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Majority of Guantanamo prisoners to be transferred

The US is negotiating the transfer of nearly 70 percent of the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay back to their home countries in an attempt to dramatically reduce the number of "enemy combatants" in US custody, it emerged on Friday.

Earlier this week, the Bush administration formally agreed to the transfer of 110 detainees from the prison camp in Cuba to Afghanistan, and the US is pursuing similar agreements with Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

The deal with Afghanistan also includes handing over 350 detainees being held by the US at Bagram air base near Kabul.

custody demanded

Pierre-Richard Prosper, the US ambassador-at-large for war crimes, agreed the deal in a meeting with Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who demanded custody of his countrymen during a visit to Washington this year.

Prosper also held talks in Saudi Arabia last Sunday and Monday, but negotiations were cut off after the announcement of King Fahd's death.

Prosper said the US was working to send 129 Saudis and 107 Yemenis from Guantanamo to the custody of their home countries. Added to the Afghan prisoner returns, that would mean a drop in the population of the prison camp from 510 to 164.

However, administration officials denied that the move was a precursor to closing the controversial facility. "This is not an effort to shut down Guantanamo," said Matthew Waxman, deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs.

"We, the US, don't want to be the world's jailer. We think a more prudent course is to shift that burden on to our coalition partners."

Senior US officials told the Washington Post that the agreement with Afghanistan was the first step toward whittling down the Guantanamo population to a core group of those considered most dangerous detainees.

A spokesman for the state department in Washington said the US intended to help Afghanistan build its capacity to detain the prisoners currently being held by the US.

American and allied Afghan forces captured thousands of suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan after the toppling of the Taliban in late 2001.

`enemy combatants'

Hundreds of detainees were classified as "enemy combatants" and transferred to Guantanamo, but their detention has become an embarrassment for the Bush administration, with allegations of abuse and mistreatment.

Officials have debated closing the facility, but defenders of the system, including the vice-president, Dick Cheney, convinced others in the administration that keeping Guantanamo open was the best option.
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