The Swiss Bundesrat (Federal Council) is willing to take two Guantanamo Uighurs. What a shame that Germany did not have the courage for such a great humanitarian gesture!

The Swiss Bundesrat (Federal Council) is willing to take two Guantanamo Uighurs. What a shame that Germany did not have the courage for such a great humanitarian gesture!

The Society for Threatened Peoples STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV) welcomes the decision of the Swiss Bundesrat to take two Guantanamo Uighurs into the mountain republic.

"It is a great humanitarian gesture which we would have hoped to see from Germany”, said the China expert, Ulrich Delius. It is shameful for Germany that "small” Switzerland had the guts to stand up to "big” China, while Germany and the EU bowed before Chinese pressure and gave the Guantanamo Uighurs no protection. In Germany there was a discussion for several months between very different political parties on the acceptance of some Guantanamo Uighurs, however these were only pawns in the game of domestic politics, said Delius. Since their arrest in the year 2001 in Afghanistan the 22 Guantanamo Uighurs have been misused by very different governments – by the US government, the Chinese government and that of Albania – for their own political ends.

No one took any interest in their tragic personal fates although their innocence was proved. It is to the credit of the Swiss government that they gave a voice to humanity in the difficult confrontation with China.