(8 Dec 2014) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: apus022135
{VOICE-OVER}
SIX PRISONERS HELD FOR 12 YEARS AT GUANTANAMO BAY WERE UNDERGOING MEDICAL CHECKUPS MONDAY AT THIS MILITARY HOSPITAL IN URUGUAY..WHERE THEY WILL BE RESETTLED AS REFUGEES AND RELEASED TO BEGIN NEW LIVES.
URUGUAYAN PRESIDENT JOSE MUJICA AGREED TO ACCEPT THE MEN AS A HUMANITARIAN GESTURE AND SAID THEY WOULD BE GIVEN HELP GETTING ESTABLISHED IN A COUNTRY OF 3.3 MILLION WITH A TOTAL MUSLIM POPULATION OF PERHAPS 300 PEOPLE.
THE SIX MEN - FOUR SYRIANS, A TUNISIAN AND A PALESTINIAN - WERE DETAINED AS SUSPECTED MILITANTS WITH TIES TO AL-QAEDA IN 2002 BUT WERE NEVER CHARGED.
THEY HAD BEEN CLEARED FOR RELEASE SINCE 2009 BUT COULD NOT BE SENT HOME FOR FEAR OF PERSECUTION AND A LACK OF SECURITY SO THE U.S. STRUGGLED TO FIND COUNTRIES WILLING TO TAKE THEM.
A LAWYER FOR ONE OF THOSE TRANSFERRED SAID HER CLIENT IS GRATEFUL TO URUGUAY. AND FOCUED NOW ON GETTING HIS LIFE AND FAMILY BACK.
SOUNDBITE: (English) Cori Crider, Lawyer Representing Abu Wa'el Dhiab
"I think he thinks that this is home. He is so grateful to the government for taking him. At the moment of course his main focus is on just getting well, to get well and also of course he wants to see his wife and his kids again. So I think the hope is that one day he could be reunited here with his wife and his children."
URUGUAY'S DEFENSE MINISTER SAID MONDAY THE REFUGEES ARE WELCOME TO BRING THEIR FAMILIES TO THE COUNTRY, FIND JOBS AND BECOME A PART OF SOCIETY.
LOCAL RESIDENTS IN MONTEVIDEO SAID THEY SUPPORTED THEIR GOVERNMENT'S DECISION.
{SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Roberto Garcia, Montevideo Resident}
"It was a way to help those refugees, to give them a place, because they throw them in prison and forget about them."
THE U.S. HAS NOW TRANSFERRED 19 PRISONERS OUT OF GUANTANAMO THIS YEAR, ALL BUT ONE OF THEM WITHIN THE LAST 30 DAYS.
136 REMAIN... OFFICIALS SAY SEVERAL MORE RELEASES ARE EXPECTED BY THE END OF THE YEAR.
KELLY DASCHLE, ASSOCIATED PRESS.
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