As Uighur protests in Hotan last week slip silently into media obscurity amidst the continuing furor over Tibet, one Uighur detained in Guantanamo Bay is making headlines by taking the U.S. to task on how it defines its enemies. From the Associated Press:
Parhat is one of several Muslims from western China known as Uighurs who were swept up by U.S. forces as suspected terrorists. Now, after years of legal wrangling, Parhat is asking a federal appeals court to consider for the first time what it really means to be an enemy combatant.
Military officials say Parhat was associated with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a militant group that demands separation from China. The United States added the organization to its list of terrorist groups in 2002, a move that some international affairs analysts say was made to appease China and ensure it would not oppose the invasion of Iraq.
Years later, the Uighurs (pronounced WEE’-gurs) have become a diplomatic and legal headache for the U.S. The Chinese government wants the men turned over to face terrorism charges in China, where human rights groups say they will be tortured or killed.
For background, see the Washington Post’s 2005 report on the Uighur detainees in Guantanamo, and the BBC’s profile of three former detainees transfered to Albania last year after being cleared of terrorism charges.
