US may never release Uighurs from Guantánamo

[Louis Proyect]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/01/guantanamo-china

No charges but US may never release Guantánamo Chinese

Seventeen Chinese prisoners who have been held for nearly seven years 
in Guantánamo Bay will be informed on Monday that they could spend 
the rest of their lives behind bars, even though they face no charges 
and have been told by a judge they should be freed.

No country is willing to accept them and the US justice department 
has now blocked moves for them to be allowed to go to the US 
mainland, where they had been offered a home by refugee and Christian 
organisations.

The men's lawyer, Sabin Willett, is flying to Guantánamo Bay this 
weekend to break the news to the men, who are members of the Uighur 
ethnic group seeking autonomy from China. In a blunt and angry letter 
to justice department lawyers, Willett spelled out what he thought of 
the way the men had been treated.

"After years of stalling and staying and appellate gamesmanship, you 
pleaded no contest - they are not enemy combatants," Willett has 
written. "You have never charged them with any crime."

Last month a federal judge ruled that the men should be freed. "They 
were on freedom's doorstep," said Willett. "The plane was at Gitmo. 
The stateside Lutheran refugee services and the Uighur families and 
Tallahassee clergy were ready to receive them." However, the justice 
department appealed against the ruling and Willett claims this will 
put the men into a potentially endless limbo.

Yesterday Willett said his clients were "saddened" by the latest 
events. The men, who are Muslims, were in Afghanistan in 2001 and 
were captured by Pakistani troops and handed over to the US. So far, 
more than 100 countries have been asked to take them as refugees but 
none have agreed. Willett blamed US authorities for incorrectly 
describing them as terrorists.

According to the US justice department, the men "are linked to an 
organisation that the state department has labelled to be a terrorist 
entity, and it is beside the point that the organisation is not 'a 
threat to us' because the law excluding members of such groups does 
not require such proof."

Willett is also angry the defence department will not agree to let 
him meet his clients unless they are chained to the floor. He called 
for this restriction to be lifted: "Just permit these men one shred 
of human dignity." He added: "Americans are not supposed to treat 
enemy prisoners of war this way under the service field manuals, or 
the Geneva conventions - if anyone paid attention to the field 
manuals or the Geneva conventions anymore."