Day 51: The Uighurs March

Washington, DC, March 12, 2009.

President Obama, in his Executive Order to Close Guantanamo by January 22, 2010, has detailed a process to review all of the cases of the men imprisoned there. There are a number of men in Guantanamo for who will face transfer to a country where they fear persecution or torture. This includes seventeen men from China who face certain persecution, potentially including torture or death, if forcibly repatriated to China. These men are of the Uighur minority among the most persecuted peoples in China. The U.S. has admitted that it has tried to find safe third countries for these men since as early as 2002 the year they were transferred to Guantánamo.

For the seventeen Uighurs, there is no need to review whether they should be imprisoned. The Executive Branch, the judiciary, and members of congress all have acknowledged that the Uighurs should be released. The issue for the Obama Administration is not whether the Uighurs should be released, but rather where they should be released.

In September of 2008, the government formally conceded that none of the seventeen men is an enemy combatant. On October 7th, 2008, US District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina held that their continued imprisonment was unlawful and ordered the government to bring all seventeen Uighurs to his courtroom for release into the United States on appropriate conditions. (This case was overturned on appeal because the judge did not have this authority.)

We join with the Uighurs' attorneys in urging the government to release these innocent men in the only place they can be released the United States. Bringing the Uighurs here is an important early step toward carrying out President Obama's Executive Order. The executive should proceed directly with the transfer of the Uighurs by direct Executive action.

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