Detta är del 4 i serien om uiguren Adil Hakimjan som satt i Guantánamo i fyra år, oskyldig, och nu har bett om att få en fristad i Sverige. Läs först: del 1, del 2, del 3 och del 4 samt min kolumn i Svenska Dagbladet.

Läs mer här om Sabin Willett, konkursadvokaten som inte ens visste vad en uigur var för något, men som blev Adils och flera andra uigurers advokat och fick en inblick i ett helvete som han inte visste mycket om…

I november 2007 inbjöds Sabin Willett och Adil (som hade dumpats i Albanien av USA, som man kan läsa mer om i de tidigare delarna i serien) till seminariet Mänskliga rättigheter i skuggan av kriget mot terrorismen som hölls i Stockholm den 19 november 2007. I sitt tal och i sin presentation av Adil, sade Sabin Willet bland annat:

Guantánamo has many faces. The face of the prison, so familiar from the photographs. The faces of political sponsors, like the Vice President Cheney, who told the world that it holds killers picked up on he battlefields of Afghanistan.
Or former SecDef Rumsfeld, who famously called the prisoners “among the most dangerous, best trained, vicious killers on the face of the earth”.
For this American lawyer, Guantánamo has a different face:
It I Adel´s face.
The face if the prisoner whom I first met in an isolation cell in July 2005, where he was chained to the floor.

Han sade också:

Since 9/11, Communist China had been exploiting our “war on terror”, urging that its political dissident Uighurs were terrorists. The State department’s annual China report said that this was wrong.
But in the summer of 2002,the U.S. had begun its massive effort to prepare for an invasion of Iraq. It needed U.N. support. And it was that summer that the Chinese, who sit on the Security Council, and the U.S. cut a deal. The Chinese would not object to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The Americans would agree to a list of concessions, including branding the Uighurs as terrorists.
That was the summer that Adel was sent to Guantánamo.

Och om när han, Sabin Willett, fick telefonkontakt med Adils syster Kavser som har flyktingstatus i Sverige:

It was soon after that, that I spoke for the first time to Kavser, Adel’s sister, who is here today. I’ll never forget the sound of her weeping on the telephone. I do not speak Uighur, but weeping is the same in every language. For long years she had supposed that her brother was dead.

Han berättar om försämrade villkor för dem som är kvar i Guantánamo:

For the men left behind, conditions have worsened gravely. In the new Camp 6, men are held in solitary – even men who have been cleared for release. No window, no sunlight, no fresh air, no companions. For two hours in twenty four, which might be during day or night, a man is shackled and led to a 3 x 4 meter space, surrounded by concrete walls two stories high. In effect, a chimney. Occasionally, a glimpse of sun above the wire mesh on top of the chimney, but often “rec time” is at night.

Och talar för döva öron i sitt hemland USA):

It is a core principle of international law that a soldier of the enemy is no criminal. He has broken no law. You may hood him as a prisoner only so long as the shooting war lasts. You must treat him with honor as you would treat your own soldier.
Now, if we suspect an enemy soldier is also a criminal – say, a terrorist – then he should be treated like one. Charged, represented by counsel, tried with evidence, in an open proceeding.
If a person is neither of these things – if he is a civilian, as Adel is as the other Uighurs are, then he must be released immediately.

Läs hela Sabin Willetts starka och gripande tal här. Och se en videoupptagning av Sabin Willetts vittnesmål om uigurernas öde i Guantánamo inför Utrikesministeriet i Washington.

Fortsättning följer…

© Merit Wager