By FRANK CHING
The Japan Times Online
HONG KONG — For some people, the very name Guantanamo has come to stand for something repulsive about America — in particular the difference between what it preaches about human rights and what it practices.
In the detention camp, people suspected of being members of the Taliban or al-Qaida were held without charge and, because the camp was not on American soil, the detainees could not take their cases to U.S. courts.
Eventually, the U.S. government determined that some detainees were not terrorists and could be released. Most were sent back to their home countries.
There were 22 Uighurs — an ethnic minority of Muslims — from the Xinjiang region of China. Beijing demanded that they be repatriated but the Uighurs pleaded not to be returned to China, where they feared torture and imprisonment.
So the U.S. began a search for countries that would take them. It wasn't easy.
In 2007, Albania accepted five of the Uighurs. However, China then made it clear that it opposed any country offering the Uighurs refuge.
The extent of Chinese displeasure became clear in diplomatic cables recently disclosed by WikiLeaks.
One cable, sent by the American ambassador to Kyrgyzstan after a meeting with the Chinese ambassador in February 2009, was very revealing. Ambassador Tatiana Gfoeller asked her Chinese counterpart, Zhang Yannian, about a report that China had offered $3 billion to Kyrgyzstan if it would shut down the American base in the country.
The Chinese diplomat ridiculed the idea but did not categorically deny it. The cable quoted him as saying that not sending the Uighurs back to China was a "slap in the face" and implied that "the Guantanamo situation had made China look for ways to hit back at the U.S."
At the time, it was known that the United States was holding talks with Germany about taking some of the Uighur detainees.
Another WikiLeaks cable, this one from from Brussels, showed that China was putting pressure on European countries not to accept any Uighurs from Guantanamo.
The cable quoted EU Counterterrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove as saying that members of the European Union "have been under intense pressure from China not to accept Uighurs, and that some are concerned about possible repercussions in bilateral and EU-level relations with China if they accept detainees."
In the end, Germany did not accept the Uighurs.
Instead, small numbers of Uighurs were sent to the Bermuda, the tiny Pacific country of Palau as well as Switzerland.
Of course, no one can know for sure exactly what would have happened to the Guantanamo Uighurs if the U.S. had sent them back to China.
However, a recent case provides some pretty strong clues.
A year ago, a group of 20 Uighurs arrived in Cambodia with the help of Christian missionaries and applied for asylum at the Phnom Penh office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. They said they were fleeing a crackdown after ethnic riots in Xinjiang.
The group consisted of men, boys, a woman and two infants.
However, before the applications could be processed, Cambodia deported them back to China.
This was done over the objections of the U.S., the EU and U.N. officials.
The forcible return of the Uighurs took place on Dec. 19, 2009, a day before the arrival in Cambodia of China's vice president, Xi Jinping. During the Xi visit, China agreed to provide more than $1.2 billion in aid to Cambodia.
A year has gone by and there is no news on the fate of the 20 Uighurs. There has been no announcement of any charges or trials. The Chinese government has simply "disappeared" all of them, including the infants.
In fact, the only statement on the issue by the Chinese foreign ministry was in response to questions sent by The New York Times. It said: "China is a country ruled by law. The judicial authorities deal with illegal criminal activities strictly according to law."
Beijing's handling of this incident provides justification for the U.S. not to send the Guantanamo Uighurs back to China. At the very least, Washington — whatever its own misdeeds — decided not to participate in the further violation of the human rights of these individuals.
And China, it seems, is becoming so powerful that it is in a position to exert pressure on almost all countries to do its bidding.
Frank Ching is a journalist based in Hong Kong (Frank.ching@gmail.com).
7 comments:
Communist China hasn't changed, the cities are bigger and the money are flowing in but the mentality stays the same. The fate of these innocent people is obvious, they were sentenced to death by a firing squad, they were lined up on a wall and executed, all of them including the women and the children.
To above comment,
Your claims are bias and lacked of due-diligent. China have amended its judicial policy in recent decades, let alone, capital punishment. Though, the death by firing squad policy is still intact for drug related crimes. I am a pro capital punishment. And for China to contain social and moral order for her 1.28 billion population-forecast to 1.5 billion by 2020, enact strictest laws are inevitable. If China is to adopt the West's judicial platform its society will turn to bottle-spin with political unrest and a chaotic society, like India. And, yet China economy will unsettle and eventually collapse.
American's criminal system are an example of true failure. Prisoners of capital crimes are incarcerated by life in prison, which such long-term sentencing, in turn, slowly bleed the nation coffers that the money should be better utilized on more useful agendas. Fact, capital punishment seen as a unheroic act toward our fellow being, but for the sake of society as whole, it's an effective arsenal at large. A proverb once said, "kill one warn a hundred."
Today it's no longer amuse me to find many people bashing China of anything she does. I know these incitements are intrigue by jealous West and its white-washing Asian that blind by manipulating and short sighted to only partial of the facts.
Prime minister Hun Sen! your lost your land and sea again, next time Cambodian border next to your home, Heng Somrin he lost his entire home village to Viet already but dare to say nothing, Chea Sim is too weak to say anything except prepare himself for judgement day, where is our belove king please get out from closet and give a big slap on Hun Sen face and say louder "why you gave my land and sea to Viet and punish my people hasss!"?, His majesty the king you can not stay in closet for too long, Cambodian are waiting for you to do something, you have no wife no kid must not afraid to die, you will be our hero king forever.
Don't be too proud of USA.
China has death penalty, USA too.
Cambodia was not in war with USA but USA bombed Cambodia, 100 times more than it did on Japon.
Cambodia should refuse to accept any deportation by the US of cambodian-american and make the complain to the Human right commission of the UN about that.
everyone has a dark side, what are they whining about here? go home, please!
As long as China has money , she will buy everything. Even letting North Korean kills South Korean. Did Kim Jung Ill sense the American losing influence in South Korea? Look out! China is a strong supporter of NK. That's why the a..hole NK is so misbehaving.
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