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Uighur captives in Guantanamo
From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium
The United States held approximately two dozen Uighurs captives in Guantanamo. They are free to return to their homes in China, and China wants them, but they refuse to go and the U.S. has decided not to force them to return. Under international law, the only country that is clearly obliged to accept a person's entry is that person's country of citizenship. The U.S. does not want them nor does any other country except possibly Albania. The media present them as "Men Without a Country."
Uighurs are an ethnic group from Xinjiang province in the west of China. The Uighurs call their homeland East Turkistan. They were captured in combat zones in Pakistan and Afghanistan, although all are citizens of China. The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is militant group that calls for secession from China and was designated as a terrorist group by the US government in 2002.[1]
Fifteen Uighurs were determined not to have been "enemy combatants" against the U.S. after all.[2]
Washington wants to release most of these detainees but will not return the detainees to China, which may treat them as anti-Chinese terrorists and Xinjiang separatists. Other nations, concerned about their own diplomatic relations with China, are unwilling to accept the detainees, and the United States faces a serious threat to its diplomatic relationship with China if it grants the detainees asylum in the US.[3]
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Information paper: Uighur Detainee Population at JTF-GTMO
Documents released in response to the writ of habeas corpus Hassan Anvar v. George W. Bush contained a seven page memo entitled: "Information paper: Uighur Detainee Population at JTF-GTMO".[4] This memo, dated 30 October 2004, provides one paragraph biographies of all 22 Uighur captives. The memo asserts that all 22 captives are suspected of membership in the "East Turkistan Islamic Movement". The memo describes the Uighur camp as an "ETIM training camp".
This memo was drafted prior to the drafting of the Summary of Evidence memos prepared for the Combatant Status Review Tribunals.
Common elements in the allegations
- All of the Uighurs were in Afghanistan during the Allied war against the Taliban.
- All of the Uighurs were alleged to be members of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement.
- Most of the Uighurs were alleged to have completed military training.
- Some of the allegations stated that the military training camp was in the Tora Bora mountains.
- Most of the Uighurs were alleged to have accepted training that was sponsored by the Taliban, or Al Qaeda.
- All of the Uighurs were alleged to have fled when their camp was bombed as part of the United States bombing campaign.
- Many of the Uighurs were alleged to have engaged in hostilities in Tora Bora.
However the captives deny most of the allegations.
Combatant Status Review Tribunal results
From August 2004 through January 2005 all 558 of the detainees held at Guantanamo had their detention reviewed by Combatant Status Review Tribunals. 38 of the detainees were determined not to have been "enemy combatants" after all. Some or all of the Uighurs were among the 38 detainees determined not to have been enemy combatants, and were transferred from the main detention camp, to more pleasant incarceration at Camp Iguana.
This conclusion was remarked on by the Denbeaux study, that pointed out that many of the detainees who remained incarcerated had faced much less serious allegations than the Uighurs had faced.
Information paper: Uighur Detainee Population at JTF-GTMO
US government documents dated 30 October, 2004 asserts that all 22 captives are suspected of membership in the "East Turkistan Islamic Movement". The memo describes the Uighur camp as an "ETIM training camp".[4]
Administrative Review Boards considered whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat -- or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.
Asylum
Five of the Uighurs were transported to Albania, in May 2006; they are applying for asylum in Albania.
China denounced the transfer of custody.[5][6] China called the transfer of the Uighurs to Albania a violation of international law. Albania agreed to examine the evidence against the men.
Federal appeal
On Monday June 23 2008 it was announced that a three judge Federal court of appeal had overturned the determination of Huzaifa Parhat's Combatant Status Review Tribunal on Friday June 20 2008.[7][8][9][10][11] Parhat's was the first case to ruled on since the Supreme Court's ruling in Boumediene v. Bush.
According to CNN the judges ordered the Department of Defense to either: "release or transfer Parhat, or to expeditiously hold a new [military] tribunal."[10]
The Los Angeles Times quoted comments on the ruling from David Cole, the author of two books on military law[11]:
"Now all of these cases have been revived and this is the first case to move forward. And here is somebody that the military has been holding on to for six years and the federal court now says he shouldn't have been held in the first place. Absent this independent judicial review, he might have been sitting there for another 10 to 15 years. Now he has a chance to find freedom."
References
- ↑ See Steve Czajkowski, "DOJ defends detention of Uighur at Guantanamo," Jurist" April 4, 2008
- ↑ Chinese Detainees Are Men Without a Country: 15 Muslims, Cleared of Terrorism Charges, Remain at Guantanamo With Nowhere to Go, Washington Post, August 24, 2005
- ↑ China's Uighurs trapped at Guantanamo, Asia Times, November 4, 2004
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Information paper: Uighur Detainee Population at JTF-GTMO pages 28-34. United States Department of Defense (30 October 2004). Retrieved on 2007-12-19.
- ↑ China Demands Return of Gitmo Detaniees, Associated Press, May 9, 2006
- ↑ China wants Gitmo Uighurs back, says Albania transfer breaks international law, The Jurist, May 9 2006
- ↑ James Vicini. "Appeals court rules for Guantanamo prisoner", Washington Post, 2008-06-23. Retrieved on 2008-06-23. mirror
- ↑ "In first, court rejects military's ruling in Guantanamo case", McClatchy News Service, 2008-06-23. Retrieved on 2008-06-23.
- ↑ "US appeals court rejects classification of Chinese Muslim as an enemy combatant", International Herald Tribune, 2008-06-23. Retrieved on 2008-06-23.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Bill Mears. "Court rules in favor of Chinese Muslim held at Gitmo", CNN, 2008-06-23. Retrieved on 2008-06-23.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Josh Meyer. "Court rules for Guantanamo inmate", Los Angeles Times, 2008-06-24. Retrieved on 2008-06-24. “"It is a tremendous day. It is a very conservative court, but we pressed ahead and we won unanimously," said lawyer P. Sabin Willett. "But Huzaifa Parhat is now in his seventh year of imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay, and he doesn't even know about this ruling because he's sitting in solitary confinement and we can't tell him about it. That's what we do to people in this country -- we put them in solitary confinement even when they are not enemy combatants."” mirror
