The island, with a unique natural wealth, is the possible fate of 87 U.S. prisoners want to transfer. Socotra is the name of the main island of a small archipelago of mountains, white sand and clear waters located between the coasts of Somalia and Yemen. Known as "the Galapagos of the Indian", is home to over 700 species of unique flora and fauna in the world, and their meager 50,000, politically organized on the basis of advice from elders live mostly without electricity or water current. But this natural paradise, lovers forced ecotourism destination, could move to replace one of the most questioned prisons of the world could become the new Guantánamo. More than half of the detainees at the U.S. prison in Cuba's Bay, more precisely 87 of the 166 detainees who remain 12 years after the attacks of September 11, could be transferred to a center to be built in this remote island, if negotiations between the U.S. and Yemeni governments advance. After missing for more than five years one of his main campaign promises-close Guantanamo in the first year of government, in the last speech on the State of the Union address, U.S. President Barack Obama, re-emphasized the need for Congress to approve the transfer of the remaining prisoners and thus achieve the closure of the prison. Yemenis Of the 87 who were arrested over a decade, mostly without even having a trial or charges brought against him, 56 even have a recommendation U.S. Department of Justice to be released immediately. Obama's strategy involves a series of negotiations with the government of Yemen, with which it has close ties in security and counterterrorism, to transfer the prisoners to their home country. Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi in October publicly acknowledged the existence of a plan to build in the country a center for the "rehabilitation" of prisoners from Guantanamo. A month later rebuilt as The Economist, the Local newspaper El Ule published an article in which government sources, who chose to remain anonymous, claimed that from the negotiations with the United States Socotra would be converted into "new Guantanamo". "U.S. wants Yemen to build a rehabilitation center, but for Washington to transfer the prisoners need to ensure certain conditions to mitigate any threats that may represent detainees, "said Andrea Prasow La Nacion, a lawyer specializing in counterterrorism at Human Rights Watch. Geographic isolation of Socotra, located over 200 miles from any coast, is presented as an advantage in passing the examination of Washington. Yet so far, neither government announced a decision on where this program would be launched. In an interview with La Nacion, the representative Socotra Environmental Protection Authority of the Yemeni government, Ahmed Saeed, denied the rumors, calling it "biased" and "far from the truth." Saeed said that the rumors about the construction of a detention center in the place just looking to hurt tourism and "put people against the United States." But a rumor was enough to arouse the anger of environmentalists, human rights advocates and mainly the inhabitants of Socotra. "Truth is I'd rather not talk about it," said Mohammed Ahmed Ismael, Socotra life organizing ecotourism tours wins. "It is unthinkable to build a prison for al-Qaeda in what is the largest natural shelter of our planet," he added. Regardless of where the detainees, human rights activists transferred criticize Obama's strategy itself. "The important thing is that a center of this type does not become another place of indefinite detention without trial by" Prasow said, in line with the questions that the Los Angeles Times summed up in an editorial last November: "Guantanamo must be closed and not exported. " Socotra was listed as a World Natural Heritage remote island is the main island of an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, more than 200 miles from any coast. Until 1997 the weather made it inaccessible for four months a year original Species Its isolation allowed the development of 700 species of flora and fauna that exist nowhere else Landscapes offers varied landscapes: beaches with white sand and clear water, deserts and mountains
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