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SYDNEY: A top US general has urged Australia against accepting inmates from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, warning that a significant number had gone on to commit terrorist acts or resume training.
Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Friday confirmed the government was considering a request from outgoing US president George W Bush to help a small number of the centre's 250 detainees resettle.
Whilst emphasising it was "unlikely" Australia would agree to the approach, Gillard said it demanded "proper consideration."
But US Major General John Altenburg, formerly an appointing authority to the commissions which prosecute Guantanamo inmates, warned against accepting freed "war on terror" detainees.
"About 30 of them have been captured or killed, or are known to be back on the battlefield," 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'."
Gillard, acting as leader while Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is on holidays, said the latest request for help from Washington, received in December last year, followed an earlier 2008 refusal by Australia to help resettle inmates.
Gillard said the request had come from the Bush administration, and was not an initiative of president-elect Barack Obama, who has vowed to shut down Guantanamo once in office.
Gillard initially said the government would consider resettling freed detainees after rigorous assessment on a case-by-case basis.
But she was forced to soften her stance after leader of the opposition Liberal-National coalition, Malcolm Turnbull, condemned it as "completely and utterly unacceptable to the Australian people."
- AFP/yb
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