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Bermuda Takes Guantanamo Uighurs
Four Chinese Muslim Uighurs have been released from the US detention centre at Guantanamo and resettled in Bermuda, US officials said.
The four men are part of a group of Chinese nationals captured by the US in Afghanistan but found not to be enemy combatants four years ago.
This week the US said some would be sent to the Pacific island of Palau.
Beijing has described 22 Uighurs detained by the US as terrorists and demanded their return to China.
Soon after the four former inmates landed in Bermuda, a British overseas territory off America's eastern seaboard, US justice department spokesman Dean Boyd said: "We will consult regularly with the government of Bermuda on the status of these individuals."
They will not be allowed to enter the United States without prior permission, US officials said.
Torture fears
One of the four, Abdul Nasser, said in a statement released through his lawyer: "Today you have let freedom ring."
Five Uighurs who were transferred to Albania in 2006 have not been engaged in criminal or terrorist activities since, the US government said.
China repeated its demand for the return of all Chinese detainees hours before Bermuda accepted the Uighurs.
America should "stop handing over terrorist suspects to any third country", foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.
Earlier this week Palau, a former US territory just east of the Philippines, agreed to accept the ethnic Uighurs.
Correspondents say the US has been reluctant to send the Uighurs back to China for fear they will be tortured or executed.
More than eight million mainly Muslim Uighurs live in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, a vast area of western China that borders Central Asia.
Beijing says Uighur insurgents are leading an Islamic separatist movement.
China says the Uighurs captured by the US are members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which is on a UN list of terrorist groups.
US President Barack Obama has ordered the Guantanamo detention centre closed by early next year.
Correspondents say officials are having difficulty finding governments willing to accept the remaining detainees, while at home they face stiff resistance to the idea of Guantanamo detainees on being transferred to US soil.
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6 Comments so far
Show AllThis is like the Bronx zoo saying 'Oh, no -- we couldn't possible handle taking in a few hamsters." The US is the greatest nation in the world? Pfftttt!! Oh, yeah --- sure...
would these individuals even want to settle in the US?
There is a decent size Uighur community in Washington D.C., and they have repeatedly indicated they would be happy to take them in.
vdb,
Fine question you pose; quite fitting, imo. I've had the same thought before.
I think the detainees would, most of all, like to return [home] and be re-united with loved ones, relatives and friends; because I think if I was in their position, then this is what I would want. Of course there'd need to be a binding and honoured agreement that the detainees, once returned home, would not be punished by their governments. Once cleared of guilt, this should be [internationally] recognised and honoured, by [everyone]. And I believe that such an agreement is certainly likely, with many governments.
With that said, I wonder if there's any kind of deceptive propaganda in the BBC article. F.e., is it really true, and verifably so, that the four Uighurs were resettled in Bermuda? We should be able to easily have authentically [independent] verification of such claims, imo. And a "real winner" is, "One of the four, Abdul Nasser, said in a statement released through his lawyer: "Today you have let freedom ring.""; for an or the other example. The latter, imo, has an awfully familiar "ring" to it, awfully like the sort of crap the Bush-Cheney administration delivered to us and while hoping they wouldn't be caught by attentive people with critical and investigative minds.
It would be far from the first time that the BBC has "served" as a propaganda of lies mouthpiece during the GWoT.
And do we have serious cause to believe ... almost anything the "leadership" of the government of the U.S. tells us? Not that I'm aware of.
referring to these men you write "Once cleared of guilt . . ."
As far as I know, they have not been found guilty of any crime.
They are merely "suspect".
Just a little bit on Palau accepting the 13 Uighurs -- In agreeing to take the Uighurs off U.S. hands, Palau continues as it has for several years to play the role of "U.S. lackey", acting to help the U.S. try to remove a small part of its shame and notoriety from what in 2005 Amnesty International called the "Soviet-style gulag" at Guantanamo. Seventeen Uighurs down (4 of the 17 went to Bermuda) and couple hundred more "detainees" to go. The fact is Palau has been assisting the U.S. with its Cuba image problem since 2004 when Palau began providing the U.S. with a vote against the annual UN resolution condemning U.S. sanctions against Cuba. (The UN has overwhelming passed that resolution every year since 1992, with only countries like Uzbekistan, Israel and Marshall Islands voting with the U.S.) Were it not for the Palau vote each year since 2004, there would have only been 2 votes against the UN resolution, one vote from the US and one vote from Israel. Palau has proven to be a good U.S. lackey and no doubt is seen in U.S. government circles as worth every cent of the $200 million payoff. -- David Brookbank