Opinion | A tale with a message from a former Uyghur terrorist
By Augustus K. Yeung
Introduction
Living in Hong Kong, where we call home, most of us have found the word "terrorism" or the American slogan "war on terrorism" remote, until 2019 when the American inspired protesters and the British ultraloyalists were storming the Legislative Council, destroying the M.T.R. and the university campuses, beating up innocent people, etc.
When the National Security Law was passed and enforced, these violent protesters were jailed or escaped to overseas countries which offer them "humanitarian protection".
As the Chinese Lunar New Year is near, and these escapists are away from home, they are feeling homesick.
Many may be asking, "Was it worth it?"
Listen to a Devout Muslin's Remorseful Story
Accused by the United States military of being a terrorist "in league with the Afghan Taliban", Abu Bakker Qassim, 51, a devout Muslim man from western China spent four years imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Why was he there? Where did the Americans keep him and send him eventually? And what was his message as a former Xinjiang Uyghur "terrorist"?
"I first met Mr. Qassim days after his arrival in 2006 in Tirana, the Albania capital. At that time, he was despondent. China was demanding that Albania hand him over, describing him and his fellow Uyghurs from Guantanamo as part of a "terrorist force" with "close relations to Al Qaida and the Taliban." Said Andrew Higgins. ("Freed by U.S., but in limbo 15 years later". The New York Times. Wednesday, September 29, 2021)
Mr. Qassim said he was caught in Afghanistan when he left Xinjiang. He was there trying to make his way to Turkey. They gave him to the American military and he was whisked to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where he was imprisoned for four years, interrogated as a terrorist suspect until he was released and sent to Tirana, the Albanian capital in 2006.
Mr. Qassim has been granted "humanitarian protection" in Albania, the one country that was willing to take him in out of scores asked by the U.S. State Department, despite protest from China. But he did not manage to get a visa or a passport, which makes travel anywhere difficult.
The only country that really wants him is China, which considers him a terrorist because of his advocacy of independence for Xinjiang, which he calls Turkestan, home to the mostly Muslim Uyghurs.
Tough Life in Tirana, but Still Waiting to Fulfil his Dream
Speaking only Uyghur and Chinese, he could not communicate with anyone in his host country and did not know what the Albanians intended to do with him.
Fortunately, his spirits have since lifted considerably. Albania, a former communist country and close friend of China's in the era of Mao Zedong but now a member of NATO and a steadfast American ally, decline Beijing's requests that he be sent to China.
He now speaks fluent Albania. He found work in a pizza parlor, made friends at a Tirana mosque—and started a new family.
The tiny Balkan nation that took him in, which recently committed to admitting up to 4,000 Afghans in need of shelter, "has a tradition of hosting people in need," said Andrew Higgins.
Nearly 700 Afghans have already arrived and have been put up in beach resorts along the Adriatic coast.
Mr. Qassim, however, is dismayed that so many Afghans are fleeting, an exodus driven by fear of the Taliban and hope of getting to America like him.
Mr. Qassim Misses his Family back in Xinjiang
"I don't understand why they left. It would be better to stay in their own country," he said. "I know what it is to be jailed, but even if they go to jail, they will be near their family."
Mr. Qassim has not seen his family in Xinjiang for more than 20 years, since he set off with a friend from western China on an ill-fated effort to travel overland to Turkey, where the language is similar to the Turkic tongue spoken by Uyghurs; he had hoped to find work there. He traveled on a Chinese passport valid for only two years.
Stranded in Afghanistan without money or papers at the time of September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, he was grabbed by bounty-hunting tribesmen on the Pakistan-Afghan border and handed over to the Americans who were offering cash for suspected terrorists. They considered him an "enemy combatant" and sent him to the prison at Guantanamo Bay to join other Muslims swept up in President George W. Bush's "global war on terror."
After being exonerated in 2006 by a military tribunal, Mr. Qassim was led in shackles to a military transport plane and flown to Tirana from Cuba. Repeated efforts since then to get visa from the United States and Canada have failed, and all but one of the Guantanamo five are still in Albania. The one who got out moved to Sweden, where he works as a taxi driver.
Mr. Qassim said he laughed when he heard last month that the United States officials were negotiating with the Taliban over access to the international airport in Kabul, the Afghan capital, after the American-backed government collapsed on August 15 and ceded control of Kabul to the insurgents.
During his detention in Guantanamo, he said, "they kept telling me that the Taliban were terrorists and accused me of collaborating with the Taliban, but now they are collaborating with the Taliban."
The world, he noted, "has changed a lot in 20 years." ("Freed by U.S., but in limbo 15 years later." The New York Times. Wednesday, September 29, 2021)
Conclusion
Change is the word: The American president can change his words, particularly his "global war on terror" which has now been left to China after Donald Trump dumped former President Bush's pledge.
Mr. Qassim can afford a laugh sarcastically, but what about Hong Kong's wanted terrorist "suspects" on the run. Can they laugh at their own follies, having been America's whipping boys?
The author is a freelance writer; formerly Adjunct Lecturer, taught MBA Philosophy of Management, and International Strategy, and online columnist of 3-D Corner (HKU SPACE), University of Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Augustus K. Yeung:
Opinion | US stringent law on Xinjiang becomes existential dread for businesspeople
Opinion | How to beat American-imposed bans and sanctions which hurt Asia-Pacific companies
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