Abdul Helil Mamut

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Abdul Helil Mamut
Born: 1977 (age 30–31)
Kashkar, China
Detained at: Guantanamo
ID number: 278
Conviction(s): no charge, held in extrajudicial detention
Status Still in Guantanamo, but OARDEC is no longer conducting annual reviews of his status

Abdul Helil Mamut is a citizen of China, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba.[1] His detainee ID number is 278. The Department of Defense estimates that Mamut was born in Kashkar, China, in 1977

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

Main article: Uighur detainees in Guantanamo

Contents

[edit] Combatant Status Review

CSRT notice read to a Guantanamo captive.
CSRT notice read to a Guantanamo captive.

Initially the Bush administration asserted they could withhold the protections of the Geneva Conventions from captives in the War on Terror, while critics argued the Conventions obligated the United States to conduct competent tribunals to determine the status of prisoners. Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted Combatant Status Review Tribunals, to determine whether the captives met the new definition of an "enemy combatant".

The trailer where CSRTs were convened.
The trailer where CSRTs were convened.

From July 2004 through March 2005, a CSRT was convened to make a determination whether each captive had been correctly classified as an "enemy combatant". Abdul Helil Mamut among the two-thirds of prisoners who chose to participate in their tribunals.[3]

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal, listing the alleged facts that led to his detainment. Abdul Helil Mamut's memo accused him of the following: [4] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. The detainee is a Uighur fighter:
  1. The detainee traveled to Afghanistan via Pakistan to receive training at a Uighur training camp in Tora Bora.
  2. The detainee arrived at the Uighur Tora Bora training camp on 17 June 2001.
  3. The detainee received training on the AK-47 while at the Uighur Tora Bora training camp.
  4. The detainee was at the Uighur Tora Bora training camp when it was bombed by US/Coalition forces in October.
  5. The detainee evaded in the Tora Bora mountains for two and half months before being captured by Pakistani Security Forces along with a group of other Uighur fighters and Arabs.

[edit] Transcript

Mamut chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[5] On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a Summarized transcripts from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[6]

[edit] Testimony

Mamut testified that he originally traveled to Pakistan to study. He spent three years at a technical college in Lahore. But he ended up dropping out, because his academic preparation in China was insufficient. It was only after he was flunking out at the technical college that he decided to get any training he could. He had heard that some Uighurs were getting some training in Afghanistan, and he decided to join them.

He said there were no Arabs or Afghans in the camp. That he and his fellow Uighurs did get some minimal training on the AK-47, individually, one at a time, but most of their time was spent in construction work.

He acknowledged that he and his fellow Uighurs had fled when the camp when the USA bombed it. He denied that they had fled armed, or had joined any streams of armed refugees.

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".[7]

The brief biography of Abdul Helil Mamut stated:

Abdul Helil Mamut is a 27-year-old Chinese citizen. who is an ethnic Uighur from Kashkar China. In 1998 the detainee left China to go to Lahore, Pakistan to get education in order to help other Uighurs to fight the Chinese oppression. He was last interviewed at the end of 2002. He has no reported incidents of violence in his discipline history but has verbally assaulted guards on occasion. Mamut 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 Nasir".

[edit] Administrative Review Board

Hearing room for ARB hearings, after captives had been found to be "enemy combatants" during their CSRT.
Hearing room for ARB hearings, after captives had been found to be "enemy combatants" during their CSRT.[8]

Detainees whose CSRT labelled them "enemy combatants" were then scheduled for annual Administrative Review Board hearings. These hearings were designed to judge whether the detainee posed a threat if repatriated to their home country.


[edit] Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Abdul Helil Mamut's Administrative Review Board, on 31 August 2005.[9] The memo listed factors for and against his continued detention.

