Anwar Hassan
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Anwar Hassan (born 25 August 1974) is a Chinese
Uyghur Uyghur may refer to: * Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia (West China) ** Uyghur language, a Turkic language spoken primarily by the Uyghurs *** Old Uyghur language, a different Turkic language spoken in the Uyghur K ...
refugee who was wrongly imprisoned for more than seven years in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp, also known as GTMO ( ), GITMO ( ), or simply Guantanamo Bay, is a United States military prison within Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB), on the coast of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It was established in 2002 by p ...
s. Hassan is one of the 22 Uighurs held in Guantanamo for many years despite it becoming clear early on that they were innocent.China's Uighurs trapped at Guantanamo
''
Asia Times ''Asia Times'' (), formerly known as ''Asia Times Online'', is a Hong Kongbased English language news media publishing group, covering politics, economics, business, and culture from an Asian perspective. ''Asia Times'' publishes in English and ...
'', 4 November 2004


Combatant Status Review Tribunals

Initially, the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the
Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, The original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are international humanitarian laws consisting of four treaties and three additional protocols that establish international legal standards for humanitarian t ...
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 tribunal Competent Tribunal is a term used in Article 5 paragraph 2 of the Third Geneva Convention, which states: ICRC commentary on competent tribunals The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) commentary on Article 5 of the Third Gene ...
s to determine whether captives are or are not, entitled to the protections of
prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...
status. Subsequently, the
Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...
instituted the
Combatant Status Review Tribunal The Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as " enemy combatants". The CSRTs were establi ...
s. 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 Enemy combatant is a term for a person who, either lawfully or unlawfully, engages in hostilities for the other side in an armed conflict, used by the U.S. government and media during the War on Terror. Usually enemy combatants are members of t ...
. Hassan is one of the captives known to have had multiple reviews convened, after his initial review determined he was not an enemy combatant. According to the study entitled,
No-hearing hearings ''No-Hearing Hearings'' (2006) is the title of a study published by Professor Mark P. Denbeaux of the Center for Policy and Research at Seton Hall University School of Law, his son Joshua Denbeaux, and prepared under his supervision by research f ...
, Hassan Anvar did not choose to attend his Tribunal. The study identified Hassan as one of the captive whose first Tribunal had determined that they should not had been classified as an "
enemy combatant Enemy combatant is a term for a person who, either lawfully or unlawfully, engages in hostilities for the other side in an armed conflict, used by the U.S. government and media during the War on Terror. Usually enemy combatants are members of t ...
" in the first place, only to have subsequent Tribunals convened, which reversed the earlier determination.


Current status

On 4 February 2009, ''
The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...
'' reported that Hassan Anvar's refugee claim, and the refugee claims of two of his compatriots were close to completion. The article quoted Mehmet Tohti, a Uyghur human rights activist who stated that he had met with Immigration Minister
Jason Kenney Jason Thomas Kenney (born May 30, 1968) is a former Canadian politician who served as the 18th premier of Alberta from 2019 until 2022, and the leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP) from 2017 until 2022. He also served as the member o ...
. According to the Globe, Tohti claimed there had been a positive consensus to admit Anvar, and two men whose lawyers have not authorized their names to be released. The Don Valley Refugee Resettlement Organization has worked to sponsor Anvar's refugee claim.


Temporary asylum in Palau

In June 2009, the government of
Palau Palau, officially the Republic of Palau, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the western Pacific Ocean. The Republic of Palau consists of approximately 340 islands and is the western part of the Caroline Islands ...
announced that they would offer temporary asylum to some of the Uyghurs. The government of Palau sent a delegation Guantanamo, and interviewed some of the remaining Uyghurs. Some of the Uyghurs declined to be interviewed by the Palauns. In the end the government of Palau offered asylum to twelve of the remaining thirteen Uyghurs. Palau declined to offer asylum to one of the Uyghurs who suffered from a mental disorder, brought on by detention, that was too profound to be treated in Palau. On 31 October 2009, "Anwar Hassan", Ahmad Tourson,
Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman Starting in 2002, the United States government, American government detained 22 Uyghurs in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp. The last 3 Uyghur detainees, Yusef Abbas, Hajiakbar Abdulghupur and Saidullah Khali, were released from Guantanamo on De ...
,
Edham Mamet Edham Mamet (born May 4, 1975) (also Nag Mohammed) is a Uyghur refugee best known for the more than seven years he spent in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. He was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001. Edham Mame ...
, Dawut Abdurehim and Adel Noori were released and transferred to Palau. On 29 June 2015, Nathan Vanderklippe, reporting in ''The Globe and Mail'', wrote that all the Uyghurs had quietly left Palau. The ''Globe'' confirmed that Palau's agreement to give refuge to the Uyghurs was reached after the USA agreed to various secret payments. Those payments included $93,333 to cover each Uyghurs living expenses. The ''Globe'' confirmed that controversy still surrounded former President
Johnson Toribiong Johnson Toribiong (born 22 July 1946) is a Palauan attorney and politician. Toribiong became the president of Palau, following his victory in the November 2008 election, and left office in 2013. Before 2020 elections, Toribiong has run fo ...
who had used some of those funds to billet the Uyghurs in houses belonging to his relatives. Vanderklippe reported that the men had never felt they could fit in with the Palauns. Some of the men compared Palau with a lusher, larger Guantanamo. Some of the men were able to bring their wives to Palau. Attempts to hold most regular jobs failed, due to cultural differences. Attempts to use their traditional leather-working skills to be self-employed failed. Eventually, all six men were employed as night-time security guards, a job that did not require interaction with Palauns. One of the men's young toddler, conceived and born on Palau, died after he fell off a balcony. According to Vanderklippe, the men's departure from Palau was quietly arranged with cooperation with American officials. He reported they left, one or two at a time, on commercial flights. Palaun officials would not share the Uyghurs destination.


References


External links


From Guantánamo to the United States: The Story of the Wrongly Imprisoned Uighurs
Andy Worthington Andy Worthington is a British historian, investigative journalist, and film director. He has published three books, two on Stonehenge and one on the war on terror, been published in numerous publications and directed documentary films. Art ...
9 October 2008
Judge Ricardo Urbina’s unclassified opinion (redacted version)MOTIONS/STATUS HEARING - UIGHURS CASES BEFORE THE HONORABLE RICARDO M. URBINA

Palau Uyghurs try to build new lives
Kyodo News is a nonprofit cooperative news agency based in Minato, Tokyo. It was established in November 1945 and it distributes news to almost all newspapers, and radio and television networks in Japan. The newspapers using its news have about 50 million ...
15 December 2009 *Human Rights First
Habeas Works: Federal Courts’ Proven Capacity to Handle Guantánamo Cases (2010)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anwar, Hassan Living people Chinese extrajudicial prisoners of the United States 1974 births Guantanamo detainees known to have been released Chinese refugees