Abu Bakker Qassim

Infobox WoT detainees
subject_name = Abu Bakker Qassim


image_size = 220px
image_caption = Left to Right: Ahmed Adil, Adil Abdul Hakim, Abu Bakr Qassim
date_of_birth = Birth date|1969|05|13
place_of_birth = Ghulja, China
date_of_death =
place_of_death =
detained_at = Guantanamo
id_number = 283
group =
alias =
charge = no charge, held in extrajudicial detention
penalty =
status = Determined not to have been an enemy combatant after all. Transferred to an Albanian refugee camp.
occupation =
spouse =
parents =
children =

Abu Bakker Qassim is a Uyghur from China's western frontier, Uyghur Xinjiang Autonomous Region (also known as East Turkistan) who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.cite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf
title=List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
date=May 15 2006
accessdate=2007-09-29] His Guantanamo Internee Security Number is 283.

After being classified as "no longer enemy combatant" (NLEC) by the Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) he continued to be held in Cuba, in Camp Iguana. He has been transferred to Albania. [http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2006/nr20060505-12980.html detainee release announced] , "Department of Defense", May 5 2006] . On September 17, 2006 he published an op-ed on The New York Timesto ask the American lawmakers and people not to eliminate habeas corpus.cite news
url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/opinion/17qassim.html
title=The View From Guantánamo
publisher=New York Times
author=Abu Bakker Qassim
date=September 17, 2006
accessdate=2008-04-23
quote=]

Background

In late 2001, Qassim was captured along with his compatriot A'Del Abdu al-Hakim by Pakistani bounty hunters.cite web
url=http://www.pegc.us/archive/Parhat_v_Gates/pet_mot_po_20061218.pdf
title=Parhat v. Gates Case No: 06-1397
publisher=Department of Justice
date=December 18, 2006
accessdate=2007-09-14] cite news
date=February 13, 2006
title=Innocent, but in limbo at Guantánamo: Five Chinese Muslims, captured in Pakistan by mistake, try to get the US Supreme Court to take their case.
author=Warren Richey
publisher=Christian Science Monitor
accessdate=2007-09-14] Qassim and al-Hakim were transferred to U.S. custody by the Pakistani forces and held in Afghanistan for approximately six months, and were transferred to "Camp Delta," on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, where they were detained as "enemy combatants." President Bush had ruled that the detainees were "illegal combatants" by administrative fiat. Following legal challenges, the Bush administration was forced to provide a mechanism to review the Guantanamo detainees status.

CSRT-Yescite web
url=http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/000300-000399.pdf#26
title=Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Qasim, Abu Bakr
date=29 October 2004
pages=page 26
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2008-04-23]

:"'a. The detainee was associated with the Taliban::#In 2001, the detainee traveled from Kyrgyzstan, through Pakistan, then on to Jalalabad, Afghanistan to attend a training camp.:#The detainee attended a training camp in the Tora Bora Mountains that had been given to the Uighers by the Taliban for the purpose of training to fight the Chinese. [This allegation was not recorded in the transcript.] :#The Detainee was at the camp for three months and spent two months learning the Koran and one month shooting an AK-47.:#After the U.S. bombing started, the Detainee and the other Uighurs went to the caves and stayed there until the Northern Alliance came to the camps.:#An afghani man sent the Detainee with approximately one hundred Arabs and twenty Uighurs to Pakistan, where they were captured.

Transcript

Qassim chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. cite web
url=http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt/Set_12_1179-1239.pdf#39
title=Summarized Statement
date=date redacted
pages=pages 39-48
author=OARDEC
publisher=United States Department of Defense
accessdate=2008-04-23] On March 3 2006, in response to a court order from Jed Rakoff the Department of Defense published a ten page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.cite news
url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/US-releases-Guantanamo-files/2006/04/04/1143916500334.html
title=US releases Guantanamo files
publisher=The Age
date=April 4, 2006
accessdate=2008-03-15
quote=]

:

Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant

The Washington Post reports that Patel was one of 38 detainees who was determined not to have been an enemy combatant during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. [http://projects.washingtonpost.com/guantanamo/nlec/ Guantanamo Bay Detainees Classifed as "No Longer Enemy Combatants"] , "Washington Post"] cite news
url=http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2008/03/27/20/NLEC_DetaineeList.source.prod_affiliate.56.pdf
title=Detainees Found to No Longer Meet the Definition of "Enemy Combatant" during Combatant Status Review Tribunals Held at Guantanamo
publisher=United States Department of Defense
author=
date=November 19, 2007
accessdate=2008-04-15
quote=] The Department of Defense refers to these men as No Longer Enemy Combatants.

reclassification

In March 2005, the CSRT finalized its determination that they were NLECs. Qassim and Hakim were not informed of this determination until May 2005. The United States did not release the men, but did not return them to China because to do so would be a violation of US law prohibiting the deportation of individuals to countries where they would likely be tortured. The U.S. refused to admit them to the United States. Qassim, Hakim and other non-enemy combattants who could not be repatriated were transferred from the general prison population to Camp Iguana in August 2005.

