Have you heard of the plight of Chinese Muslims, deemed innocent, but still held at Guantanamo? This site’s good friend Other Lisa is guest-blogging at Peking Duck, and wrote today about the “Uighurs At Gitmo,” quoting from the WaPo:
In late 2003, the Pentagon quietly decided that 15 Chinese Muslims detained at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could be released. Five were people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, some of them picked up by Pakistani bounty hunters for U.S. payoffs. The other 10 were deemed low-risk detainees whose enemy was China’s communist government — not the United States, according to senior U.S. officials.
More than 20 months later, the 15 still languish at Guantanamo Bay, imprisoned and sometimes shackled, with most of their families unaware whether they are even alive.
They are men without a country. The Bush administration has chosen not to send them home for fear China will imprison, persecute or torture them, as the United States charges has happened to other members of China’s Muslim minority. But the State Department has also been unable to find another country to take them in, according to U.S. officials and recently filed court documents.
I’ve received press releases about the Uighur from the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is demanding their release (CCR Press Release). However, when I wrote back to CCR asking where they’d be sent, CCR wasn’t sure. So I’m of two minds about this, from the little I know: 1) They’re innocent so release them; and 2) Don’t send them to near certain imprisonment and torture in China. Frankly, they may be better off in a low-security section of Gitmo than in their own country! I don’t know for sure.
Other Lisa has found herself in the midst of a big debate at Peking Duck, and has asked for reinforcements. Can you hop on over and pitch in to aid Other Lisa?
