Good home still wanted for 15 Uighurs
One thing that Bush and Hu will not be discussing in Washington today, apparently, are the Uighurs (still!) languishing in Guantanamo Bay. A couple of days ago it was reported that their appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected, although they still have another appeal pending to a lower court. As I’ve noted here before, the basic problem is not that the US thinks these men are dangerous, or that it really wants to keep them at Guantanamo Bay (horrendous as the place may be, I suspect that the cost of bed and board there would give even the plushest five star hotel a run for its money), it’s that it won’t send them back to China, won’t admit them to the US and can’t find anywhere else to deposit them. This is usually where Norway steps in, but they seem to be keeping a low profile on this one. According to this article though, the US government has been pressuring one European government to take the Uighurs - Germany. However, there seems to be serious reluctance there due to the possible harm that accepting these refugees might do to relations with China. And no-one wants to upset China these days do they… (Article found via the interesting website of the Uyghur-American Association).
Update:
Kerim of Keywords is on this story as well.
