Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman

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Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman
Born: March 15, 1973(1973-03-15)
Kucha, Xinjiang Province, China
Detained at: Guantanamo
Alias(s): Abd Al Ghatar Abd Al Rahman,
Abdulghappar Turkistani
ID number: 281
Conviction(s): no charge, held in extrajudicial detention

Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman is a citizen of China, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[1] His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 281. The Department of Defense reports that Rahman was born on March 15, 1973, in Kucha, Xingiang Province, China.

Rahman is one of approximately two dozen detainees from the Uighur ethnic group.[2]

Main article: Uighur detainees in Guantanamo

Contents

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor. Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed. The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.(December 2007)Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.
Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.[3][4] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.[5]
The neutrality of this section is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.(December 2007)
Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunal. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

To comply with a Freedom of Information Act request, during the winter and spring of 2005, the Department of Defense released 507 memoranda. Those 507 memoranda each contained the allegations against a single detainee, prepared for their Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The detainee's name and ID numbers were redacted from all but one of the memoranda. However 169 of the memoranda had the detainee's ID hand-written on the top right hand of the first page corner. When the Department of Defense complied with a court order, and released official lists of the detainee's names and ID numbers it was possible to identify who those 169 were written about. Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman was one of those 169 detainees.[6]

[edit] Allegations

a. The detainee is associated with the Taliban and supported hostilities against the United States and its coalition partners:
  1. The detainee traveled to Afghanistan because he heard Uigher people could receive military training there.
  2. The detainee arrived in Afghanistan from China via Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan in June 2001.
  3. The detainee stayed at a Uighur guesthouse in Pakistan.
  4. The detainee attended a Uighur training camp in Afghanistan.
  5. The detainee received training in the use of the Kalishnikov [sic] rifle and a type of pistol.
  6. The detainee decided to travel to Afghanistan and join the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
  7. Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan is a terrorist organization.
  8. The detainee was captured in Pakistan after crossing the border from Afghanistan.
b. The detainee supported military operations against the coalition.
  1. The detainee was injured during U.S. air strikes.
  2. The detainee worked construction [sic] and improvement of the ###### training camp while in Afghanistan.
  3. The detainee was in the Tora Bora mountains during the U.S. air campaign.

[edit] Transcript

Rahman chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[7]


[edit] testimony

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

He is one of approximately two dozen Uyghur detainees accused of membership in the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement.[2]

Documents released in response to the writ of habeas corpus Hassan Anvar v. George W. Bush contained a December 30 2004 memo which provided one-paragraph biographies of 22 Uyghur captives, and asserted they were all caught at an "ETIM training camp".[8]

The brief biography of Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman stated:

Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman is a 31-year-old Chinese citizen. who is an ethnic Uighur from Kucha China. He was last interviewed in mid 2003 He has no reported incidents of violence in his discipline history. Rahman is suspected as being a probable member of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). He is suspected of having received training in an ETIM training camp in Afghanistan.

The information paper also identified him as "Abd Al Ghatar Abd Al Rahman".

[edit] Administrative Review Board hearings

Hearing room where Guantanamo captive's annual Administrative Review Board hearings convened for captives whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal had already determined they were an "enemy combatant".
Hearing room where Guantanamo captive's annual Administrative Review Board hearings convened for captives whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal had already determined they were an "enemy combatant".[9]

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat -- or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.

In September 2007 the Department of Defense published all the Summary of Evidence memos prepared for the Administrative Review Boards convened in 2005 or 2006.[10][11] There is no record that an Administrative Review Board convened in 2005 or 2006 to review his detention.

[edit] Letter from Guantanamo

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

On March 20, 2008 the Department of Defense released for publication a rare letter from Guantanamo, drafted in December, from a Uyghur named "Abdulghappar Turkistani".[12][13][14] According to the Associated Press "Abdulghappar Turkistani" is a 35 year old Uyghur. The letter said that all 17 remaining Uyghurs were being held in isolation, in solitary confinement, in the high security Camp 6, even though they were told the authorities recognized they were innocent in 2004. The letter said the writer had developed Rheumatism. The letter said that another Uyghur was participating in the on-going hunger strike, and was being force-fed twice a day.

  • "Being away from family, away from our homeland... being forbidden from the natural sunlight, natural air, being surrounded with a metal box all around, is not suitable for a human being,"
  • "We fail to know why we are still in jail here. We are still in hope that the US government will free us soon and send us to a safe place."

The Associated Press reported that Commander Rick Haupt, a spokesman for the detention center, said the captives were being held in "safe and humane" conditions.[12] Haupt described Camp 6 as "a state-of-the-market detention facility modeled after stateside facilities."

Camp 6 was designed to have common areas where the captives could interact with one another. But since the camp was opened in December 2006 the common areas have remained off-limits. The Associated Press reported[12]:

"In January, a Guantanamo official told AP that the military planned to allow detainees in Camp 6 to congregate for the first time in indoor communal areas for the first time to ease tension in the prison. It was unknown when that would begin."

[edit] References

  1. ^ OARDEC (May 15, 2006). List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  2. ^ a b China's Uighurs trapped at Guantanamo, Asia Times, November 4, 2004
  3. ^ Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror
  4. ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
  5. ^ Annual Administrative Review Boards for Enemy Combatants Held at Guantanamo Attributable to Senior Defense Officials. United States Department of Defense (March 6, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-22.
  6. ^ Summary of Evidence memo (.pdf) prepared for Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - October 29, 2004 - page 271
  7. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman'sCombatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 34-45
  8. ^ Department of Defense, Information paper: Uighur Detainee Population at JTF-GTMO, December 30, 2004
  9. ^ Spc Timothy Book. "Review process unprecedented", JTF-GTMO Public Affairs Office, Friday March 10, 2006, pp. pg 1. Retrieved on 2007-10-10. 
  10. ^ OARDEC (August 9, 2007). Index to Summaries of Detention-Release Factors for ARB Round One. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  11. ^ OARDEC (July 17, 2007). Index of Summaries of Detention-Release Factors for ARB Round Two. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  12. ^ a b c Ben Fox. "Chinese Muslims issue plea for freedom as Guantanamo release stalls", MSNBC, Wednesday, 19 March 2008. Retrieved on 2008-03-24. "The prisoner, from a vast province on China's Central Asian border, complains in a letter obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press that he and the other Uighurs were told in 2004 and 2005 that they would be let go, yet they languish in windowless, cramped cells." 
  13. ^ "Uighur inmate in Guantanamo plea", BBC, Thursday, 20 March 2008. Retrieved on 2008-03-24. "Abdulghappar Turkistani, 35, is one of a group of 17 Chinese Muslims who have been held at the US camp for six years." 
  14. ^ "'Free' Uighurs stuck in Guantanamo", Al Jazeera, Thursday, 20 March 2008. Retrieved on 2008-03-24. "In a rare direct appeal from inside Guantanamo Bay, a Chinese Muslim has said he is continuing to be held in harsh conditions at the US detention centre, despite being told years ago that he was innocent and would be released." 
v • d • e
Uyghur captives in Guantanamo
Captives still held in Guantanamo
Captives released to Albania in May 2006
Captives released to Saudi Arabia
‡ denotes captive was initially recommended for release, found to have not been an enemy combatant or similarly vindicated by Guantanamo officials at least once.