SBU) Guests' comments made clear that misperceptions

continue regarding the nature of our Combatant Status Review

Tribunals (CSRTs) and the role they play in satisfying

Article 5 tribunal requirements. Hodgkinson's comments on

this - including noting that 38 individuals had been

released from Guantanamo by the CSRTs - made inroads with

members of the Council of State (the nation's highest

advisory body, comprised of elder statesmen and other

notables, appointed for life). Likewise, her explanation of

the Supreme Court's ruling on common Article 3 - that the

dispute is restricted solely to the nature of any future

military commissions - helped dispel misconceptions that

have been repeated in the press. Specifically, many of our

guests believed the administration was asking Congress to

overturn common Article 3's guarantees of humane treatment.

Finally, her frank explanations of the challenges facing the

U.S. in dealing with detainees who we would like to release

were well received. Amnesty International, among others,

conceded that no one wants to see detainees released,

without safeguards, to countries with poor human rights

records. Most of our interlocutors agreed that the U.S. has

(at least at times) taken an unfair beating on this.



Moving forward: Dutch encourage continued outreach

-------------- --------------



5. (SBU) Several guests from VVD (a conservative party and

junior partner in the governing coalition) urged that the

U.S. consider ways in which we could "internationalize"

solutions, including through the inclusion of judges from

allied countries on future officially-constituted panels.

All agreed that this would be politically difficult, but a

fair number thought it worth exploring. There was unanimous

agreement that continued public outreach would be extremely

useful.



6. (SBU) A few guests continued old lines of hyper-

legalistic criticism, insisting that the U.S. must look to

all bodies of human rights and international humanitarian

law (IHL, a.k.a. law of war). The MFA's Ambassador-at-Large

for Human Rights, Piet de Klerk, and the MFA's Deputy Head

of the International Law Division, held variants of this

position. Hodgkinson explained the longstanding legal

position of the U.S., dating to at least the late 1940s -

that IHL is the applicable law in time of war and that human

rights law is secondary. Most of our guests disagreed with

this position but were eager to focus on more concrete

issues, such as how to implement the return of certain

detainees to their home countries and how to set up courts

that are both legally acceptable and practical.



Comment: Continued outreach is vital

--------------



7. (SBU) Hodgkinson's visit was very successful. Detainee

policy is a constantly evolving topic, and erroneous press



THE HAGUE 00001628 002.2 OF 002





speculation can quickly erode public confidence in the U.S.

Visits by well placed Washington officials are a potent

antidote. Post is interested in a follow-on public

diplomacy program in the October timeframe and would welcome

additional visits. We can guarantee, because of

Ambassador's personal involvement, that leading opinion

makers will be available.

Blakeman