[edit] The following primary factors favor continued detention:

a. Commitment
In 1998, the detainee traveled to Lahore, Pakistan, to study. After his third year, the detainee realized that schooling was not going to help him help his people fight the oppression back in China. He met with a Uighur fighter to talk about training in Afghanistan. In June 2001, he left Pakistan to attend weapons training in Afghanistan.
b. Training
  1. The detainee traveled to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, to Uighur house, and then to a training camp in the Tora Bora mountains. The detainee received training on the Kalishnakov [sic] .
  2. The detainee was at the camp until it was bombed in October 2001.
c. Connections/Associations
  1. The East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) operated a training camp in Tora Bora, Afghanistan, and a guesthouse in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
  2. The Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a small Islamic extremist group based in China's western Xinjiang Province, is one of the most militant of the ethnic Uighur separatist groups pursuing an independent Eastern Turkistan, which would include Turkey, Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Xinjiang. ETIM and other overlapping militant Uighur groups are linked to the international mujahidin movement begeinning with the participation of ethnic Uighur mujahidin in the Soviet and Afghan war and to a limited degree al Qaida
  3. The ETIM also garnered support from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).
  4. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is a coalition of Islamic militants from Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states opposed to Uzbekistani President Islom Karimov's secular regime. Although the IMU's primary goal remains to overthrow Karimov and establish an Islamic state in Uzbekistan, IMU political and ideological leader Tohir Yoldashev is working to rebuild the organization and appears to have widened the IMU's target to include all those he perceives as fighting Islam. The IMU generally has been unable to operate in Uzbekistan and thus has been more active in Kyrgystan [sic] and Tajikistan.
d. Detainee Actions and Statements
  1. When the camp was bombed, everyone fled to the mountains to take refuge. They saw a group of Arabs walking by and they followed the Arabs who were escaping to Pakistan.
  2. The detainee and the other Uighurs walked for two days to a village in Pakistan where they were captured by Pakistani police.

[edit] The following primary factors favor release or transfer:

a.

The detainee stated he has never fought or engaged the United States Forces and stated he never had any intention of fighting for the Taliban. The detainee stated his sole purpose was to receive training to prepare him for the time where the Uighur people would fight the Chinese for their independence.
b.

The Uighurs believe that the United States is the only country attempting to help the Uighur's cause under Chinese oppression. The detainee stated that the Uighurs stand ready to support the United States in any future conflict the United States may have with China.
c.

The detainee claims he never saw the Taliban on the mountains, nor did he see any Arabs, until after the camp was bombed and they retreated to the mountains.

[edit] Board recommendations

In early September 2007 the Department of Defense released two heavily redacted memos, from his Board, to Gordon England, the Designated Civilian Official.[10][11] The Board's recommendation was unanimous The Board's recommendation was redacted. England authorized his transfer on 18 November 2005.

His Board noted he: "...continues to be a threat to the United States and its allies."

[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. ^ OARDEC, Index to Transcripts of Detainee Testimony and Documents Submitted by Detainees at Combatant Status Review Tribunals Held at Guantanamo Between July 2004 and March 2005, September 4, 2007
  4. ^ OARDEC (16 September 2004). Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Mamut, Abdul Helil. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2008-04-15.
  5. ^ OARDEC (date redacted). Summarized Statement pages 7-14. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2008-04-15.
  6. ^ "US releases Guantanamo files", The Age, April 4, 2006. Retrieved on 2008-03-15. 
  7. ^ Department of Defense, Information paper: Uighur Detainee Population at JTF-GTMO, December 30, 2004
  8. ^ Book, Spc. Timothy. The Wire (JTF-GTMO), "Review process unprecedented", March 10, 2006
  9. ^ OARDEC (31 August 2005). Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Mamut, Abdul Helil pages 54-56. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2008-04-15.
  10. ^ OARDEC (18 November 2005). Administrative Review Board assessment and recommendation ICO ISN 278. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2008-04-23.
  11. ^ OARDEC (9 September 2005). Classified Record of Proceedings and basis of Administrative Review Board recommendation for ISN 278 pages 67-72. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2008-04-23.