China demands Muslim return

[sonz]

China demands the return of five Chinese Muslims who sought asylum in Albania after their release from the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, The Washington Post reported.

The five Chinese Muslims have been detained in Guantanamo without charge for several years after they were caught during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks.

Last week, the U.S. State Department announced that the five men posed no threat to the U.S. security and were no longer of any "intelligence value" to U.S. interrogators. American authorities, reclassifying the men as refugees, cleared them for release and decided to send them to Albania, claiming that they might face persecution if returned to China.

But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, said the U.S.‘s decision to send the men to Albania for political asylum violated UN conventions and international law.

He also said that Beijing lodged official complaints with the Albanian and U.S. governments over the transfer, which took place last Friday.

"These people accepted by the Albanians are by no means refugees but terrorist suspects, and so we think they should be returned to China," he said.

Liu did not respond when asked what charges the men would face if returned to China.

The Chinese government has repeatedly demanded the United States to return the 22 Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo. The detainees are Uighurs, an ethnic minority from western China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region.

But the Bush administration refuses to meet China’s demands, citing fears that the suspects might be tortured or executed.

The administration doesn’t say whether Albania or any other country would take in the other 17 Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo.