East Turkestan Islamic Movement

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East Turkestan Islamic Movement is a militant Islamic group which seeks to separate East Turkestan from the People's Republic of China. It is considered by both the governments of the PRC and the United States to be a terrorist group. Its designation as such by the United States has been controversial with critics arguing that the designation is unfair and intended mainly to improve U.S.-China relations. In 2002, the United Nations also declared it to be a terrorist group.

The government of China claims this group is responsible for several car bomb attacks in Xinjiang in the 1990s, as well as the death of a Chinese diplomat in Kyrgyzstan in 2002. But the group has neither admitted nor denied such accusations. Several arrested members of the group admitted, however, that they were trained by Al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

On October 2, 2003, one of the founding members and leaders of the group was shot dead by the Pakistani army in a counter-terrorism operation on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Uighurs detainees in Guantanamo

Approximately two dozen Uighurs were held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba. On March 3 2006 the U.S. Department of Defense was forced to release the transcripts of detainees who had attended their Combatant Status Review Tribunals. Most of the Uighur detainees faced allegations that they were tied to the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, AL Qaeda, or the Taliban. They denied all such ties.

Some or all of the Uighur detainees were among the 38 detainees the Tribunals determined were not "enemy combatants" after all. The USA did not grant the Uighurs asylum. But neither would they repatriate them to China.

On May 5 2006 five Uighurs were transported to Albania.

East Turkestan Islamic Movement

Uighurs detainees in Guantanamo

See also