Human Rights First Praises Bermuda for Accepting Chinese Uighurs

As four Chinese Uighurs who were wrongly arrested and held for years at the United States detention facility in Guantanamo are released to Bermuda, Human Rights First's International Legal Director Gabor Rona praised the Bermudan government's demonstration of humanitarianism and issued the following statement:

"Human Rights First applauds the humanitarian decision of the Bermudan government to accept four men, Chinese Uighurs, formerly detained in Guantanamo. Despite its regrettable lack of political will to take these former detainees into the United States, the U.S. government has long conceded that these Uighurs were wrongly arrested and pose no security threat. They have languished in illegal detention at Guantanamo for nearly seven years because they were unable to be returned to their country of nationality, China, where they would face a substantial risk of torture.

"The Bermudan government's honorable decision to assist these men serves as an example to other nations, including the United States. It further demonstrates that it will take the cooperation of many countries to close the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo, relocate its inhabitants, and to permanently turn the page on counterproductive Bush administration detention policies."