Uighurs Tell FNC: Better Human Rights at Guantanamo Than in China

Uighurs Tell FNC: Better Human Rights at Guantanamo Than in China

By Brent Baker (Bio | Archive)
June 16, 2009 - 02:14 ET

FNC's Catherine Herridge traveled to Bermuda to meet the four Chinese Muslim Uighurs just released from Guantanamo Bay and she elicited from them that living in China is worse than life at Guantanamo. Talking to them through an interpreter at their new home, a pink bungalow with a swimming pool, Herridge reported how she “asked which was worse: Life at Gitmo versus China?” The interpreter relayed, over the voices of all of the men talking: “Of course it's China. There's no guarantee for human rights there.”

           
So, there's a new angle for the media: Guantanamo as a bastion of human rights protections. Not really much of a surprise in contrast to China, but it took a FNC reporter to frame the comparison between a U.S. military-run detention center and a communist nation.

From Herridge's piece on the Monday, June 15 Special Report with Bret Baier:

    CATHERINE HERRIDGE: They say the worst moment at Gitmo came when the U.S. allowed Chinese interrogators to question them.

    INTERPRETER: They were really harsh. They were threatening them.

    HERRIDGE: Camp Iguana, the camp with the least restrictions, was the men's most recent home. Asked which was worse: Life at Gitmo versus China?

    INTERPRETER: Of course it's China. There's no guarantee for human rights there.

The four of the Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs, released to Bermuda from the Guantanamo Bay prison told FOX News that they are innocent, glad to be free and hold no grudges against the United States for their captivity.

The men, who range from 31 to 38 years old, also said they think life in China, where they face persecution, is worse than life at Guantanamo.

With the help of a translator, they said they didn't know anything about Al Qaeda or Usama bin Laden, despite past allegations that they had aided the terror mastermind's escape.

"I am not a terrorist. I have never been terrorist," one of the men told FOX News. "I want to live peacefully."

The Uighurs, released this week, are staying at a guest cottage complex on the island without security or electronic monitoring, but their attorney said they will have to periodically check in with local police. 

The release of the Uighurs comes amid increasing political tensions in Washington over what to do with the more than 200 detainees being held at the Guantanamo facility following President Obama's pledge to close the facility within a year of taking office.

But the Uighurs may be among the least threatening of the detainees whose fate must be decided, given that the Justice Department under the Bush administration already had decided that they should no longer be classified as "enemy combatants."

A September 2008 federal court motion filed by the Justice Department confirmed their change of status and declared that all 17 Uighurs being held at Gunatanamo should be resettled in a foreign country.

The Uighurs will be eligible for Bermudian passports in the future, but the U.S. has a mechanism in place to block their entry into the U.S. unless the federal government chooses to let them in.

Their attorney says the Uighurs are determined to stay in Bermuda as part of a guest worker program. There is a provision in that program that in limited circumstances allows guest workers to get Bermudian citizenship.

The Uighurs told FOX News that they plan to make their home in Bermuda, probably working first in some form of manual labor. They also may open a restaurant and look forward to swimming and fishing.