Guantanamo: Europe must give refuge to innocent Uighurs in custody – Report on violations of human rights in US prison camp presented

Europe must give refuge for humanitarian reasons to the 17 innocent Uighurs from China in custody in the US prison camp Guantanamo. This was called for on Friday by the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) following a critical report the night before in the TV magazine "Monitor” on the desperate situation of the prisoners. At the same time the GfbV published a new 25-page human rights report, in which not only the personal persecution of the Uighurs held in the US camp is documented, but also the background to their arrest, the inhuman conditions of their confinement on Cuba and the injustice of their captivity until the present day.

"Europe must act at last after just looking on for 6 ½ years to the way in which these 17 political prisoners from China have been at the mercy of international power politics and as the innocent victims of the worldwide fight against terror are slowly being destroyed under inhuman prison conditions”, said the GfbV Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius. Europe cannot credibly call for the closure of the controversial prison camp and then take no initiative for giving innocent inmates of the camp their liberty. The Guantanamo Uighurs cannot return to China since they are there threatened with execution.

It is a disgrace for EU human rights politics that these 17 men have to date been refused refuge out of deference to China. The European countries should at last face their responsibility, show their backbone and take up these Uighurs even against the resistance of China, said Delius. One should recall that these Uighurs were held for several weeks in the Afghan US military camp at Kandahar, which was also manned by German elite soldiers of the KSK Command.

The new GfbV report criticises sharply the inhuman prison conditions in Guantanamo. Although their innocence was proved at least four years ago the Uighurs are being held in small metal cages in isolation and without daylight. The conditions of their imprisonment have been tightened up because they refused to spy on fellow prisoners. They have been mishandled by the guards with deprivation of sleep and food, with beating and intimidation.

A traumatic experience for the Uighurs was the interrogation by Chinese security officials in Guantanamo. With the object of buying China’s goodwill in America’s Iraq politics the USA has responded to Peking’s pressure by not only declaring an insignificant Uighur organisation a "terrorist” movement, but also giving the Chinese persecutors direct access to the Uighur prisoners, states the report. This was an extreme violation of the rights of the internees. Their trust was also misused by giving the Chinese investigators access to all the interrogation documents in spite of a previous assurance to the contrary. The Chinese officers were able to exercise threats and intimidation without any control. US soldiers even helped them to take photographs of the prisoners in spite of their resistance.