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April 16, 2006
Germany: US Asks Germany to take Uighur Gitmo Detainees
If a German in the audience asks, "if they are so wonderful, why don't you take them", I might ask him to tone down the (guttural-sounding) sarcasm, but I would have no honest way to defend my country. (On the other hand, perhaps Frau Merkel will refrain from calling for the shut down of Gitmo again.) Still, if the Uighur Muslims are bad for the United States, they are equally bad for Germany: US asking Germany to take 15 Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo
BERLIN: The United States is pressing Germany to offer a home to 15 Chinese Muslims detained in the US jail for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, a German newspaper reported Saturday. US authorities want to release the 15 ethnic Uighurs, but have yet to persuade Germany to accept them, the Welt daily said, citing unidentified diplomats in Berlin and Washington. A spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the report. A US military tribunal has determined that five Uighurs held at Guantanamo are "no longer enemy combatants" and can be released. However, US officials agree they could face persecution in China, but have yet to find a third country to take them. The newspaper said Germany is an option because a group of Uighurs already live in exile in Bavaria. Chancellor Angela Merkel has called publicly for the Guantanamo camp to be shut down.
A note about the concern for "human rights" that is behind the negotiations: wouldn't be a violation of the human rights of the German people to release potential terrorists in their midst?
Posted by Ruy Diaz at April 16, 2006 11:15 AM
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