Albania shelters three ex-Guantanamo detainees

TIRANA, Nov. 18 – Albania sheltered Saturday three detainees released from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after authorities determined they were no longer “enemy combatants.” They were brought with a plane that had previously stopped in Germany. They have been sheltered at the Babrru refugee center in Tirana suburbs. The three נan Algerian national, an Egyptian national and an ethnic Uzbek who was born in the former Soviet Union נare the second group of former terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay to be taken in by the impoverished Balkan country. Government spokesman Neritan Sejamini said that the government had agreed to take them in a humanitarian gesture, after the request from the U.S. Government. The three were the last of 38 detainees to be released after a U.S. combatant status review determined they were no longer enemy combatants. It took months for the U.S. State Department to find countries that would accept them, and in the meantime they were held separately at one of six camps at the Guantanamo compound. That one camp will now be closed, Pentagon officials said. In July, Albania granted asylum to five Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs, released from the U.S. prison in May. They were sheltered at a refugee center in Tirana, and the three newcomers will likely be housed at the same place. The five Uighurs arrived in Albania on May 5, after U.S. authorities said they posed no terrorist threat to the U.S. but might face persecution if returned to China