International Relations Analyst, Dr. Vladimir Antwi-Danso, believes government must be resolute in whatever decision it takes on the continuous stay of the two former Guantanamo Bay detainees being hosted by Ghana.

Speaking to an Accra based radio station Citi fm, Dr. Antwi-Danso stated that “the government must be firm, not rude and we can get what we want also,” as he advised it not to be intimidated by the United States of America, who shipped the two former detainees to Ghana in January 2016.

The continued stay of the two, who are Yemen nationals, has been thrown into question following the Supreme Court’s declaration that they were accepted into Ghana without recourse to the laws of the land.

The court, therefore, ordered that the government must within the next three months send the agreement to Parliament for ratification or have the two detainees sent back to the United States.

Whatever the outcome, Dr. Antwi-Danso stressed that the decisions government make must be in the interest of Ghana and not because of pressure from elsewhere.

“What we have to do is make sure that foreign policy is not dictated to us, and they will still continue to talk because these things are always done… diplomacy is such that you try to veer your opponent to your bidding and that is what they are doing.”

The Supreme Court judgment on the detainees, comes at a time when the US Embassy clarified laws on protocol visa allocations to government officials, including MPs and former Presidents visiting the US unofficially.

Some Members of Ghana’s Parliament are against this by the US and called for a reversal from them or retaliation from the Akufo-Addo administration.

Dr. Antwi-Danso was of the view that the revocation of the protocol visa for Ghanaian officials is part of the intimidation by the US because “I think they may have heard about the Supreme Court decision and they may want to sort of intimidate us, and they have been doing that.”

“Obviously they want bases in Africa. They want whatever else is in Africa and therefore they coerce the government with the denial of aid and so on, and we have been threatened before on the Gitmo 2, and I strongly believe that is not the way to go.”

In the government’s comments on the two former detainees, it has said it is taking “prompt” steps to deal with the Supreme Court’s orders concerning the continued stay of the two.

The two detainees, Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby were under detention in US custody for 14 years after being linked with terrorist group Al-Qaeda.

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source:citifmonline