Hungary to accept Guantanamo detainee

By PABLO GORONDI

The Associated Press

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary said Wednesday it will accept a detainee from Guantanamo Bay, inching President Barack Obama closer to his pledge to close the U.S. military detention center.

The country will choose from a short list of Guantanamo prisoners in the coming days and the released detainee will participate in an 18-month integration program, Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai said.

"According to our current expectations ... the chosen candidate will be a Palestinian man who will be able to start a new life in Hungary," Bajnai told reporters.

"I ask my fellow citizens to consider the difficult circumstances in which the detainee spent his latest years and help his future integration."

Bajnai said he had called U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday to inform her of Hungary's decision.

Obama has ordered the facility closed by January 2010, and has recently notified Congress that his administration planned to transfer detainees to Afghanistan and Portugal. There are roughly 226 detainees at Guantanamo.

Hungary becomes the fourth member of the European Union — after France, Ireland and Portugal — to formally accept former Guantanamo prisoners.

The Pacific island nation of Palau and Bermuda have accepted several of the 17 Uighur detainees at Guantanamo, although China regards the Turkic Muslims from its far western region as terrorist suspects and wants them returned.

Daniel Fried, the U.S. government's envoy in charge of closing the Guantanamo prison, thanked Hungary and said all detainees who had been included as candidates for resettlement have been cleared of "any residual security questions which may remain."

"We are very grateful for Hungary's decision," Fried told reporters, adding that so far France, Spain, Italy and Belgium were also considering taking detainees.

The Spanish government said last week it was close to deciding how many Guantanamo detainees it will accept.

The European Union has long argued for the prison's closure, but the Obama administration has had trouble convincing some member countries to taking specific prisoners.

Britain has said it wants to limit its intake of ex-Guantanamo prisoners to people with citizenship or residency ties. Others, such as Germany and Sweden, say they have taken many refugees from earlier conflicts and expect the U.S. to explain why it shouldn't be the first option for all of Guantanamo's homeless.

"Closing the Guantanamo detention camp in a way that advances the security of the United States and of our allies as well as advances our values is one of President Obama's great priorities," Fried said.

Before the start of the war in Iraq, Hungary hosted a U.S. military training camp for Iraqi exiles and sent 300 noncombat troops to Iraq who carried out mainly transportation duties. The troops were withdrawn at the end of 2006.

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September 16, 2009 08:40 AM EDT

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