NORWEGIAN NGOS WANT ANSWERS ON GUANTANAMO

C O N F I D E N T I A L OSLO 000139

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/04/2019
TAGS: PINS PTER PHUM
SUBJECT: NORWEGIAN NGOS WANT ANSWERS ON GUANTANAMO
RESETTLEMENT

Classified By: Political Counselor Kristen Bauer for reasons 1.4(b) and
(d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: Amnesty International and the Norwegian
Helsinki Committee want to meet with US embassy officers to
clarify when they can expect the USG to ask Norway for help
in resettling Guantanamo detainees who cannot be sent back to
their home countries. Post requests guidance for what to
tell them. End Summary.


2. (C) After a phone call on an unrelated issue, poloff was
contacted with a "heads up" from the Norwegian Helsinki
Committee (NHC) that they and Amnesty International (AI)
would shortly be requesting a meeting to discuss with the US
Embassy how to facilitate Norwegian acceptance of Guantanamo
detainees who cannot return to their home countries.


3. (C) NHC, as well as AI, had previously asked poloff
whether the USG had asked the GON for help with this issue,
since the election of President Obama. The GON has,
apparently, been telling NHC and AI that it would not take a
position on this issue until it has been presented with a
specific request for help directly from the USG. NHC and AI
intend to also meet with the GON MFA either immediately
before or after meeting with us.


4. (C) The NHC representative said that in October--at a
working group meeting in Berlin where NHC, AI, the US-based
Center for Constitutional Justice, and other NGOs met--the
50-60 detainees who fall into the aforementioned category
were 'parceled out' to various countries. Norway "received"
four Uzbeks. Apparently, the distribution was based
partially on lobbying by the detainees' lawyers. The NHC
representative said they are also working directly with the
State Department in Washington to make the USG list resemble
this list developed by NGOs.


5. (C) COMMENT: If possible, Post would like guidance from
Washington that at a minimum will help us explain how and
when we are making our decision. While we do not want to put
the GON in a difficult position with respect to assenting to
our eventual request (by directly pointing out their
foot-dragging on this issue, especially since we have made no
formal request since the inauguration),we also want to help
NGOs as much as possible in their own lobbying efforts, as
they will be the most insistent voices pushing the GON to
accept former detainees. Despite the GON's strident
opposition to Guantanamo, there is no particular appetite in
the Norwegian administration to make the decision to accept
detainees. End Comment.
JOHNSON