CHINA SAYS 17 Uighurs from Xinjiang province, released from custody in Guantánamo and now being sent by the United States to the Pacific island nation of Palau, are terrorists and should be handed back to China.
President Johnson Toribiong of Palau said his country would accept the Muslim Uighurs, who speak a Turkic language and have a central Asian culture, as a humanitarian gesture. His decision will take pressure off US president Barack Obama, who pledged to close the controversial prison for foreign terrorism suspects on the US naval base in Cuba.
The contrast could not be greater between the barren desert land of Xinjiang in China’s northwest and the tropical paradise of Palau, a former US protectorate.
The detainees were captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001 shortly after the invasion of Afghanistan and handed over to the US military. Once they were taken to Guantánamo, the Uighurs were determined not to be a threat to US security, and a military tribunal found they were not to be considered enemy combatants. However, they have been stuck in Guantánamo since then, in legal limbo, because even though they have been cleared, finding a country to take the Uighurs is difficult in the face of Chinese anger. In 2006, five Uighurs were accepted by Albania.
Beijing disagrees with the US finding them innocent, saying the detainees are members of extremist groups trying to separate Xinjiang from China.
“China demands the US side implement relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council as well as live up to international anti-terrorism obligations, stop the transfer of these suspects to any third country, so as to repatriate them to China at an early date,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news briefing. “China also opposes any country taking any of these terrorist suspects,” the spokesman said, without clarifying whether China would react to the move in any way.
The Chinese believe the men are members of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, a separatist group that Beijing sees as a major threat to stability. Some human rights groups and Uighur activists say Beijing exaggerates the threat to justify harsh controls on the province, which is oil and gas rich.
