MONTEVIDEO: Six men detained at Guantanamo for more than a decade have been resettled in Uruguay, as US President Barack Obama attempts to fulfill his long-delayed promise to close the US military prison.
The Pentagon said yesterday that with their departure, 136 detainees now remain at the US naval base in Cuba, of whom 67 have been approved for release by Obama’s government and that of his predecessor, George W Bush.
Among the six was Syrian prisoner Jihad Diyab, 43, who had staged a hunger strike and requested a US court to order prison officials to stop force-feeding him.
The men — including three other Syrians, a Palestinian and a Tunisian — received an “approved for transfer” from US authorities and left the military base on a US Air Force plane at 11am on Saturday, Pentagon spokesman Myles Caggins told AFP, arriving in Uruguay before midnight.
They will be granted refugee status in Uruguay, the foreign ministry in Montevideo said, confirming their arrival. AFP
