Tajik captives held in Guantanamo

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On May 15, 2006 the United States Department of Defense acknowledged that there have been 12 Tajik captives held in Guantanamo.[1] The Guantanamo Bay detainment camps were opened on January 11, 2002 at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, in Cuba. The Bush administration asserted that all captives taken in the "global war on terror" could be held there, in extrajudicial detention, without revealing their names. So far as the captive's families and friends would know, they would just disappear.

However, the Associated Press had filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the names of all the captives. The Department of Defense filed justifications for why they should not be obliged to release the information the Associated Press requested. They justified keeping the information secret not to protect the United States "national security", but merely because they were concerned to protect the captive's privacy.

The Department of Defense exhausted their legal appeals and were forced, by a court order, to release the identities of all the Guantanamo captives.

Contents

[edit] Press Reports

The magazine Mother Jones published a feature article, entitled: "The Man Who Has Been to America: One Guantanamo detainee's story".[2] The article was based on an interview with Muhibullo Abdulkarim Umarov, a Tajik from a village named Alisurkhon. Umarov said he and a neighbor from his village, were captured while visiting a third neighbor from his village at his University in Pakistan. Umarov named his two neighbors, Mazharudin and Abdughaffor. He said they too had been sent to Guantanamo. Mazharudin is named on the official list, but Abdughaffor is not. Umarov told Mother Jones that Mazharudin and Abdughaffor were released on March 31, 2004 at the same time he was.

On January 19, 2007 the Government of Tajikistan acknowledged that the United States had transferred ten Tajikis from Guantanamo to Tajikistan.[3][4] The Government of Tajikistan did not release the identities of the transferred men. The Government of Tajikistan also said they did not know how many Tajiks remain in Guantanamo.

The US Department of Defense acknowledged holding twelve Tajiks in Guantanamo.[1] The DoD acknowledged convening Combatant Status Review Tribunals for six of the Tajiks held in Guantanamo.[5] The DoD said they convened a Combatant Status Review Tribunal for every captive who was still in Guantanamo in 2005.

A March 1, 2007 press release announced that the Department of Defense had returned three Tajiks back to Tajikistan.[6]

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[edit] List of Tajiks who the DoD has acknowledged they have held in Guantanamo

ID name date
of
birth		 page number notes
76 Rukniddin Fayziddinovich Sharipov 3/15/1973
ARB transcript

107-112
  • Allegedly trained at an Afghan military camp.[7]
  • Alleged to have been issued a Taliban uniform.
  • Repatriated in March 2007.[8]
  • Put on trial on August 7, 2007.[8]
  • Convicted of being a mercenary on August 18, 2007, and sentenced to 17 years in prison.[9]
77 Mehrabanb Fazrollah 10/18/1962
CSRT allegations 71
CSRT transcript 30-34
ARB allegations 16-17
  • Alleged to have fought with the Taliban.[10]
  • Was in Afghanistan returning from visiting his son in Pakistan.[11][12]
83 Yusef Nabied 8/5/1963 .
90 Sobit Valikhonovich 11/13/1969
CSRT allegations 187
CSRT transcripts 31-44
208 Maroof Saleemovish Salehove 3/3/1978 .
257 Omar Hamzayavich Abdulayev 10/11/1978
CSRT allegations 42
CSRT Transcripts 1
  • Allegedly captured carrying suspicious documents.[15]
  • Allegedly studied at a madrassa.
641 Abdul Karim Irgashive 5/7/1965 .
665 Sadee Eideov 1/1/1953 .
729 Muhibullo Abdulkarim Umarov 10/6/1980 .
731 Mazharudin 12/1/1979 .
732 Shirinov Ghafar Homarovich 1/9/1974 .
1095 Jumma Jan
Zain Al Abedin		 1978
CSRT Transcript 41-52
ARB Transcript 32
  • Said his interrogators kept insisting his name was Jumma Jan, and that he was a Uzbek, when his real name was Zain al Abedin, and he was a Tajik.[16]
  • Said he had only had a single 20 minute interrogation since he arrived in Guantanamo.[17]

[edit] Tajik captives who were not listed properly

There are Combatant Status Review Tribunal trasncripts for two Tajik captives that aren't list properly.

A Combatant Status Review Tribunal transcript marked with the ISN 1037 said he was a father, from Tajikistan, who was crossing Afghanistan, by foot, after a visit to Pakistan to see his son. However captive 1037 is said to be an Afghan, born in 1980.

Another transcript from an Unknown Tajiki captive in Guantanamo had his ISN redaceted. He told his Tribunal he had been twenty when captured, and was about 23 when he had his Tribunal.

[edit] Tajik captives missing from the official list

On August 7, 2007 Radio Free Europe reported that a former Tajik captive named "Mukit Vohidov" had been repatriated from Guantanamo to Tajikistani custody, in March 2007, and was about to stand trial.[8] The report also stated that another former Tajik captive named "Ibrohim Nasriddinov" had recently stood trial, been convicted, and received a 23 year sentence.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
  2. ^ a b c The Man Who Has Been to America: One Guantanamo detainee's story, Mother Jones, September/October 2006 issue
  3. ^ US releases 10 Tajiks from Guantanamo prison. sharewatch (January 19, 2007). Retrieved on January 21, 2007.
  4. ^ "US financial assistance to Tajikistan in 2006 totaled over $30 mln", Regnum, January 21, 2007. Retrieved on January 21. 
  5. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, April 20, 2006
  6. ^ Detainee Transfer Announced. US Department of Defense (March 1, 2007). Retrieved on March 1, 2007.
  7. ^ transcript (.pdf) from Rukniddin Fayziddinovich Sharipov's Administrative Review Board - pages 107-112
  8. ^ a b c "Former Guantanamo Inmates Go On Trial In Tajikistan", Radio Free Europe, August 7, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-08-07. 
  9. ^ Bernard Hibbitts. "Tajikistan high court sentences ex-Guantanamo detainees", The Jurist, Saturday, August 18, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-08-23. 
  10. ^ Summary of Evidence (.pdf) prepared for Mehrabanb Fazrollah's Combatant Status Review Tribunals - September 30, 2004 - page 71
  11. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Mehrabanb Fazrollah'sCombatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 30-34
  12. ^ OARDEC (November 3, 2005). Unclassified Summary of Evidence for Administrative Review Board in the case of Fazrollah, Mehrabanb pages 16-17. United States Department of Defense. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
  13. ^ Summary of Evidence (.pdf) prepared for Sobit Valikhonovich's Combatant Status Review Tribunals - August 31, 2004 -page 187
  14. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Sobit Valikhonovich's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 31-44
  15. ^ Summary of Evidence memo (.pdf) prepared for Omar Hamzayevich Abdulayev's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - November 3, 2004 - page 42
  16. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Jumma Jan's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 41-52
  17. ^ Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Jumma Jan's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 32