China demands that no country accept Gitmo Uyghurs as refugees

China demands that no country accept Gitmo Uyghurs as refugees


OMAR EL-AKKAD

Globe and Mail Update

February 5, 2009 at 11:32 PM EST

China is demanding no country accept as refugees a group of Uyghurs imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, including three who have applied for resettlement in Canada.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu did not mention Canada directly Thursday, but said China was “against any country accepting these people.”

“We hope it will be handled appropriately and in accordance with international law,” Ms. Jiang said at a regularly scheduled news conference.

Beijing contends that international law requires the men be returned to China, although there is no accepted consensus. Uyghurs are members of a Muslim minority from northwestern China.

All 17 Uyghurs still held at Guantanamo have been cleared of wrongdoing by the United States. Concerns that the prisoners would be tortured upon their return have kept Washington from sending them back to China. The Uyghurs were captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002, some by Pakistani bounty hunters.

Ms. Jiang did not give details or say whether China plans retaliatory action against countries that might accept the men.

As one of his first official acts, U.S. President Barack Obama ordered the Guantanamo Bay prison and court system to be shut down within a year. That means Washington will have to find new homes for the 250 remaining prisoners, of which the Pentagon originally planned to charge about 80, and attempt to release about 70. The future of the remaining prisoners is even more uncertain.

Some European legislators and human-rights groups are putting pressure on the European Union to accept some of the men. Canada is also under intense pressure to repatriate Omar Khadr, a Canadian who is the only Western citizen still in the prison. Human-rights groups are also asking Ottawa to accept some or all of the Uyghur detainees, who have been cleared of wrongdoing by the United States.

Even in the United States, there is resistance to taking on any of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Lawmakers from regions with “supermax” prisons – the likely home for any accused prisoners returned to the mainland – have already balked at the idea of taking the men, saying it would make those regions targets of attacks.

Omar El Akkad, with a report from The Associated Press

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