******* German Head Attacks Guantanamo *******
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January 07, 2006
http://theaustralian.news.com.au

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has criticised the US Detention Camp at Guantanamo Bay, days before she is due to meet US President George W. Bush.

"an institution such as Guantanamo cannot and should not continue to exist like that in the long term," she told the weekly magazine Der Spiegel, implicitly calling for it to be closed down.

The interview will be published Monday.

"different means of behaving with prisoners have to be found," she said, adding that she would raise the issue with Bush when she sees him in Washington on Friday.

Among those held at Guantanamo is Murat Kurnaz 23, a German of Turkish origin, detained without charge for the four years.

Under her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder, relations bwtween the two countries became chilly, largely because of his opposition to the war in Iraq.