China Demands Return of Uighurs To Execute Them

The Chinese government officially denounced US efforts to place Guantanamo inmates, originally from the Uighur Region of Xinjiang in north-west China, in both Bermuda and Palau.

China considers the Guantanamo detainees as enemies of the Chinese state and demands their return to China for execution. In fact, the Chinese government has a lengthy history of oppression in the Muslim area of Xinjiang and intends to use the execution of these prisoners as an example to the Uighur people.

None of the Uighurs has committed any offense in mainland China but that doesn't deter the Chinese government from prosecution and execution. The US government has ignored Chinese protests and proceeded to find safe havens for the Uighurs. Of course, their location is public and the Chinese government may well attempt to abduct the Uighurs and return them to China to conduct a media spectacle by their prosecution.

Ostensibly, the Uighurs will be under local supervision which means they will be watched and followed by law enforcement for many years to come. This may in fact be the only form of viable protection for the Uighurs given the intense Chinese interest in obtaining control of these individuals.

The Uighurs follow traditional Muslim values and beliefs and are thought to be the descendants of the original travellers along the Silk Road followed by Marco Polo and the entrepreneurs of his day. Peaceful, but a potential threat to Chinese authority simply by the sheer size of the Uighur population and the largely remote and rural area they inhabit, there is little chance that the Chinese government could impose police or military control successfully.

Therefore, the Chinese government would have a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate to the Uighur population what might become of them, if they resist Chinese authority, by prosecuting and executing the Uighurs on the theory that they are international terrorists. Sphere: Related Content