Qassim was one of the 38 detainees whose Combatant Status Review Tribunal concluded he had not been an "illegal combatants". Some of those detainees were repatriated, once they were determined NLECs. Others, like, Qassim, and Sami Al Laithi, face possible torture if they are returned.

eeking asylum

In March 2005, attorneys for Qassim challenged his continued detention by filing a Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus in federal district court in Washington DC in the case of Qassim v. Bush. In December Judge James Robertson reviewed the detention of Qassim and A'Del Abdu al-Hakim. [http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2005/12/13/ap2389374.html Judge Weighs Order to Release Two at Gitmo] , "Forbes", December 13 2005] Robertson declared that their "indefinite imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay is unlawful," but also ruled on separation of powers grounds that he did not have the power to order their release into the United States. [http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/G/GUANTANAMO_DETAINEES?SITE=NYNYP&SECTION=SPORTS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT Two Guantanamo Detainees to Stay in Custody] , "New York Post", December 22 2005] Qassim and Hakim immediately appealed.

A February 18 2006 article in the Washington Times reported that Abu Bakker Qassim and A'Del Abdu al-Hakim had received military training in Afghanistan. [http://washingtontimes.com/world/20060217-105337-6696r.htm U.S. hit on human rights] , "Washington Times", February 18 2006] It said they were not classified as "illegal combatants" because they intended to go home and employ their training against the Chinese government. Some earlier reports had described them as economic refugees, who were slowly working their way to Turkey.

On April 17 2006 the US Supreme Court rejected Qassim's request to hear his appeal. [http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/story?id=1851981&page=1 Supreme Court Rejects Appeal of Guantanamo Bay Detainees: Detainees' Biggest Obstacle Was the Timing of Their Appeal] , "ABC News", April 17 2006] His appeal was scheduled to be heard by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on May 8, 2006.

Press reports

On May 24, 2006 Abu Bakr Qasim told interviewers that he and his compatriots felt isolated in Albania. [http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060524-090448-4618r 5 Guantanamo Uyghurs baffled in Albania] , "United Press International", May 24 2006] Qasim described his disappointment with the United States, who the Uyghurs had been hoping would support the Uyghurs quest for Uyghur autonomy.

In an interview with ABC News in May, 2006, Qasim said that members of the American-Urghur community had come forward and assured the American government that they would help him and his compatriots adapt to life in America, if they were given asylum in America. [http://abcnews.go.com/International/print?id=1997083 Guantanamo's Innocents: Newly Released Prisoners Struggle to Find a Home] , "ABC News, May 23 2006]

To the BBC he said in January 2007 that "Guantanamo was a five-year nightmare, We're trying to forget it." [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6242891.stm Guantanamo Uighurs' strange odyssey] , "BBC", January 11 2007] "

On June 15 2008 the McClatchy News Service published articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives. McClatchy reporters interviewed Abu Baqr Qassim. cite news
url=http://services.mcclatchyinteractive.com/detainees?page=2
title=Guantanamo Inmate Database: Page 2
publisher=McClatchy News Service
author=Tom Lasseter
date=June 15 2008
accessdate=2008-06-16
quote= [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fservices.mcclatchyinteractive.com%2Fdetainees%3Fpage%3D2&date=2008-06-18 mirror] ] cite news
url=http://detainees.mcclatchydc.com/detainees/24
title=Guantanamo Inmate Database: Abu Baqr Qassim
publisher=McClatchy News Service
author=Tom Lasseter
date=June 15 2008
accessdate=2008-06-16
quote= [http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdetainees.mcclatchydc.com%2Fdetainees%2F24&date=2008-08-01 mirror] ] According to the McClatchy reporters his translators encouraged him to hope, while the American guards treated him with brutality:quotation
"America has always helped the Uighurs. The American translators told us not to worry, we were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. We weren't enemies. We were Uighurs."

According to the McClatchy report Sabin Willet told them that the China:

Abu Baqr Qassim described realizing he had to learn Arabic if he was ever to get out of Guantanamo. And when he was transferred to lighter security in a dormitory shared with Arabic speakers and other Uyghurs they set about taking informal Arabic lessons. Abu Baqr Qassim told reporters the Uyghurs request for paper, to make notes, was denied -- although the Guantanamo policy states that captives were to be issued a certain number of pages per month, for sending mail. He was punished by being sent to solitary confinement when guards found he had used napkins to take notes. When he got an attorney, and that attorney brought him books, so he could learn English, guards confiscated the books.

Now that he is in Albania, and his prospects of ever getting a passport or visa seem slim, he has started learning Albanian -- but without enthusiasm.

References