Munich says it will accept Guantanamo Uighurs
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The German city of Munich, home to the biggest community of ethnic Uighurs outside China, has offered to host the 17 members of the Chinese minority held at Guantanamo Bay, authorities said on Friday.
A city hall official confirmed a report in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily that the municipal council had supported a motion to this effect put forward by the Green party on Thursday.
However the offer will need approval from the cross-party government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, which is divided on the issue of taking inmates from Guantanamo after Washington closes the prison for terror suspects on Cuba.
Social Democrat Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is in favour of taking in some freed prisoners while Christian Democrat Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaueble is against.
The case of the Uighurs arrested in the wake of the US invasion of Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo for the past seven years is exceptional.
All have been cleared of terrorist activity but Washington has declined to repatriate them to China for fear they would be persecuted or tortured.
Beijing has demanded the return of the 17, who it says were part of a United Nations-listed terror group seeking an independent homeland in the Uighur-populated Xinjiang region.
Also Read:
Beijing to world: Don't take Chinese from Gitmo
A city hall official confirmed a report in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily that the municipal council had supported a motion to this effect put forward by the Green party on Thursday.
However the offer will need approval from the cross-party government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, which is divided on the issue of taking inmates from Guantanamo after Washington closes the prison for terror suspects on Cuba.
Social Democrat Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is in favour of taking in some freed prisoners while Christian Democrat Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaueble is against.
The case of the Uighurs arrested in the wake of the US invasion of Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo for the past seven years is exceptional.
All have been cleared of terrorist activity but Washington has declined to repatriate them to China for fear they would be persecuted or tortured.
Beijing has demanded the return of the 17, who it says were part of a United Nations-listed terror group seeking an independent homeland in the Uighur-populated Xinjiang region.
Also Read:
Beijing to world: Don't take Chinese from Gitmo
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