Guantanamo prisoners accepted "as favor to biggest power"

Guantanamo prisoners accepted "as favor to biggest power"

"I remember the headlines about Guantanamo (prison) being a disgrace for the humanity, and that it should be closed. I, too, think that Guantanamo should be closed, and if Serbia can help make sure that this place of torture never exists again - we're here," he said.

According to Vulin, Serbia, by allowing two prisoners who spent 9 and 14 years incarcerated without an indictment to be resettled here, "did a favor to the world's greatest power, and that's called a policy of balancing."

"You do what's good, what suits you, what you think is right. And have you endangered yourself in some way? No, you are merely aligned with about 30 countries," Vulin said.

Responding to criticism that the move may increase the threat of terrorism, Vulin responded by saying that Serbia already has troops deployed in a UN peacekeeping operation in Lebanon - and that this "could also be a reason for Serbia to catch some terrorist's eye."

He also noted that Serbs accused by the Hague Tribunal "waited 9, 20, 12 years without a verdict," and that the two men who are now in Serbia were imprisoned for 9 and 14 years at Guantanamo without being indicted.

"These are persons about whom it has been said, 'we have been holding you for 14 years and we don't know what to do with you, you're not terrorists'," said Vulin.

According to the minister, "the Serbian police cooperates with the whole world - and so it happens that protected witnesses from (cases involving) criminal gangs in America and Canada" are sent here. According to him, this means that the police "can handle these two men, as well."

"However, we can't handle the hypocrisy of a society that finds Guantanamo to be a disgrace one day, and then this (the transfer) the biggest threat the next, and (wants us) not to help dismantle it," said he.

As for the migrant crisis, Vulin said that "one EU country cannot be closing its border, while another opens them" - and that this country "will not be a reception center for those migrants that nobody wants."