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Ex-Guantanamo prisoners reject UN maintenance agreement, demanding U.S. reparations: Uruguayan gov't

Xinhua, April 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

Uruguay's government announced Monday that six ex-prisoners of Guantanamo have been offered a maintenance agreement by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, but some rejected it, demanding U.S. reparations.

Four of the six former inmates of the U.S. military prison, who now live in the South American country as refugees, have refused this support and sit outside the U.S. Embassy in protest demanding U.S. reparations, Uruguayan Foreign Affairs Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa told a press conference.

The six former prisoners, four Syrians, one Palestinian and one Tunisian, were received by the South American country last December as refugees.

"If the refugees don't receive economic support (from the UN), it's because they haven't signed the agreement which lasts a year," Nin said.

According to local Uruguayan newspaper 'El Pais', the refugees, who spent over a decade behind bars, refuse to sign the agreement because they had understood that they would receive support for three years rather than one year.

"The proposal that we have is that they write a card to the (U.S.) Embassy authorities and show their intent to sue the U.S. government," Nin said.

Four of the former prisoners, the Syrians Ali Shabaan, Abdul Hadi Faraj and Ahmed Adnan Ahlam, and the Tunisian Abdul Bin Mohammed Abis Ourgy, began their protest outside the U.S. Embassy Friday night. One of them has even threatened to go on a hunger strike outside the embassy until their plight is addressed.

The group published a statement on their blog on Sunday, thanking the Uruguayan government and people. They also declared that the United States are the ones that should be responsible for paying their maintenance, not the Uruguayan's or the UN.

Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez voiced his opinion on the matter at the start of the month, urging the U.S to pay something to the former prisoners.

"The responsibility of all of this lies with the United States government" that "has to provide the means" to support the freed prisoners, he said.

The U.S. government has claimed that "there is no information" about whether the former prisoners participated in terrorist activities against the United States, allies or partners. Endi