Behind coils of razor wire at Guan-tanamo Bay, Cuba, one group of prisoners held by the US military faces a unique dilemma -- if returned to China, human rights groups warn, they could be tortured or killed.
Some 22 ethnic Uighurs, Muslims from China's desert northwest, are at the US prison for terror suspects, Amnesty International said this week.
"They're at grave risk if returned," Alistair Hodgett, a spokes-man for the London-based rights group said on Friday. "They are highly likely to face, at a minimum, continued detention, and very likely to face torture, ill treatment and possible execution."
Amnesty also accused China of sending a delegation in September 2002 that participated in interrogations in which Uighurs were subjected to threats and "stress and duress" techniques such as sleep deprivation, forced sitting for hours and "environmental manipulation" -- which can include extreme heat or cold.
In Beijing, the Chinese government on Thursday called the claims "totally groundless."
The US military also denies abuse during interrogations of the 600 prisoners from about 40 countries at its Navy base in Cuba.
"We don't engage in sleep deprivation or physical abuse," said spokesman Lieutenant-Commander Robert Mulac.
Amnesty International said it had confirmed reports that many Uighurs were in a medium-security prison wing reserved for the most "cooperative" detainees deemed not to threaten US interests and most likely to be freed.
Human rights groups say Uighurs, particularly those who advocate independence for their northwest territory of Xinjiang, face repression from Chinese authorities who call them terrorists.
China claims it is fighting an Islamic movement linked to al-Qaeda terrorist network, but diplomats say they doubt that. There has been no major separatist violence in recent years, but Hodgett said they have frequent reports of beatings, torture and executions of alleged Uighur separatists.
Hodgett said it is believed the Uighur detainees were captured during the US war in Afghanistan.
"We're very concerned," Mickey Spiegel of New York-based Human Rights Watch said of the fate of Uighur detainees. "Any kind of forcible repatriation as far as we're concerned is very much out of the question ... The US has a responsibility to see that these people are not returned to China."
Before a prisoner is returned home, the US State Department makes recommendations and confers with the home government, Pentagon spokeswoman Lieutenant-Commander Barbara Burfeind said. Asked whether possible persecution would be a factor, she said, "that would probably be something that would be part of those discussions."
Human rights groups suggest any freed Uighurs be granted asylum in another country, but Spiegel asked which would accept people once branded terrorists.
"We see it as a dilemma," she said. "What country is going to be willing to take them?"
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS