RFA | 2006.05.10
WASHINGTON—Five Muslim men from northwestern China, just released after five years in the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, say they are finding freedom “like a celebration,” as they resettle in the only country to offer them asylum—Albania.
The men, all Chinese passport-holders, belong to the mainly Muslim ethnic Uyghur minority that accounts for most of the population in China’s northwesternmost Xinjianh Uyghur Autonomous Region.
They were cleared last year of terrorism charges but had nowhere to go except back to China, which accuses them of belonging to a pro-independence Uyghur group, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, which Beijing says has links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda.
“We have been waiting for a year for our freedom, but no government wanted to take us in. That was the most difficult thing for us, being innocent but still in prison,” Ababehir Qasim, 37, said in a telephone interview from Albania, where the men were resettled last week.
“After waiting for a whole year we learned that Albania had agreed to take us as political asylees, and suddenly everything we had been through was forgotten. It was like a celebration for us,” Qasim told RFA’s Uyghur service.
“We feel that this is a celebration for all the Uyghur people, and we are so delighted.”
“For more than four years we couldn’t contact anyone outside, couldn’t contact our families,” he said. “After that, the most difficult time for us came after the decision last May 9 that we were innocent.”
Many Uyghurs, who twice enjoyed short-lived independence as the state of East Turkestan during the 1930s and 40s, are bitterly opposed to Beijing’s rule in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.
“Thank God, we are very well, we are so happy, we are healthy and free,” Qasim said. “We are also grateful that our Uyghur brothers share our joy. Some of our Uyghur brothers have been contacting us. We are thankful for that.”
Asked what they would have done if China alone stepped forward to reclaim them, Qasim said the men would have sought to remain in Guantanamo, a Cuban-based U.S. naval base at which more than 10,000 people are thought to have been held.
“Sometimes we thought that if that were the only option, instead of going back to China we would be better off staying there [in Guantanamo]... Going back to China would more than double the suffering of the Uyghur people’s spirits.”
“So our people wouldn’t suffer, we thought that staying at Guantanamo would be better. The time it took to apply for political asylum became longer and longer, and we heard from our lawyer that the Chinese government was pressuring other governments not to accept us. Naturally, we tried to comfort each other,” he said.
Held after 2001 attacks
Asked if the group had seen other prisoners in the camp, he replied:
“When we were in Prison #4, we are greeting to about 150 other prisoners. We could play ball together when we were in #4. We had some freedom. After they announced our innocence we were transferred [to another place]. They opened a new place called Iguana for just nine of us: five Uyghurs from Turkestan [Xinjiang], one Uyghur from Saudi Arabia, one Algerian, one Egyptian, and one Uzbek from Russia.”
“The nine of us were together, and if we went to the health clinic we could say hello to other prisoners. For various reasons we would meet other prisoners,” he said.
The five men were detained during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 attacks. On May 6, Washington announced that the men had been sent to Albania for resettlement after officials concluded they posed no threat but could face persecution if they were sent back to China.
Other Uyghurs released from Guantanamo are Adil Abdulhakim, 32, and Ahter, 33, who along with Qasim are natives of Gulja City, Ili prefecture; and Ahmet, 33, whose birthplace is unknown, and Ayuphaji Mahomet, 23, from Kashgar.
Asked to describe their situation in Albania, Qasim said: “It is normal and things are going well. We have been here for three or four days now. When we arrived in the airport in Albania, someone picked us up by car and brought us to a refugee center.”
“We have been settled in a four-bedroom apartment, and the conditions here are not so bad. It has beds and a shower, they prepared new clothes for us, and we are eating at a common dining hall. The person who is responsible for looking after us said, ‘Whatever else you need, whatever else you want, just let me know.’ Their attitude toward us is positive. Maybe they have been told what happened to us.”
Lawyer speaks out
China wants the men repatriated for trial. On May 9, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said the “suspects should be sent to China as soon as possible.” Liu described the men as “by no means refugees, but are terrorist suspects” whom the Chinese authorities of accuse of waging a violent campaign for an independent state of East Turkestan.
On Monday, the Chinese ambassador to Albania, Tian Changchun, called for the five to be repatriated immediately, saying they “fought on the side of the Taliban during the Afghan war, and this single fact can prove that they are nothing else but terror suspects.”
Beijing blames Uyghur separatists for sporadic bombings and other violence in the Xinjiang region. But diplomats and foreign experts are skeptical. International rights groups have accused Beijing of using the U.S. “war on terror” to crack down on nonviolent supporters of Uyghur independence.
The men’s attorney, in an interview with the Associated Press, criticized the United States for moving them to Albania, a country where he said it would be virtually impossible for them to assimilate.
Sabin Willett said U.S. President George Bush’s administration “has simply taken advantage of the good relationship with Albania to try to make one of its problems go away and I think that’s unfortunate.”
The five are being sheltered at a National Center for Refugees in the suburbs of Tirana and they have not been allowed to meet with reporters, Willett said.
Meanwhile, the British government’s top legal adviser called this week for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, which he called a symbol of injustice.
“The existence of Guantanamo Bay remains unacceptable. It is time, in my view, that it should close,” Attorney General Peter Goldsmith said in a speech in London.
“I believe it would also help to remove what has become a symbol to many—right or wrong—of injustice. The historic tradition of the United States as a beacon of freedom, liberty, and justice deserves the removal of this symbol,” he said.
Human rights groups have condemned Washington’s use of indefinite detentions without charge and want Guantanamo to close.
Original reporting by Omer Kanat of RFA's Uyghur service. Translation by Uyghur service director Dolkun Kamberi. Produced for the Web in English by Sarah Jackson-Han. Edited by Luisetta Mudie.