China FM Slams US for Releasing Gitmo Uighurs

Insists Detainees Were 'Known Terrorists'

In releasing the final three Gitmo Uighurs, the Obama Administration closed a grim chapter in the protracted detention of people who were never even suspected of involvement with either the Taliban or al-Qaeda.

Held for well over a decade, they’ve been ordered released for many years, and it was only now that they finally got around to finding places to send the last of them, China is none too happy.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry insists that the three detainees were “genuine terrorists” because they were suspected members of the East Turkestan secessionist movement, and demands their return.

The three were sent to Slovakia, and China is calling on the Slovak government to immediately send them on to China. Much of the delay of the release of the Uighurs was because they face persecution in China, and such a transfer is obviously not going to happen.

Though China has insisted the Uighurs “threaten the security of the country that receives them,” there has been no incident of Uighur secessionist attacks inside Slovakia, nor anywhere in the region.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.