Just pawns in the game

The plight of more than a dozen Chinese citizens, held indefinitely in a United States-run terrorist prison camp in Cuba and denied even the most basic human rights, has become the subject of discreet negotiations between the US and China. Reports have surfaced recently of negotiations to repatriate Uygur Muslims, originally from the Xinjiang province, captured in Afghanistan during the American-led war more than two years ago. American officials are said to be demanding that the Chinese detainees - whose brethren have been conducting a sometimes-violent campaign for independence in their home province - will not be tortured on their return to China. But rights campaigners and Xinjiang exile groups are alarmed. 'If they are to be returned to China they will be executed,' said Enver Can, of the Munich-based East Turkistan National Congress, an organisation fighting for independence for the autonomous Chinese province. 'China has been misusing the international campaign against terrorism by upgrading its oppression of the Uygur people and this would serve as just another piece of Chinese propaganda and would be very unjust.' Rights watchdog Amnesty International last week urged the United States not to repatriate to Uygurs because any suspected of 'separatist or terrorist' activities in China could be at risk of serious human rights violations. 'While Amnesty International has been calling for, and would welcome, releases of detainees from the base, it is concerned that some detainees may face serious human rights abuses, including torture and execution, if returned to their countries,' the group said. However, Amnesty does not suggest where the Uygur detainees should be sent. The Hong Kong research director of Human Rights in China, Nicholas Becquelin, said any reassurances given by the Chinese government had to be treated with caution. 'The Americans will have no guarantee that any verbal reassurance by China will be followed in deed. China closes its courts and prisons to foreign observers. There is absolutely no way to know what will happen to these people once they are repatriated,' he said. About 660 people from 44 nations are being detained indefinitely without charges at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay for suspected terrorist activities. China's Foreign Ministry did not answer any questions from the Sunday Morning Post, while the American Department of Defence has declined to confirm the detention of Chinese nationals at Guantanamo Bay. The Americans have withheld the nationalities of those being held there, but Chinese, British, Canadians and Australians are known to be among them. They have been denied access to their families, civilian lawyers or the country's justice system. Critics worldwide have denounced their situation as a legal vacuum. The US government has released 88 prisoners since the camp began holding suspects in January last year. A further 100 are set to be transferred from the detention centre, but their destination remains unknown. Mr Becquelin describes the detention of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay as a 'violation of every international covenant on the treatment of prisoners'. '[If the US does hand over these people], it is really one arbitrary system handing them over to another arbitrary system in China,' he said. Moreover, he said the fact that Guantanamo Bay prison camp was being run by the United States - which often rails against human rights violations in China and elsewhere - had given the mainland ammunition to crackdown on dissent within its own borders. 'There has been a roll-back in civil and political freedom all over the world. China is benefiting a lot from the American policies, because no one can point the finger at them any more,' he said, adding that the mainland had been able to rebuff criticism from foreign diplomats in quiet diplomatic channels and at the United Nations Human Rights Convention on its handling of issues such as Tibet. Political analyst Johnny Lau Yui-siu said the drama being played out between China and the US over the detainees was a classic example of the continuing political games between two world powers. 'It's only a political gesture - China wants to keep its prestige and be seen as being on equal terms with the US,' he said. Beijing has stepped up its clampdown on those fighting for independence in the far northwestern province since the US began its crusade against terrorist activities following the attacks on the World Trade Centre in September 2001. 'The Chinese government has stepped up the control of all religious places, like mosques, and has taken all the clerics to 'training', which is a type of political indoctrination,' Mr Becquelin said. Probably thousands of people in Xinjiang had been arrested since 2001. 'The prisons are full of people who have been convicted of endangering state security. We have very clear evidence that some people are convicted for perfectly peaceful and legitimate actions, including publishing material or organising religious activities.' Unlike the eastern provinces where Han Chinese outnumber other groups, more than 90 per cent of the sparsely populated Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is non-Han, with Uygurs - a Muslim Turkic people - the largest group. Its official Chinese name, Xinjiang, means 'New Frontier'. Accelerated colonisation by Han Chinese, social and economic discrimination that excluded the local populace from the best jobs and religious oppression have fuelled the rise of separatist groups that train overseas in places such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to human rights sources. Chinese authorities claim they have mounted more than 200 attacks since 1990, killing 162 people. They have blamed a group called the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, accusing it of links with the Taleban and al-Qaeda. The Uygur Muslims at Guantanamo Bay were allegedly caught while training and fighting with the Taleban in Afghanistan. However, Mr Can insists that those held are innocent and should be freed. 'These are people who fled Chinese oppression into other countries, including Afghanistan, several years ago. They joined different groups, were indoctrinated, and might have been serving as cooks,' he said. Mr Can said the Uygur captives should be given access to the American legal system. Hopes were raised when the US Supreme Court announced recently that it would decide whether the foreign prisoners at Guantanamo were being legally detained. 'It means that they will have to be given some legal rights, so they cannot just hold them indefinitely,' said Clive Stafford Smith, a US-based British lawyer taking the case to the Supreme Court. 'We don't know how many rights they have, but we at least know they would be recognised as human.'