5 Uighurs win asylum in Albania

TIRANA, July 26 – The Five Chinese Muslims released from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay have received asylum in Albania, the Interior Ministry reported Wednesday. The five Uighurs, sheltered at a refugee center in Tirana suburbs where no one was allowed to meet with them, were brought to Albania May 5 after U.S. authorities said they posed no terrorist threat to the U.S. but might face persecution if returned to China. They were detained by the U.S. forces during the invasion of Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. China has demanded the five be returned, saying they are suspected of having links to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement _ which it accuses of waging a violent separatist campaign in China’s northwestern Muslim region of Xinjiang _ and of being close to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network.
Albania has said U.S. officials assured them the men had no terror links, and urged China to present evidence for its suspicions, fearing their issue could spark a diplomatic row with the big Asian country. China and Albania have been allies since 1961, when the tiny Balkan country broke ties with the Soviet Union.
Finding an interpreter to communicate with them has been a real headache for the Albanian authorities. Only one of them spoke a little bit of Chinese.
Meanwhile lawyers for five Chinese Muslims released from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay have said in June that their clients were hoping to find another host country where it would be easier for them to integrate, worried they would not be able to earn a living in one of Europe’s poorest countries.