January 04, 2009	Sunday	Muharram 06, 1430

SYDNEY, Jan 3: Australia Saturday formally rejected a US request to help resettle former inmates of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility amid warnings against taking in freed ‘war on terror’ detainees.

“The request received in December 2008 has been denied,” acting prime minister Julia Gillard told reporters, citing national security concerns.

The Australian government had advised President George W Bush’s administration that it would not assist in resettling some 60 ‘war on terror’ detainees, she said.

“Assessing those requests from a case by case basis, they had not met our stringent national security and immigration criteria and have been rejected,” Gillard said.

It was the second time Australia has denied such a request from Washington, after rebuffing an initial approach in early 2008.

US president-elect Barack Obama has vowed once in office to close the Camp Delta facility, which currently houses 250 inmates held without charge or trial.

While Australia was open to future requests from the Obama administration, Gillard warned the same rigorous scrutiny and “very tough character assessments” would apply.

The Australian rejection comes after senior US General John Altenburg warned against the risks of accepting ‘war on terror’ detainees freed from the Cuban facility.

“About 30 of them have been captured or killed, or are known to be back on the battlefield,” Major General Altenburg told The Weekend Australian newspaper.

“These are people who were released because they thought they weren’t dangerous. To me, it’s a fair comment to say ‘we don’t want these people. Now we’ve got the burden of watching them and we don’t know whether they’re dangerous or not’.” Detainees presented to Australia for potential resettlement were no longer considered a threat by US authorities, but could face arrest, torture or lengthy incarceration if returned to their home countries.

Britain has said it would consider US resettlement requests on a case-by-case basis, while the European Union is divided on the issue.

The Netherlands has ruled out accepting any newly freed inmates, Portugal and Germany have signalled they might do so, Poland is reluctant, and France calling for a common European position.

Gillard, acting leader while Prime Minister Kevin Rudd takes a holiday, denied Australia’s stance put it at loggerheads with the incoming Obama administration.

She also refused to comment on whether, as a key US ally in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Australia had a moral obligation to accept Guantanamo’s prisoners.

“We, for the future, will assess on a case by case basis, but we will always assess against our stringent national security criteria, and our stringent immigration criteria,” she responded.

“The decisions we make will be against those criteria and they’ll always be in the best interests of this country.”—AFP