Media Reaction - Guantanamo closure

UNCLAS STOCKHOLM 000450 SIPDIS SECSTATE FOR INR/R/MR, EUR/PPD, EUR/NB E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO PINS PHUM PINR PREF EUN SW SUBJECT: Media Reaction - Guantanamo closure On July 23, the independent Stockholm morning daily "Dagens Nyheter" in a signed editorial by Rikard Westerberg opined on the planned closure of Guantanamo under the headline 'Guantanamo: Help Obama close the prison': "President Barack Obama has promised to close the notorious Guantanamo prison in January of next year. To accomplish this, a working group within his Administration has been tasked with looking at how the American government should handle the 229 men that remain detained. Another group will investigate interrogation techniques. None of the groups met Tuesday's deadline.... "The question remains what will happen with the detainees. Unfortunately the President has not yet abandoned the notion of detaining some of them for life without a trial due to insufficient evidence. That would be a crushing defeat for international law in the world's most powerful democracy. Other detainees, who will not be tried in American civilian or military courts, will be sent abroad. In May, seven EU member states announced that they are ready to accept 60 former detainees. Sweden was not among them.... "The Government makes it too easy for itself by referring to the Migration Board which decides on individual asylum cases. The problems with Guantanamo must be viewed in a larger context. If more democracies are officially willing to accept detainees, the closure of the prison could be accelerated. If President Obama is to succeed, he will need help from the rest of the world. Most important is that the detainees are tried immediately, or, if there is no charge, released. Our open society is not protected by a disregard of the fundamentals of international law." SILVERMAN