Bush angry at Guantanamo Bay releases, Hannah Cooper

Hannah Cooper — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:52:56 +0000

A Washington courtroom packed with Uighurs and human rights activists burst into applause after US district judge Ricardo Urbina's decision on Tuesday that seventeen Muslim men from western China, who have been held without charges for seven years at the infamous US military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be released.

The Uighurs, from the Xinjiang province in western China, had been living in a camp in Afghanistan during the US-led bombing campaign in the country that began in October 2001. After fleeing into the mountains, they were detained by Pakistani authorities, who handed them over to the US. They have been cleared for release from Guantanamo since 2004 as they are no longer considered "enemy combatants", but the US has not been able to find a country willing (or safe enough) to accept them. In China, many Muslim Uighurs are seeking greater autonomy for the region and some want independence. Beijing has waged a relentless campaign against what it calls violent separatist activities in Xinjiang, tying restiveness in the region to the larger "war on terrorism". Tuesday's ruling means that the men can live in America, and members of the Uighur community in the Washington area have already offered to take them in.

The toD verdict: Whilst lawyers are reportedly "thrilled" by the release of these detainees, officials at the White House are less than happy. The Bush administration reacted with anger to the ruling, and a spokesman said that it could set a standard that would allow "sworn enemies" to seek entry into the US.

The ruling is the first court-ordered release of Guantanamo detainees since the facility opened in 2002. Urbina insisted that there was no evidence that the men were a security risk and that their continued detention was therefore illegal.

The US government filed an emergency request on Tuesday for a stay with the US court of appeals in Washington to halt the ruling. If the Bush administration loses, there is still the option of appealing to the US Supreme Court.

About 265 detainees are still held at Guantanamo, which was opened in 2002 to hold suspects captured during the so-called "war on terrorism". Most have been held for years without being charged and some, including the seventeen men granted their release on Tuesday, allege that they have been abused or tortured.

Analysts say that Tuesday's ruling is a rebuke for the US government and an affront to President Bush, and could set a precedent for the release of dozens more detained at the military jail. However, human rights groups remain cautious about the decision, pointing to the fact that it will mean very little if it is ignored, as certain past rulings have been.

A "bloodbath in Bangkok"

Police and soldiers patrolled the streets of Bankok and outside the Thai prime minister's house on Wednesday, days after violent clashes killed two and injured hundreds more, with further demonstrations promised. Tuesday's aggression, described as a "bloodbath", erupted after police tried to disperse thousands of protestors surrounding parliament in order to prevent Somchai Wongsawat, the new prime minister, from delivering his first policy speech. Following the demonstrations, the deputy prime minister took responsibility for the clashes and announced his resignation. Spokespeople for the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) promised that more protests would take place. The army said police had called in the military to help quell protests but insisted there would be no fresh military takeover in Thailand, which has had 18 coups since the end of its absolute monarchy in 1932.

Russia pulls out of Georgia

Russian troops started the final stage of their withdrawal from buffer zones surrounding the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on Wednesday. Under an agreement brokered by France, which currently holds the European Union's presidency, Russia has until Friday to pull back troops from these zones, that were established after war broke out between Russia and Georgia in August. EU monitors have been patrolling the buffer zones since 1 October under the withdrawal agreement in a bid to make sure that Russia keeps to the agreement. However, Moscow intends to keep nearly 8,000 troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which it has recognised as independent states, a move that the US, the EU and NATO say violates the Russian commitment to withdraw to pre-conflict positions under the ceasefire.

Mauritanian police beat union members

Demonstrations in Nouakchott on Tuesday led to police violence against union protestors, with the use of tear gas and beatings. At least two people were subsequently treated in hospital for light injuries. The demonstration was the second in a week against the military junta that seized control of the country two months previously, overturning President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, the Saharan state's first freely elected leader. These violent eruptions came after Monday's failed deadline for the junta to free the ousted president, who has been in detention since 6 August. The African Union and overseas donors alike have expressed displeasure at the coup and are threatening cuts in aid and sanctions if the country's democratically elected leader is not reinstated.

McCain: Obama has "announced that he will attack Pakistan"

During the second of three presidential debates which took place in Nashville on Tuesday, the presidential candidates McCain and Obama clashed over methods of combating terrorism and al-Qaida. The Democrat candidate said: "If we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out, then I think that we have to act and we will take them out." However, McCain said that this was a declaration by Obama that he will attack Pakistan and that such actions would turn Pakistani public opinion against the United States at a time of high tension. Obama responded by pointing out that McCain had once sung a ditty at a campaign meeting with the words "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" and had called for the annihilation of North Korea. With less than a month to the presidential elections, campaign attacks between the two parties are growing more and more personal.

China upset by US arms deal with Taiwan

China's foreign ministry in Beijing has called a US plan to sell $6.5bn of advanced weaponry to Taiwan illegal, saying that it would cast a shadow over bilateral relations. Chinese actions on Tuesday also included cancelling a visit to Washington by a senior general, putting an indefinite ban on port calls by US naval vessels, and calling off low-level diplomatic exchanges with the US. The arms deal, first proposed in 2001, consists of the sale of defensive weapons systems and comes as a result of improving relations between the US and Taiwan, which have been sensitive since the election of President Ma Ying-jeou last March.

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Bush angry at Guantanamo Bay releases, Hannah Cooper