Battle brewing over Guantanamo and its Chinese Muslim prisoners
A big battle is brewing over the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the Chinese Muslim inmates held there.
The Supreme Court announced Tuesday it would decide whether federal judges have the power to order the release of the ethnic Uighur prisoners into the United States.
The White House and Congress argue the inmates have never been admitted into the United States under U.S. immigration laws, and judges should not be making those sorts of decisions.
To underscore the point, the U.S. Congress Tuesday approved a spending bill that includes a measure effectively prohibiting Guantanamo prisoners from being released into the United States. The measure would admit them only to face trial.
President Barack Obama has pledged to close Guantanamo by Jan. 22, 2010, but meeting that goal has become increasingly difficult.
Few countries are willing to accept any of the approximately 220 inmates, and the United States continues to debate what to do with them.
The 13 Uighurs — a Turkic Muslim ethnic group from Xinjiang in western China — have been cleared of being suspected terrorists by U.S. authorities.
Uighurs held at Guantanamo plead to Obama for release
A group of the 13 Chinese detainees held at the controversial U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba appealed directly to President Barack Obama for their immediate release, arguing that they have been cleared by the United States of any wrongdoing and they questioned why it was taking so long to go free.
The members of the Uighur ethnic group originally sent the appeal to Obama on March 8 but it was not cleared by the U.S. government for release until July 14, according to their attorneys. Two of the signatories have since been released to Bermuda, the lawyers said.
“After 6 years of investigations, the US military confirmed that we are innocent,” the Uighurs said in their letter. “We are innocent civilians, however, we are currently still being held in jail.”
In June four Uighurs were transferred from the Guantanamo prison to the Atlantic island of Bermuda. The entire group, who come from China’s largely Muslim far-west region of Xinjiang, were captured by the U.S. government during fighting in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in Washington and New York.
There has been some talk that the remaining 13 Uighurs held at Guantanamo Bay could go to the tropical Pacific island of Palau, where the government has agreed to take them temporarily as a humanitarian gesture. China has demanded that they all be returned to Chinese soil but the United States has said it could not return them because they would face persecution.
“The State Department, in coordination with the Defense Department and other interested agencies, is working to make appropriate arrangements to carry out transfers of these individuals in a manner consistent with national security and foreign policy interests of the United States, as well as U.S. policies concerning humane treatment,” said Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd.
These people are fugitives from perscution, ethnic and religious. In the finest historical traditions of our country a refuge for such people we should give them asylum here and help them resettle.
The First Draft: From Gitmo to paradise
Barack Obama and Joe Biden head to the Midwest today.
The Chinese Gitmo detainees are heading to paradise.
No, they’re not winging to heaven to enjoy the company of 72 virgins. The Uighurs, as they’re known, are being resettled in various beachy, tropical locales as the Obama administration seeks to empty the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison.
The United States has struggled for months to find a home for the Chinese Muslims, who were scooped up in 2001 during the invasion of Afghanistan. The Uighurs had no beef with the U.S., their lawyers say, but were instead part of an independence movement in China’s far west.
China wanted them to face the music back home, but it sounds like they’ll be facing the music of Jimmy Buffett instead. The Pacific Island nation of Palau agreed to take on all 17 detainees yesterday; today the Justice Department said four have already been resettled in Bermuda.
Six other Uighurs were sent to Albania in 2006, a former Communist state better known for pyramid schemes and bunkers than beaches. Evidently, good things come to those who wait.
photo credit: REUTERS/Tim Wimborne (footprints on an Australian beach — not where the Uighurs are going, but possibly what they’ll be experiencing).
G.Din. Thanks for you post and let me address the points you raise.
First of all, the Uyghur men were cleared to be released into the United States until a few politicians decided to make this a party political issue. Mr. Gingrich and others were, rather cynically, looking to score some points off of the Obama administration by making slanderous accusations against an entire people and by extension the detainees in Guantanamo.
Why were they in Afghanistan? Again, I refer you to the court documents. They were there because they had fled from repression in their own country. The U.S. has routinely documented this systematic economic, social, cultural and political repression in numerous reports. Contrary to international agreements on non-refoulement, countries bordering the Uyghur region often send refugees back to China to face torture and worse for peacefully, and I repeat, peacefully, advocating for their basic freedoms. During the political process which led to the founding of the United States, Britain considered the people of America as British citizens. Wouldn’t it have been Britain’s right to have the founding fathers handed over to their custody? In fact, the Chinese did have a chance to find out what the Uyghurs in Guantanamo were up to. Chinese secret service agents were allowed into Guantanamo to interrogate these men. I’d like to add that the trip was partially funded by the U.S. taxpayer. This interrogation happened as two UNITED STATES congressmen were denied access to the Uyghurs.
I agree with you G.Din that we are all stakeholders in the security and safety of the United States despite our differing opinions. My views are balanced by yours and vice-versa and we hope that a reasoned policy will emerge from the debate. In the effort to secure our country, we also need to face our mistakes. No one enterprise is perfect, and when mistakes are made, we hope that citizens such as ourselves can examine it and correct it. The detention of the Uyghurs was one of these mistakes. That is why they have been given their freedom, something which is not guaranteed in China.
Lastly, you say you are not sure that I know what we are facing in regard to the terror threat. Although I don’t think this is an appropriate forum to discuss my credentials, I have the knowledge and experience on the region and the issues to understand that the denial of having made a mistake in the Uyghur case will not make our country any safer.
The US government should stop digging a hole for itself, and promptly send these terrorists back to China where they are wanted as fugitives. As Reuters noted, these Uighurs, whose objective is to fight China, had traveled to Afghanistan for weapons training and religious indoctrination. In July, we saw the fruits of Uighur terrorism when babies were beheaded and elderly Han Chinese women were set on fire. By refusing to repatriate the Uighurs to China, and even contemplating the mind-boggling idea of resettling terrorist fugitives on the US mainland, the US government stands guilty of abetting terrorism. Let the US government show it has learned from the terrible tragedy of 9/11.