One of them, Abdul Nasser (“Slave of the Victorious One”) commends the decision: “Today you have let freedom ring.” “Four Chinese Muslims Released From Guantanamo,” from the Wall Street Journal, June 11:
WASHINGTON — Four Guantanamo Bay detainees have been released and resettled in Bermuda, U.S. officials said Thursday.
The four are part of a group of 17 Chinese Muslims who have been in legal limbo at the military detention center in Cuba.
Abdul Nasser, one of the four detainees who landed in Bermuda early Thursday morning, issued a statement through his lawyers, saying: “Growing up under Communism we always dreamed of living in peace and working in free society like this one. Today you have let freedom ring.”
It’s the first time since 2006 that the U.S. has successfully resettled any of Guantanamo’s population of Uighurs whose fate has been wending through the courts for years. The U.S. government had determined that they weren’t enemy combatants and should be released. But China resisted their release and it had been unclear where they would go free.
Thirteen other Uighurs remain to be freed from Guantanamo.
The Justice Department on Thursday issued a statement thanking the government of Bermuda for helping resettle four of the detainees. Arrangements are being made for other Uighurs to be sent to the Pacific island nation of Palau.
The Uighurs’ lawyers said they will be part of Bermuda’s guest worker program. U.S. officials didn’t say what restrictions, if any, would be placed on the Uighurs as they are resettled in Bermuda.[…]