Innocent, but chained to the floor at Guantanamo

Two years ago, the Bush administration admitted that the 15 uigurs currently serving at Guantanamo were sent there by mistake. Now, however, the same administration does not want to release them out of fear that they might have been influenced by other prisoners or in other ways developed misleading ideas. (31-AUG-05)

This article, written by Morten Øverbye, first appeared in Norwegian at the Norwegian newspaper VG’s website www.vg.no. The article, whose sources include the Boston Globe and the Washington Post, has been translated and edited for republication here. 

Uigurs, who are Moslems, create an ethnic and religious minority living in the Northwestern parts of the People´s Republic of China, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kirgisistan and the Russian Federation.
According to Sabin Willett, the 15 prisoners’ lawyer, his clients are being kept chained to the floor at Guantanamo.

-Yes indeed, chained to the floor
-He is kept chained to the floor inside a box without windows, said Willett in a legal hearing in Washington DC recently.
-You are not talking about your client, Judge James Robertson asked in disbelief. 
-I am talking about my client, Willett confirmed.
-He was chained to the floor, Robertson continued, still disbelieving.
-He had a chain around his foot which was locked onto a bolt in the floor, Willett replied.

Suspected al-Qaida members
It is now two years since Pentagon admitted that Willett’s clients Aby Bakker Qassim (36) and Adel Abdu Hakim (31) were both sent to Guantanamo by mistake. The two belong to a group of 15 Chinese uigurs who have been sent to the so-called terrorist camp. All fifteen have since been declared innocent, but are still being kept. Qassim and Hakim both fled the People´s Republic of China to escape the regime’s religious repression. Their lawyer tells Boston Globe that the two met in a market in Kirgisistan late 2001 and decided to escape together to Turkey to establish new lives for themselves and their families there. On the way, however, they were arrested by Pakistani police and handed over, as suspected al-Qaida members, to American soldiers.

Declared innocent
The Pakistani policemen were apparently given 5000 USD each for their favours. The US troops then shiped the two uigurs to the Guantanamo base in Cuba where they have been detained since. Late 2003, a military tribunal declared that the two only had been ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’ and decided thus that they ought to be released. This decision was upheld in March this year. The Bush administration did not, however, inform the two uigurs or their lawyer about this decision. It was only when Willett and his colleagues wer allowed to meet their clients late July that they were informed.

Ultimately, it is the Bush administration that is on trial here
The Government kept their declared innocence secret. Their tribunal was of the opinion that Qasim and Hakim did not belong neither to al-Qaida nor to the Taliban. Even so, the Government still refuses to give us a copy of the noes taken from the tribunal, Willett complains to the Washington Post. For that reason, and to have the two released, Willett is now trying the case before a court in the US capital.  

-We cannot let such people loose
The Bush administration, however, still refuses to let Qassim and Hakim out of their cells, saying only that they fear that the two might have been influenced by other prisoners. -They have been kept together with some very dangerous people, and thus been under some seriously negative influence. We cannot let such people loose on the civilian part of the Guantanamo population, explains the spokesman for the Guantanamo base, Mr. Jeff Weir to the Boston Globe. At the same time, the American government cnot ship the uigurs back to the People´s Republic of China. There, they risk being tried and sentenced for treason. Finaly, American authorities also don’t want to give the two asylum in the US.

-You are not refugees, said Norway. -Hence, you can’t come here
The Bush administration has, therefore, asked several European countries if they might be willing to receive the uigurs at Guantanamo. Among the countries asked was also Norway, but Norwegian authorities turned the request down, reasoning that the two were not, according to the Norwegian definition, refugees. Last week, Jdge Robertson gave American authorities only a few days’ deadline to present a status report on their work to move the uigurs away from Guantanamo. The preliminary response from the US Department of Justice was that the efforts to find a country willing to host the uigurs continue, but that their status is reminiscent of many PoWs after the Second World War, when some had to remain in camps for years while the world’s new order of authorities struggled to find places for them to come and settle.

-These uigurs never fought US troops
-The President has the authority to hold back enemy soldiers and suspected enemy soldiers. This, however, also include the authority and responsibility to bring to an end detentions of prisoners of this category as swiftly and orderly as possible, Terry Henry, the Department of Justice’s lawyer argued. Judge Robertson, however, was of the opinion that unlike German soldiers in -45, the 15 uigurs have not fought American troops.

-All this time, these prisoners have been dead to the outside world
The Boston Globe first wrote about this case lesst han two weeks ago. Following the publication of the article, Hakim’s sister called Sabin Willett from Sweden. She cried. -His sister thought he was dead, Willett told the Washington Post. -In a sense, she was right. All this time, these prisoners have been dead to the outside world.