The plight of the Uyghurs has had more publicity than ever before because of
the United States Congress's reticence and Beijing's bluster. The 22 prisoners
have served their people well, if unwillingly and unwittingly, although
resettling these victims of Guantanamo has not brought out the best in people
or countries elsewhere.
Almost forgotten in the recent acceptance of some of them by Bermuda and Palau
is Albania stepping up to the plate to take five of them four years ago.
Albania, the only Muslim-majority United Nations member in Europe, was
doubtless sentimentally inclined to accept their co-religionists from the other
end of the Turkic sphere of influence, but one rather suspects that the George
W Bush administration offered cash and or big diplomatic favors in
return. Under Enver Hoxha, Albania had cocked a snook at China when it was its
only friend in the world. It could well afford to risk the displeasure that
Beijing is displaying so prominently.
In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, when the UN Security Council was
setting up its anti-terrorism committee, China's ambassador kept trying to add
"and secessionist activities", to its remit. The other members were politely
overlooking him until he persisted and demanded to know why he was being
ignored and the British ambassador, looking over his shoulder at Welsh and
Scottish nationalist parties back home, told him firmly, "Because secessionist
activities are not against international law, or the domestic law of many
members."
Certainly nothing could have provoked Uyghur secessionist sentiment more than
Beijing's chauvinistic policies there, insouciantly swamping the allegedly
autonomous region with Hans and marginalizing the Turkic Uyghurs. Even their
close brethren in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are not going to risk relations
with China over their treatment, although many ordinary citizens are unhappy
about it.
China has been demanding their repatriation, not least since they cannot tell
the difference between secessionism and terrorism. Perhaps the only way the US
comes out of this with a modicum of respectability is that, after kidnapping
and incarcerating these Uyghur refugees, it has refused to hand them over to
Beijing. Otherwise, it is shameful on grounds of equity and humanity that the
US has not offered asylum to its victims, who have been cleared of any crime.
In its traditional invertebrate mode, Congress, having done nothing to stop
their illegal incarceration, now refuses to allow President Barack Obama to
resettle them in the US.
That marginally excuses all the other nations who have refused to accept them.
After all, how do you explain to your own voters that these people are harmless
victims if the last country to victimize them won't allow them in?
Ironically, both countries that had the courage of their humanitarian
convictions and a weather eye to as yet unspecified profit, Palau and Bermuda,
are studies in how far autonomy will go.
Bermuda is still technically a British territory and London is responsible for
its security and foreign policy. The island government, for unspecified returns
but almost certainly more substantial than mere gratitude, is treating this as
an immigration issue, although London wants to talk. It is likely that British
umbrage is more with Washington's insouciance to its titular sovereignty over
Bermuda than with the island government.
However, if New Labour wanted to abase itself to China by making a
constitutional issue of it, it would meet outrage at home. While there may not
be much enthusiasm for taking in Washington's dirty laundry, the civil rights
issues would emerge noisily. In Bermuda, heavy-handed interference from London
could strengthen the independence movement and possibly provoke prompt
recognition of Taiwan.
Palau battled Washington for decades about the American insistence that it
remove its nuclear-free clauses from its constitution before the US would
accept the Compact of Free Association that eventually allowed its membership
of the United Nations. By that compact, the US is totally in charge of the
archipelago's defense, and effectively pays its budget. Indeed, in the
Trusteeship Council at the time, yet another British diplomat mused on the
record about whether Palau and its sister former UN Strategic Trust territories
met traditional definitions of sovereignty. Ever-obliging Palau was one of the
first of the "willing" to join the coalition of the same, although no outrigger
canoes were seen paddling up the Gulf as a result. It also helps that Palau
recognizes Taiwan, so Beijing's pressure would be even more ineffectual.
Indeed, one wonders why Taiwan did not step up to the plate, but then the
Kuomintang has only recently accepted Mongolian sovereignty, let alone
Xinjiang's. It would have been interesting if the Democratic Progressive Party,
itself a secessionist organization, were still in power.
Ian Williams is the author of Deserter: Bush's War on Military
Families, Veterans and His Past, Nation Books, New York.
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