Germany’s interior minister says the United States must answer some key legal questions before his country considers accepting detainees from Guantanamo Bay.
"The U.S. forwarded reports on detainees with the request to check if Germany would accept them," Wolfgang Schäuble said in an interview Sunday with the Bild Zeitung, a major newspaper in Germany. "As the federal minister of interior, it is my job to look into every single case individually. But the information we have received from Washington is in any case insufficient for the legal-based decision we have to make."
Schäuble cited questions that need to be answered. "First of all, can it definitely be ruled out that these people are not a security threat?" he asked. "Secondly, why can the U.S. not take on these people? And, thirdly, do these people have any relation to Germany at all?"
In a phone interview, Schäuble spokesman Stefan Paris said the criteria mentioned by the minister are backed by German law.
"Do not get the minister wrong. Do not think that the minster just made up these criteria for that case. It is what the law demands," Paris said.
The spokesman said no decision has been made on whether to take some of the detainees.
"We contacted the German state department and they contacted [the appropriate officials in the U.S.]. How long it will take until Mr. Schäuble makes a decision we cannot say, yet. It is now up to the U.S. to provide the information necessary."
Germany has been asked to take in Uighurs, Chinese Muslims who U.S. federal courts have determined pose no threat to the United States.
President Barack Obama promised to close the Guantanamo detention camp by as early as 2010. He is asking allied nations to accept prisoners who are no security threat but cannot return to their home country.
European nations have been slow to make commitments. French officials said last week they would accept an Algerian detainee from Guantanamo.
German politicians, who face state and national-level elections in September, are debating whether their country should take the detainees.
Christlich Demokratische Union, or CDU, Schäuble’s party, expressed reservations on the "Guantanamo question," whereas Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, or SPD, seemed to support the idea of taking some of the detainees.
But U.S. lawmakers are divided on the detainees, too. Some say they are too dangerous to place on U.S. soil.
