Lithuania considers taking 10 Guantanamo prisoners

Lithuania considers taking 10 Guantanamo prisoners
The Associated Press
Published: February 11, 2009


VILNIUS, Lithuania: Lithuania is ready to start talks with the U.S. administration about accepting as many as 10 Guantanamo Bay prisoners, officials said Wednesday.

President Valdas Adamkus' office said in a statement that the country's defense council had authorized the Foreign Ministry to open talks with the U.S. to "determine the circumstances necessary to take a decision on this issue."

The European Parliament has urged its members to help President Barack Obama by accepting Guantanamo prisoners. In his first week in office, Obama ordered the prison in Cuba to be closed within a year.

In Washington, Lithuanian Defense Minister Rasa Jukneviciene said she expected Guantanamo to come up in a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday.

"Lithuania is preparing to help solve this problem as best as we can according to our capabilities," she said.
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Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jurgita Dapkute said Lithuania, a Baltic country and a staunch U.S. ally that joined NATO and the European Union in 2004, would consider taking up to 10 prisoners.

There are up to 60 Guantanamo inmates who, if freed, cannot be returned to their homelands because they could face abuse, imprisonment or death. They come from Azerbaijan, Algeria, Afghanistan, Chad, China, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

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