FED: Rudd should rule out Guantanamo resettlement: Turnbull
02 Jan 2009 9:42 AM
Subject: FED: Rudd should rule out Guantanamo resettlement: Turnbull FED: Rudd should rule out Guantanamo resettlement: Turnbull
SYDNEY, Jan 2 AAP - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd should immediately reverse a decision to allow former Guantanamo Bay inmates to resettle in Australia, the opposition says.
Terror suspects held at the US military prison could be secretly resettled in Australia this year, The Australian newspaper reported on Friday.
US authorities have reportedly approached Australia and Britain about resettling detainees of the notorious prison, located at a US sovereign naval base in Cuba.
A spokesman for Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard told the newspaper that detainees could be accepted in Australia under strict conditions.
The move follows US President-elect Brack Obama's plan to shut it down within two years.
"It's only in this morning's report in The Australian newspaper that the Rudd government has made clear that it will accept these inmates of Guantanamo Bay," Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull told Macquarie Radio.
"This issue has been swirling around for a while. What we've sought to do is keep the pressure on the government because it is the government that has the power to accept these inmates.
"One of the things that is most troubling ... is whether the government would do so, accept former inmates from Guantanamo Bay, without disclosing that they have done so.
"This is why we need Mr Rudd to immediately and categorically reverse this decision to accept inmates of Guantanamo Bay for resettlement in Australia."
Mr Turnbull said the inmates could arrive in Australia as refugees through existing migration processes.
"They cannot be accepted on the basis that they go into custody, because they haven't committed any crime under Australian law," he said.
"So what (Mr Rudd) has agreed to, with the Americans, is to accept Guantanamo Bay inmates for resettlement in Australia in our community as migrants and that is completely and utterly unacceptable to the Australian people and it's certainly unacceptable to the Coalition."
Mr Turnbull said Australia's only interest in the Guantanamo Bay prison was the detention of David Hicks, which had ended.
"Mr Rudd has had the opportunity to say, `Yes, we've received the request from the Americans, as have other countries, but we've said thanks but no thanks'," Mr Turnbull said.
"What they have done on the front page of The Australian today is make it very clear that they are proposing to accept them."
The US has cleared around 60 Guantanamo Bay detainees for release, but they cannot be returned to their home nations because of security concerns.
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FED: Rudd should rule out Guantanamo resettlement: Turnbull