Switzerland’s decision to take two Chinese Uighur inmates from Guantanamo Bay opens the way for the US to close the case on the men whose long legal limbo has confounded two administrations.
US President Barack Obama’s administration is seen as racing to find homes for the five remaining men in Guantanamo Bay by March 23, when the Supreme Court will hear their case and could potentially order them freed on US soil.
Switzerland said on Wednesday it would grant asylum to two Uighurs from the controversial prison camp in Cuba, becoming the first Western nation to do so and risking reprisals from China.
“The government and people of Switzerland have made an extraordinary humanitarian gesture, which is even more remarkable in the face of unrelenting pressure from China,” said Rebiya Kadeer, the leader of Uighurs in exile.
Twenty-two Uighurs, member of a mostly Muslim minority in northwestern China, had set up a camp in Afghanistan and were shipped to Guantanamo Bay after US-led forces overthrew the Taliban regime in 2001.
US authorities cleared them of wrongdoing as early as 2004, coming to believe they were turned in by villagers seeking bounty money.
The administration of former US president George W. Bush refused China’s requests for them, fearing they would be tortured. It has kept them on Guantanamo Bay but with greater freedom than other prisoners, including a recreational space and library.
Obama, who took office pledging to close down the camp, thought the Uighurs would be the easiest cases. But US lawmakers prevented efforts to free them in the US and China has pressured other nations not to accept them.
Uighur inmates earlier found homes in Albania, Bermuda and Palau.
Palau, an archipelago in the Pacific, has accepted six of the inmates and offered to accept all who remain. But the prisoners have hesitated, preferring a location with a Uighur community.
Nury Turkel, a Uighur-American lawyer and activist based in Washington, expected the Obama administration to try to free the remaining Uighurs before their case goes to the Supreme Court on March 23.
“It is a long overdue step. This should have been done long ago,” he said of their release.
“I salute Switzerland for standing up and protecting the humanitarian principles that their country and culture cherish,” he said.
A judge earlier ordered that the men be freed in the US, but a higher court overturned the ruling, setting the stage for the upcoming Supreme Court case.
The nine-judge highest court has the power to throw Obama’s slow-moving Guantanamo closure plans into chaos.
“This case is about judicial power in an area that the president and Congress regard as their domain, so the stakes are very high,” said Matthew Waxman, an associate professor at Columbia Law School.
“I think all three branches of government — the executive, the Congress and the courts — hope a solution is found to resettle the Uighurs and avoid a constitutional showdown in this case,” he said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS