Uighurs leave high security tract in US prison camp, but remain held on Cuba

In the light of the growing criticism of the imprisonment of 17 Uighurs from China in the US prison camp Guantanamo the US Ministry of Justice announced last week that all remaining members of the Moslem minority are not "enemy combatants”, stated the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) on Monday in Göttingen. Directions were also given for the Uighurs to be transferred from the high security tract to the US Marine base Camp Iguana on Cuba. The only prisoners held there are those who are to be released in the foreseeable future. "This is a big success for the innocent Uighurs who have been held for seven years under inhuman conditions”, said the GfbV Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius.

Five of the Uighurs held since January 2001 were cleared in June 2008 already of the suspicion of terrorism. The charge has now been dropped against the other twelve members of the minority still in custody.

Tomorrow, Tuesday (07.10), the Federal Court in Washington D.C. will consider the application of the lawyers of the Uighursas to whether the prisoners should be in fact released and whether a civil judge can order the US Ministry of Defence to provide refuge for the Uighurs in the USA until they are accepted by a third country. Their lawyers have been calling for this for months. The US authorities report that 114 states have expressly refused their consent to such requests. The German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has also refused to take the Uighurs, although German politicians of all parties represented in Parliament have spoken out for asylum to be granted in Germany for humanitarian reasons.

In May 2006 Albania responded to the US request by taking five of the Uighurs held in Guantanamo as political refugees. The Albanian government has been hoping that this will increase its chances of being accepted by NATO.