WASHINGTON: Four of the Chinese Muslims who have been detained at Guantanamo Bay for years while courts and nations debated their fate were freed yesterday and resettled in Bermuda.
They were among 17 Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs, picked up in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001 who remained at the military detention center in Cuba even after the US government had determined they were not enemy combatants and should be released.
Bermuda Premier Ewart Brown told a news conference that the men will be allowed to live in Bermuda, a self-governing British territory, initially as refugees but they would be permitted to pursue citizenship and would have the right to work, travel and “potentially settle elsewhere.” Brown said negotiations with Washington over settling the Uighurs began last month and he had no security concerns because the men had been cleared by US courts.
Abdul Nasser, one of the four detainees who landed in Bermuda early yesterday, issued a statement through his lawyers, saying: “Growing up under communism we always dreamed of living in peace and working in free society like this one. Today you have let freedom ring.”
Thirteen other Uighurs, who are from a Chinese region that borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, remain to be released. Arrangements are being made for them to be sent to the Pacific island nation of Palau.
Beijing said yesterday that the 17 Chinese are terrorists and should be handed back to China. Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said China “opposes any country taking any of these terrorist suspects.” He did not say if China would take any action in response to the US move.
The departure of the four for Bermuda leaves 234 detainees remaining at Guantanamo, and comes in a busy week at the military base in Cuba.
