Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman

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Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman is a citizen of China, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.

The Department of Defense reports that he was born on March 15, 1973, in Kucha, Xinjiang Province, China and assigned him the Internment Serial Number 281. He was captured near the Pakistan-Afghan border in December 2001.

Rahman is one of the 22 Uighurs held in Guantanamo for many years despite it became clear early on that they were innocent.

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

He won his habeas corpus in 2008. Judge Ricardo Urbina declared his detention as unlawful and ordered to set him free in the United States. He was sent to Palau in October 2009.

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Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in small trailer, the same width, but shorter, than a mobile home. The Tribunal's President sat in the big chair. The detainee sat with their hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor in the white, plastic garden chair. A one way mirror behind the Tribunal President allowed observers to observe clandestinely. In theory the open sessions of the Tribunals were open to the press; three chairs were reserved for members of the press. In practice, most Tribunals went unobserved; the Tribunal only intermittently told the press that Tribunals were being held, and when they did they kept the detainee's identities secret. Only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 1st Class Christopher Mobley

Originally the Bush (WP) Presidency asserted that captives apprehended in the wars for capitalism and oil, known as the "war on terror" were not covered by the Geneva Conventions, and could be held indefinitely, without charge, and without an open and transparent review of the justifications for their detention. They were not offered the protections afforded by criminal law either, leaving them in a legal limbo through years of detention. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligations, and to keep the Geneva Conventions at arms' length, the concept of competent tribunals was invented, tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

The Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals (WP). The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants, again to avoid the Geneva Conventions standards -- 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, further attempting to institutionalize a standard that stood against the consensus of international law.

Critics mounted legal challenges to this policy. Justice James Robertson ruled that the United States was obliged under article 5 of the Wikipedia:third Geneva Conventionthird Geneva Convention to treat all prisoners as lawful combatants, who would be entitled to prisoner of war status, unless a "competent tribunal" had determined that they were not lawful combatants.

The policies of the tribunals themselves were also challenged by the Judicial branch. In 2004 the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Rasul v. Bush, that Guantanamo captives were entitled to being informed of the allegations justifying their detention, and were entitled to try to refute them.

The released prisoners are arrogantly, even absurdly called "No longer enemy combatants" (WP); an attempt to make numerous issues, including illegal arrest and holding without trial, disappear in plain sight.

Abdul Rahman was among the 60% of prisoners who participated in the tribunal hearings. A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal of each detainee. The memo for his hearing lists the following allegations:

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.

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 Template: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 Template: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.

+ The word "Uyghur" was redacted when this memo was first published in March 2005.

FOIA request

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.

Transcript

Rahman chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a twelve page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

Information paper: Uighur Detainee Population at JTF-GTMO

Documents released in response to the writ of habeas corpus Hassan Anvar v. George W. Bush contained a memo entitled: "Information paper: Uighur Detainee Population at JTF-GTMO". This memo, dated 30 October 2004, provides one paragraph biographies of 22 Uighur captives. The memo asserts that all 22 captives are suspected of membership in the "East Turkistan Islamic Movement". The memo describes the Uighur camp as an "ETIM training camp".

The portion of the document devoted to Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman states:

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".

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".

Following the Supreme Court's ruling that prisoners the Department of Defense set up the Office for the Administrative Review of Detained Enemy Combatants. Gul attended his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board (WP) hearings. The US government, careful to avoid the standards of international law, made a point of declaring that Administrative Review Boards were not authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, as this would have invoked the Geneva Convention standards. They further distanced the ARB boards from international consideration by distancing the ARB boards from the CSRT and the government's own definition of "enemy combatant", by not authorizing the ARB boards to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were set on a purely opportunistic venture to assess the government's self interest, in the manner of the villain holding a gun to a hostage's head and saying, "don't make me do this". "If we do the right thing and release these prisoners, the board asked, "will we be inconveniencing ourselves?" And so they considered 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.

There is no record that an Administrative Review Board convened in 2005 or 2006 to review his detention.

Letter from Guantanamo

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". 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. 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:

"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."

On June 12 2008 the United States Supreme Court restored the Guantanamo captives' access to the USA's civilian justice system in its ruling on Boumediene v. Bush. Specifically it re-initiated the captives' habeas corpus petitions. In an unrelated development Huzaifa Parhat's DTA appeal concluded that his Combatant Status Review Tribunal had erred in confirming he was an "enemy combatant", due to insufficient evidence. The Department of Justice had the option of appealing the ruling, claiming it had new evidence. The Uyghurs' habeas petitions were the first to be scheduled for review. In September 2008, days before the Department of Justice would have been expected to offer a justification in court for the Uyghurs' detention, and after six and half years of extrajudicial detention, the Department of Justice acknowledged the evidence to justify their detention did not exist.

Temporary Asylum in Palau

In June 2009 the government of Palau 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 October 31 2009 "Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman" Ahmad Tourson, Edham Mamet, Anwar Hassan, Dawut Abdurehim and Adel Noori were released and transferred to Palau.

External links

• From Guantánamo to the United States: The Story of the Wrongly Imprisoned Uighurs Andy Worthington October 9, 2008
• Judge Ricardo Urbina’s unclassified opinion (redacted version)
• MOTIONS/STATUS HEARING - UIGHURS CASES BEFORE THE HONORABLE RICARDO M. URBINA
• Palau urges Australia to allow permanent resettlement for six Uighurs Radio Australia June 3, 2010
• Palau Uyghurs try to build new lives Kyodo News December 15, 2009
• Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman explains how he came to be at Guantanamo BBC Newsnight 14 January 2010
• Human Rights First; Habeas Works: Federal Courts’ Proven Capacity to Handle Guantánamo Cases (2010)

References

[[Template:ETIM Template:ListUyghurCaptives Template:Infobox WoT detainees