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The Guantanamo
Numbers: China's Duplicity Unmasked?
Aby Stephen Sullivan
(Thursday 05 February 2004)
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"The long awaited release of the breakdown of the
Guantanamo detainees's nationalities threatens to
expose China's use of the "War on Terror" as a mask
behind which it attempted to hide the true purpose of
it's ethnic minorities policies from the world."
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China has continually used the “War on Terror” as
justification to the outside world for it’s harsh
crackdown on the freedoms and rights of the Uygur
ethnic minority living in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region. The PRC have stated ad nauseum (and sometimes
with great contradictions) that the Uygur harbour
large and well organised terrorist organisations which
threaten peace not only within China but on an
internationally level as well.
An article entitled “Revealed: The Nationalities of
Guantanamo” (The Record, February 4, 2004) finally
gives some numbers and nationalities to the 650 odd
detainees in the US run detention centre. The article
reports that there are twelve Uygurs identified as
being among the 650 detainees held there since the
American intervention in Afghanistan.
Finally, these figures give some credence to a point I
have made many times, and that is, if there was such a
strong and organised international Uygur terrorist
movement active in China and abroad during the Taliban
period, why were so few caught in Afghanistan?
Surely, given Xinjiang's proximity to Afghanistan,
given the Muslim affinity and given what some would
say were very comprehensible (if not justifiable)
reasons for "Uygur terrorists" to align themselves
with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, one would expect a
sizeable presence of Uygur "terrorists" among the 650
captured.
The number of Uygurs in detention represents less than
2% of the total. By way of comparison Britain has nine
and Australia and Canada have two apiece. It is
interesting to note that the British, who have no
internationally/UN recognised "terrorist organisations”
as do the Uygur, managed to have nine caught (and
Britain is just a little farther away than Xinjiang).
Another example is Jordan an ally of the US that has
thirty representatives!
The Chinese have claimed on numerous occasions that
there were one thousand Uygurs trained by the Taliban
and Al qaeda in Afghanistan. They further claim that
there were close connections between Bin Laden and the
East Turkistan Islamic Party (ETIM) the "organisation"
listed by the US and UN as an international terrorist
organisation at the insistence of China.
I can not help returning to the thought, that, if I
were the leader of a well organised, effective and
growing terrorist organisation, within walking
distance of people and groups that could train, equip
and fund my operatives, then I would have sent them to
Afghanistan and have done so in significant numbers.
Uygur leaders and commentators in diaspora have long
attempted to refute the PRC's claim as to the
existence of an extensive Uygur terrorist apparatus
and, it is interesting to note, that the number caught
pretty much reflects their prior assessments. These
Uygur representatives had stated on several occasions,
that there were no more than between fifty and eighty
Uygur involved with the Taliban forces in Afghanistan
It is doubtless that someone is going to say that the
Uygurs in Afghanistan were probably able to slip back
into Xinjiang or were able to easily blend in with the
local populace and thus avoid detection, and, yes,
this I would have to agree it is a possibility. But so
could have many of the other nationalities, the Saudis
for example. No, I think that it is reasonable to
assume that relative numbers caught or escaped will
have been similar for all the combatants of Arab/Turkic
appearance.
Where then does this leave the PRC with their claims
and foundations for their actions, and where does it
leave the "Free Nations" of the world who have given
them de facto support and effective encouragement by
turning a blind eye to their ethnic policies?
Well, I would suggest that the mask of the "War on
Terror" used to hide the PRC's continued violations of
the Uygur's human rights has well and truly slipped
and in doing so has fully revealed the face of
outright duplicity.
In now being able to look directly into that face the
"free world" must finally be able to see that it has
been well and truly conned.
by courtesy & ?2004 Stephen Sullivan
http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/4652/
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