Gitmo dads slam US, Kuwait govts

KUWAIT: The United States which claims to be a democratic country and respect human rights, has imprisoned two Kuwaitis, Fayez Al-Kanderi and Fawzi Al-Odah, for 10 years without a trial although they have not been accused of any crime. After long years of waiting and exerting every effort, the parents of these two detainees are in despair. They decided to do something that may help them to release their sons. For the past few days Khalid Al-Odah, the father of Fawzi Al-Odah, and Mohammed Al-Kanderi, the father of Fayez, have been protesting in front of the American Embassy in Bayan every day from 10:00 am- 12:00 noon.

“We will continue this protest until we reach a solution. Through this act, we aim to deliver our message to both the Kuwaiti and American governments to release our sons. I think that our government is not serious or interested in solving this case. Kuwaiti officials should pressure the US to release them. We want to reactivate this issue to provoke the public to support us, and to convince our parliament and government to be more strict in solving our case,” Khalid Al-Odah told Kuwait Times.

Al-Odah is very disappointed at the inaction of the Kuwaiti government. “Our government has all the opportunities and is expected to press the US to get our demands. Even Bahrain received all their detainees since 2005, and we still have two at Guantanamo. We had many chances to insist on getting our demands. The $500 million donation granted by our government to the US when the hurricane Katrina hit them was a golden opportunity to negotiate our issue, but the Kuwait government didn’t mention it,” he explained. “I am surprised at the way that the United States has dealt with us. Although we are one of their allies and their strategic partners, even their enemy the Taleban get a chance to negotiate, while we do not even get this chance. I hope that Kuwaiti officials will realize and understand our tragedy and do something,” he added.

There is no reason for the two Kuwait detainees to stay in Guantanamo. “We want the detainees back to be judged here. We fulfilled all the conditions and demands set by the US administration. We prepared the rehabilitation center for them to stay in when they return. We also agreed to apply security measures and observation on them, like the travel ban and other conditions, yet we didn’t notice any positive act from the US government,” stressed Al-Odah. He said the current president is even worse than the previous one. “In fact, during Bush’s regime most detainees were released, but now only a few were released and they were even sent to a third nation and not their home country. Obama only talks much, but he is not practically helpful,” he charged.

“Our lawyer there is still working on the case, but there is no result yet. The American government won’t allow a fair trial for them, and this is illegal and against human rights. We are also dealing and meeting with different NGOs and international organizations to help us in this injustice. We need support from the public, as the Kuwaiti government is not active,” concluded Al-Odah.

By Nawara Fattahova, Staff Writer

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