Chinese Demand Return Of Guantanamo Muslims
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BEIJING – China yesterday blasted an American decision to release five Chinese Muslims from the Guantanamo Bay detention center to seek asylum in Albania, describing them as suspected terrorists and demanding their return.
A European-based Uighur Muslim activist said the men would face the death penalty or torture if sent back to China. The five Chinese were held in Guantanamo for several years after being picked up during the American invasion of Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
America said last week it was letting them go to Albania after concluding they posed no terrorist threat to America but might face persecution if returned to China.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said yesterday that the men are suspected of being members of a group accused of waging a violent separatist campaign in China’s northwestern Muslim region of Xinjiang.
“The five people accepted by the Albanian side are by no means refugees but terrorist suspects,” Mr. Liu said at a news briefing. “We think they should be repatriated to China.”
“Accepting the Guantanamo suspects as refugees violates the U.N. Charter and international law,” Mr. Liu said, adding Beijing was urging America and Albanian authorities “to send them back as soon as possible.”
Beijing says the group – the Xinjiang based East Turkestan Islamic Movement – has links to Al Qaeda and has received arms and training from the terror network. But the government hasn’t released evidence to support its claims.
“If they are sent to China, they almost certainly, almost 100%, face a death sentence,” a Uighur Muslim activist in Stockholm, Sweden, Dilxat Raxit, said. “And if they don’t get a death sentence they are very likely to face torture in prison.”
Manfred Nowak, a U.N. torture investigator, visited Xinjiang last year and said Uighur detainees were among those most likely to be mistreated by Chinese authorities.
Mr. Liu did not respond directly when asked what charges the suspects would face if returned to China.
Beijing blames Uighur separatists for sporadic bombings and other violence in the massive desert region in China’s far northwest. But diplomats and foreign experts are skeptical and say most violence stems from personal disputes.
