The New Dominion

Today, Tuesday 7 October 2008, Washington, DC District Judge Ricardo Urbina ordered the release of the seventeen remaining Uyghur detainees at the American prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to be released to US soil. The detained men, cleared of all charges, were meant to have been released in 2004. Concern for security, both that of the United States and that of the prisoners, has prevented their release from Guantanamo or their acceptance by other states, which fear retribution from China.

This landmark ruling follows a June decision by the Supreme Court allowing federal judges to review the cases of Guantanamo detainees. The Bush administration is fighting the ruling through the Department of Justice and continues to assert that the Uyghur detainees pose a threat to the United States as members of the possibly-fictional terrorist organization, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which the US recognized as a terrorist group only after the men were imprisoned. One week ago, however, in light of the continued lack of evidence for the charges on which they are held, all of the detainees in question were stripped of their status as enemy combatants. The decision to release or to continue holding the Uyghurs was itself a straightforward legal matter.

Now, the men and the United States are faced with the question of where they can or will go. Some of the detainees had families in Xinjiang with whom they have been unable to communicate since the beginning of their confinement – most have given up on returning. Members of the Uyghur community in the Washington, DC area have pledged to take them in. However, the Bush administration is expected to fight their final release to US soil, allowing the men to linger further in a “special” housing facility.

Sources:

MSNBC: “Judge: Let Chinese Muslims in Gitmo into U.S.”

Radio Free Asia: “Gu’antanamoda tutup turuluwatqan Uyghur mähbuslar Amerikigha qoyup berilishi mumkin”

CNN: “Judge orders Chinese Muslims freed from Gitmo”

Bloomberg: “Chinese Muslims must be released in U.S., judge says”

Washington Post: “Uighur detainees may be released to U.S.”