LETTERS, leave them in Niebuhr Center ASAP

URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA

To read the current Urgent Action newsletter, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html
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For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa27808.pdf

Note: Please write on behalf of these persons even though you may not have received the original UA when issued on October 8, 2008. Thanks!

12 November 2008

Further information on UA 278/08 (08 October 2008) – Legal concern

USA 17 Uighur detainees held at Guantanamo

Seventeen Uighurs remain in indefinite military detention in
the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba more than a
month after a federal judge ruled that their continued
detention was unlawful and ordered their release into the
USA. The government obtained an emergency stay of the order
from a higher court, which will now hold oral arguments on
the issue on 24 November.

On 7 October, Judge Urbina of the District Court for the
District of Columbia (DC) ordered the government to release
into the USA the 17 Uighurs whom the government had earlier
conceded are not “enemy combatants”, the label it had
attached to them for years to purport to justify their
indefinite detention without charge or trial. A majority of
the Uighurs have been cleared for release since 2003.

The USA has accepted that the Uighurs cannot be returned to
their native China because they would face a serious risk of
torture or execution there. However, it has been unable to
find a country willing to accept them in more than four
years of trying. It says it has approached and re-
approached nearly 100 countries. Clearly, the only current
way to end the indefinite detention of the Uighurs is for
them to be released into the USA. The administration is
refusing to countenance such an outcome, however, and has
turned to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to
overturn Judge Urbina’s order and allow the detainees to be
held at Guantanamo pending emergence of the third country
solution that has eluded the US government for years.

The US administration argues that Judge Urbina’s order
should be reversed because “unless otherwise authorized by
law, no court has the power to review the Executive’s
decision to exclude an alien from this country”. Judge
Urbina had recognized the sensitivity of judicial
intervention in “a field normally dominated by the
political branches”, but pointed out that it was the
government that had taken the Uighurs to Guantanamo; had not
charged them with any crime or presented any “reliable
evidence that they would pose a threat to US interests”;
and it is the government that has “stymied” its own
efforts to find a third country solution by labeling the
Uighurs until recently as “enemy combatants”. Judge Urbina
also noted that there were individuals and organizations
ready and willing to support the Uighurs upon resettlement
in the USA “by providing housing, employment, money,
education and other spiritual and social services”.

Judge Urbina had asked the government what threat the
Uighurs would pose if released into the USA, but the
government did not produce any evidence of such a threat.
Now, in its bid to have the order overturned, it has
portrayed the Uighurs as dangerous individuals, who “sought
to wage terror on a sovereign government” and who had
received “weapons training” in Afghanistan after they fled
there from China. A Court of Appeals judge has since noted
that the government had presented “no evidence” that the
Uighurs pose a threat to the US national security “or the
safety of the community or any person”. She added that the
fact that one or more of the Uighurs received training in
firearms “cannot alone show they are dangerous, unless
millions of United States resident citizens who had received
firearms training are deemed to be dangerous”.

The government argues that even if the Uighurs “were
standing at the Nation’s borders”, they would likely not be
allowed in on security grounds, under the broadly worded US
immigration law. Even if the Uighurs were “somehow entitled
to be brought into and released in the United States”, the
government argues, they would be subject to immediate and
indefinite detention under immigration law pending removal
from the USA.

The government has asserted that “negotiations are ongoing
regarding the possibility of their resettlement in third
countries”. It argues that a decision requiring the
government to release the Uighurs into the USA could
complicate such negotiations. If the 17 Uighurs were brought
to the USA, it suggests, “even our friends and allies might
be less likely to participate in resettlement efforts for
petitioners (or, indeed, for any other detainee)”. The fact
is, however, that any such efforts by the US State
Department – unsuccessful for years – have already been
undermined by the government’s own conduct – its prior
labelling of the detainees as “enemy combatants” and its
more recent campaign of innuendo labeling them as dangerous.

In its briefs to the Court of Appeals, the government has
painted a benign picture of the conditions in which the
Uighurs are now “housed” in Guantanamo’s Camp Iguana:
“special communal housing with access to all areas of the
camp, including an outdoor recreation space and picnic
area”, sleeping quarters “in an air conditioned bunk
house”, and “the use of an activity room equipped with
various recreational items, including a television with VCR
and DVD players”. The Uighurs also “have access to special
food items, shower facilities, and library materials”.
While the Uighurs’ current conditions are less harsh than
those they have endured previously, particularly in Camp 6,
they are incarcerated nonetheless. They are isolated from
the outside world, surrounded by fencing and razor wire,
monitored by armed guards and 24-hour camera surveillance,
and with only a small space for recreation. They are
shackled to the floor for visits with lawyers.

For further information, see USA: Justice Years Overdue:
Federal court hearing for Uighur detainees in Guantanamo, 7
October 2008,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/110/2008/en;
USA: Federal judge orders release of Uighurs held at
Guantanamo, government appeals, 8 October 2008,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/111/2008/en;
USA: US Court of Appeals blocks release of Guantanamo
Uighurs as government resorts to ‘scare tactics’, 10 October
2008,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/113/2008/en;
and USA: Indefinite detention by litigation: ‘Monstrous
absurdity’ continues as Uighurs remain in Guantanamo, 12
November 2008,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/136/2008/en.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly
as possible:
- expressing concern that the Uighurs remain in indefinite
detention at Guantanamo, and that the government continues
to litigate to keep them there pending the third country
solution that has eluded the USA for years;
- expressing concern at the US administration’s
unsubstantiated portrayal of the Uighurs in its litigation
strategy as dangerous individuals, innuendo that can only
work against third country solutions;
- welcoming the local community support in the USA that has
been pledged to help the Uighurs adjust to life outside
Guantanamo;
- calling on the US government, in the name of
humanitarianism and justice, to release the Uighur detainees
into the USA, and to work to ensure fair, safe and lasting
outcomes for these men.

APPEALS TO:

The Honorable Gregory G. Katsas
Assistant Attorney General
US Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Room 3141, Washington, DC 20530-0001
Fax: 1 202 307 6777
1 202 616 8470
Email: Gregory.Katsas@usdoj.org
Salutation: Dear Assistant Attorney General

John Bellinger, Legal Adviser
US Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Fax: 1 202 647 7096
Salutation: Dear Mr. Bellinger

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Fax: 1 202 456 2461
Email: president@whitehouse.gov
Salutation: Dear Mr President

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals
after 24 December 2008.

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Thank you for your help with this appeal.

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