Malaysia and Indonesia request interviews with Guantanamo Bay inmates
Updated
As the Guantanamo Bay detention facility looks set for closure within a year, Malaysian and Indonesian authorities have aleady requested to interview their countrymen who're being held there.
The US this month announced it will close the facility within a year. Malaysia wants to seek custody of two Malaysian terror suspects, while Indonesian police are seeking access to speak with Bali bombing suspect Hambali.
Presenter: Girish Sawlani
Speaker: Sidney Jones, Indonesia director, International Crisis Group; Dr Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, nanyang Technological University, Singapore
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SAWLANI: Under intense pressure to deliver on his election promises, US President Barack Obama finally announced the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba last week.
OBAMA: Promptly to close the detention facility at Guantanamo consistent with the national security and foreign policy interest of the United States and in the interests of justice, I hereby order and we then provide the process whereby Guantanamo will be closed no later than one year from now.
SAWLANI: While many have hailed the planned closure as a victory for human rights, the decision begs the question what will happen to the detainees, most of whom are suspected to be terrorists.
While government's of several countries consider what to do next, Malaysia has signalled its intent early, with Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi saying the government is willing to take custody of two of its citizens held there.
Mohammed Farik bin Amin, better known as Zubair was arrested in Thailand in 2003 for alleged links Southeast Asian terror network, Jemaah islamiyah.
Captured separately in Thailand around the same time, Mohammed Nazir bin Lep who goes by the name Lillie is believed to have helped gather funds for the Marriot hotel bombings in Jakarta in 2003.
Meanwhile Jakarta has issued a request to Washington for police to interview Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali who was also arrested during a US led operation in Thailand in 2003 and is allegedly linked to the 2002 Bali bombings.
Although the three have been incarcerated for over five years, analyst believe they still pose a threat. Dr. Rohan Gunaratna heads the Singapore based Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism
GUNARATNA: Hambali, Liliie, and Zubair are not only JI, in fact Lillie and Zubair were before members of Kumpulan militan Malaysia and later they joined JI and eventually they joined al Qaeda. Hambali served on one of the committees of al Qaeda, so these are very dangerous people and they should be dealt appropriately. Certainly these two countries should understand that these three terrorists are very important, they are what you call high value terrorists. They should have the necessary legal and other infrastructure to detain them, the instruments to ensure they are properly detained until they pose no threat to their countries.
SAWLANI: But in the case of Hambali it's uncertain, if he would be brought back to Indonesia to face trial. Sidney Jones is the Indonesia Director for the International Crisis Group.
JONES: I don't think they would be brought back, unless there was an absolute guarantee that they would get heavy sentences in the countries they were returning to and you can't guarantee that absolutely in a democratic system and it was a fair legal trial. But I think the police in Indonesia in particular would have to be pretty clear that they could secure a conviction on the basis of the evidence that they've got, and unless that happened, I don't think they would see them going back anytime soon.
SAWLANI: But it's a different scenario for Malaysia. Unlike Indonesia, Dr Rohan Gunaratna says Malaysia can invoke the Internal Security Act - which, like Guantanamo bay, allows for indefinite detention without trial.
GUNARATNA: The Malaysians have a wonderful instrument, which has been criticised by the West before 9/11, but today many Western governments are looking at preventive detention. So I believe the Malaysians are properly equipped to hold Lillie and Zubair.
SAWLANI: While the possibility of the terrorist suspects returning home has raised a more than a few eyebrows, the international crisis group's Sidney Jones, doesn't expect an escalation of terrorist activities, in the hands of Jemaah Islamiyah.
JONES: I don't think it would have any impact on Jemaah Islamiyah. I don't think it would lead to a new revival of the organisation or a new interest in planning acts of terror. I do think that at some level, these people would be regarded as heroes in the radical community, in part because of the treatment they received at the hands of their American captors and they would certainly be media celebrities if the media were allowed access to them. It wouldn't happen probably in Malaysia. It could well happen in Indonesia that the media would be given access to Hambali if he returned.
