Thursday, February 23, 2006



Putting them on the spot

On Monday, I was intrigued by a section in Scoops audio of the Prime Minister's post cabinet press conference where it sounds as if someone is asking her for her opinion on the recent UN report on Guantanamo Bay. Unfortunately, the questions are unclear - but the Prime Minister's answers certainly aren't:

We are staying out of that particular row between the UN and the US

and

I'm just not getting involved in the discussion about it

(This segment begins at 17:50 in the Scoop audio. I'd very much like a cleaner copy, or a transcript if anybody out there has one).

Now, in today's questions, the Greens are going to properly put the government on the spot over this:

9. KEITH LOCKE to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Will he be calling for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre following the recent United Nations Commission on Human Rights' report, issued 15 February 2006, which highlights the systematic practice of torture and the indefinite detention without trial of detainees; if not, why not?

So far, the government has maintained a shameful silence on Guantanamo, and its time they were put on the spot about it. We've traditionally taken a strong stand on human rights in the international arena, and we should not remain silent now.

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