Boston Globe Editorial - Guantánamo's Uighur pawns
Boston Globe Editorial - Guantánamo's Uighur pawns
Copyright by The Boston Globe
Published: March 12, 2007
The new chief at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, has already set a different tone by firing officials responsible for the Walter Reed scandal. But there is a Walter Reed-style scandal of human rights abuses now festering at the Guantanámo detention center in Cuba. Gates can begin the process of restoring America's reputation as a respecter of human rights by releasing 17 Guantanámo detainees from China.
The 17 are Uighurs (pronounced wee-gurs) — members of a Muslim minority that feels oppressed by Beijing. They had been living in Afghanistan when the United States began its war there in 2001. They have said they fled U.S. bombing for shelter in Pakistan, where they were taken into custody by Pakistanis who were getting bounties of as much as $5,000 a head for captives. In 2006, after five were declared not to be enemy combatants, Albania accepted them as refugees. The U.S. military acknowledges that none of the 17 remaining is considered enough of a threat to be scheduled for one of the 80 trials planned for this year.
In fact, all but one would have left by now if the United States could find a place that would take them. But because of an unwillingness to incur China's disfavor, no country, including Albania, has stepped forward to accept any more.
The United States will not release them to China, for fear of the treatment they would receive there. Since there are about 2,000 Uighurs living in the United States, this would be a logical home for them, but the Department of Homeland Security says no. Gates should solve this problem, even if it means they become sought after for television broadcasts about their treatment in U.S. custody.
They would have much to tell. If it were not for the China connection, the Uighurs would likely have been released. In 2002 the United States was seeking China's support in the United Nations for the war against Iraq. Washington agreed to put a Uighur resistance movement on a list of terrorist organizations. It also allowed Chinese intelligence agents to interrogate the Uighur detainees, an experience that made them fearful for the safety of their families back in China's Xinjiang region.
Gates could make it clear that he is changing America's self-destructive retreat from its traditions of law and order by releasing the Uighurs.
Copyright by The Boston Globe
Published: March 12, 2007
The new chief at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, has already set a different tone by firing officials responsible for the Walter Reed scandal. But there is a Walter Reed-style scandal of human rights abuses now festering at the Guantanámo detention center in Cuba. Gates can begin the process of restoring America's reputation as a respecter of human rights by releasing 17 Guantanámo detainees from China.
The 17 are Uighurs (pronounced wee-gurs) — members of a Muslim minority that feels oppressed by Beijing. They had been living in Afghanistan when the United States began its war there in 2001. They have said they fled U.S. bombing for shelter in Pakistan, where they were taken into custody by Pakistanis who were getting bounties of as much as $5,000 a head for captives. In 2006, after five were declared not to be enemy combatants, Albania accepted them as refugees. The U.S. military acknowledges that none of the 17 remaining is considered enough of a threat to be scheduled for one of the 80 trials planned for this year.
In fact, all but one would have left by now if the United States could find a place that would take them. But because of an unwillingness to incur China's disfavor, no country, including Albania, has stepped forward to accept any more.
The United States will not release them to China, for fear of the treatment they would receive there. Since there are about 2,000 Uighurs living in the United States, this would be a logical home for them, but the Department of Homeland Security says no. Gates should solve this problem, even if it means they become sought after for television broadcasts about their treatment in U.S. custody.
They would have much to tell. If it were not for the China connection, the Uighurs would likely have been released. In 2002 the United States was seeking China's support in the United Nations for the war against Iraq. Washington agreed to put a Uighur resistance movement on a list of terrorist organizations. It also allowed Chinese intelligence agents to interrogate the Uighur detainees, an experience that made them fearful for the safety of their families back in China's Xinjiang region.
Gates could make it clear that he is changing America's self-destructive retreat from its traditions of law and order by releasing the Uighurs.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 10:31 AM
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