Not Our Problem: Guantanamo (LATVIA)

When U.S. President Barack Obama in his first few hours in office announced the closure of the military detention base at Guantanamo Bay, many in Europe rejoiced. It seemed that a new era of U.S. politics was upon the world, whereby the inner workings of the “war on terror” (a term used sparingly by the new president) would become more transparent and just.

Now things are becoming a bit murkier. Instead of facing the problems presented by Guantanamo Bay head on by taking responsibility for injustices, the U.S. seems to be trying to get the problem out of sight and out of mind as quickly as possible. Instead of ending the indefinite detention of all but the most extreme cases, the U.S. seems to want to simply hand off former detainees, whose legal status is still unclear in most cases, to friendly countries around the world – including the Baltics.

The situation being what it is, the Baltics are, of course, happy to help. The U.S. has been a staunch ally and when they need the Baltics to take a few “hard cases” off their hands, there is really no way to refuse – even if it is still not clear whether these so-called “hard cases” will be classified as asylum seekers, detainees or POWs.

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