Afghanistan praises release of Gitmo list; China demands repatriation of Uighurs News
Afghanistan praises release of Gitmo list; China demands repatriation of Uighurs

[JURIST] Afghanistan's peace and reconciliation commission Thursday praised the release [JURIST report] of a list of detainees [text, PDF] held at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], which was made available as the result of a Freedom of Information Act [text; summary] lawsuit [JURIST report] filed in March by the Associated Press [media website]. A senior official for the Afghan commission [JURIST report] which has been working to free their citizens at Guantanamo said they plan to send a delegation to Cuba to check on the 125 Afghan prisoners. An official for the Pakistan Interior Ministry [official website], however, was not as pleased with the contents of the list, saying that the number of Pakistan detainees was much larger than expected since the country had believed only seven of its citizens were being held at Guantanamo. AP has more.

Meanwhile Thursday, China called on the US to repatriate any of the 22 Chinese prisoners being held at the US prison base who are Uighurs [Wikipedia profile]. A China Foreign Ministry [official website] official said the country believes that some of the Uighurs are part of a militant separatist group currently fighting for an independent state. The US said that it cannot release the prisoners back to China, even though they have been determined not to be enemy combatants, for fear that they will face torture or execution. Earlier this week, the US Supreme Court refused to hear the Uighur detainees' expedited appeal [JURIST report] of a decision [PDF text] allowing their continued detention, saying that it would not take the case before an appeals court could consider it. Aljazeera has more.

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