Abu Bakker Qassim
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Abu Bakker Qassim is a Uyghur from China's western frontier, Xinjiang (also known as East Turkistan) who was held in "Camp Iguana" the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba after being classified as "no longer enemy combatant" (NLEC) by the Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT). He has been transferred to Albania.[detainee release announced], Department of Defense, May 5 2006
Background
In late 2001, Qassim was captured along with his compatriot A'Del Abdu al-Hakim during the "War on Terror" by Pakistani bounty hunters.[United States District Court for the District of Columbia - Memorandum Order]: Qassim , et al. v. Bush, et al. Civil Action #05-0497 (JR). August 19 2005 Qassim and al-Hakim were transferred to U.S. custody by the Pakistani forces and held in Afghanistan for approximately six months, and were transferred to "Camp Delta," on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, where they were detained as an "enemy combatants." President Bush had ruled that the detainees were "illegal combatants" by administrative fiat. Following legal challenges, the Bush administration was forced to provide a mechanism to review the Guantanamo detainees status.Combatant Status Review Tribunal
Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.Subsequently the [[Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.
Qassim chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.
allegations
Some of the allegations against Qassim were:[summarized transcript (.pdf)], from Abu Bakker Qassim's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 21-23
- #''In 2001, the detainee traveled from Kyrgyzstan, through Pakistan, then on to Jalalabad, Afghanistan to attend a training camp.
- #--missing from the record---
- #''The Detainee was at the camp for three months and spent two months learning the Koran and one month shooting an AK-47.
- #''After the U.S. bombing started, the Detainee and the other Uighurs went to the caves and stayed there until the Northern Alliance came to the camps.
- #''An afghani man sent the Detainee with approximately one hundred Arabs and twenty Uighurs to Pakistan, where they were captured.
reclassification
In late 2005, the CSRT declared them NLECs, but were not released as they feared torture if returned to China. The U.S. refused their admission to the country under the Immigration and Naturalization Act, and they were transferred to Camp Iguana on the naval base. They are currently held pending a country willing to take them or a change in their legal status.Qassim was one of the 38 detainees whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal concluded he had not been an "illegal combatants". Some of those detainees were repatriated, once they were determined NLECs. Others, like, Qassim, and Sami Al Laithi, face possible torture if they are returned.
Seeking asylum
In December Judge James Robertson reviewed the detention of Qassim and A'Del Abdu al-Hakim.[Judge Weighs Order to Release Two at Gitmo], Forbes, December 13 2005 Robertson expressed reservations about the nature of their continued detention, but left them in Guantanamo.[Two Guantanamo Detainees to Stay in Custody], New York Post, December 22 2005A February 18 2006 article in the Washington Times reported that Abu Bakker Qassim and A'Del Abdu al-Hakim had received military training in Afghanistan.[U.S. hit on human rights], Washington Times, February 18 2006 It said they were not classified as "illegal combatants" because they intended to go home and employ their training against the Chinese government. Some earlier reports had described them as economic refugees, who were slowly working their way to Turkey.
On April 17 2006 the US Supreme Court rejected Qassim's request to hear his appeal for US asylum.[Supreme Court Rejects Appeal of Guantanamo Bay Detainees: Detainees' Biggest Obstacle Was the Timing of Their Appeal], ABC News, April 17 2006 His appeal will be heard by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on May 8, 2006.
Asylum in Albania
On May 5 2006 the Department of Defense announced that they had transferred five Uighurs who had been determined not to have been enemy combatants, to Albania.[detainee release announced], Department of Defense, May 5 2006[Albania accepts Chinese Guantanamo detainees], Washington Post, May 5 2006 Seventeen other Uighurs continue to be held at Guantanamo, because their CSRTs determined they were enemy combatants.
The five men had a lawsuit scheduled for argument on May 8 2006 before the US District Court where their lawyers would argue for their release. [Albania Takes 5 Ethnic Chinese From Gitmo], Houston Chronicle, May 5 2006
The Department of Justice filed an "Emergency Motion to Dismiss as Moot" on May 5 2006. [Emergency Motion to Dismiss as Moot], Department of Justice, May 5 2006[Making Justice Moot], Alternet, May 6 2006 Barbara Olshansky, one of the Uighur's lawyers, characterized the sudden transfer as an attempt to: "...avoid having to answer in court for keeping innocent men in jail,[Albania takes Guantanamo Uighurs], BBC, May 6 2006"
References
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